High Heights and Unstable Surfaces

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We arrived back in at the 3 Nagas just before lunch today and the air-conditioned rooms were quickly put to work.

Yesterday we rode the elephants for an hour in the morning. They are amazing animals and, save for the sound of their ears flapping against their bodies, they make no noise as they walk through the trees. Mom's fear of heights had here white knuckling the saddle/ bench the whole way and she kept asking us if they were tipping over. Mom loves the elephants more from the ground and we all enjoyed feeding them their banana treats after the ride. The two that we rode had a combined age of 109 years and are still hauling around tourists around who come to visit.

We stayed at the Spirit Lodge resort by the elephant camp, which is located in the Laotian Jungle. The sounds and sights were something to get used to and none of us slept very well with the heat or the creatures roaming around our rooms. The tour guide tried to convince us that the roaring we heard was just the crickets, but we knew better... It turned out that they baby elephant was just trying out his trunk, but it sounded so much like a huge cat that we all had to take a second look in the direction of the noise just to make sure.

The bungalo's were a sight in themselves as the buildings were restored one-hundred year old buildings and they stood up off of the hill with stilts. The buildings were open air with beautiful Teek plank flooring and shutters. The most unique were the huge bathrooms and the outdoor private showers. The outdoor showers were best put to use at night when the stars came out, there is nothing quite like taking a shower and looking up at the stars and hearing the crickets sing.

The pace of Spirit lodge is very laid back and it was difficult for us Canadians to relax. We have become so accustomed to the fast pace of our little town that free time is a concept that is more foriegn to us than we realized. We did manage to find the internet but it was so slow that we gave up before long and the small tremors and the swaying building did nothing to convince us to stay and keep trying. The highlight was this morning when the baby elephant came into the camp to be washed. We all enjoyed feeding him bananas and petting him, mom even got to sit on his back for a while and we got plenty of pictures.

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Comments

[Shawna]

Enjoy the heat - we had at least 6 " of snow on the vehicles this am. and it is still snowing.