Day 8 - Luang Prabang

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Today we got a little bit of a sleep in as we had our elephant rides this morning and we weren’t getting picked up until 9:00am for our half our drive out to the jungle.
When we got there the group that was before us weren’t back from their ride yet so we were pointed in the direction of the remaining elephants. There was one there that was retired; she is 60years old and doesn’t do the rides anymore. We found out that it is against the law in Thailand/Laos for them to be let into the jungle to roam after they retire as they were getting into farmers crops and the farmers were shooting them so you have to keep looking after them until they die (of natural causes). She was gorgeous, so placid, she didn't mind us going right up to her and getting a photo with her.
Elephant riding was something that I was looking to the most on this holiday; getting to interact with the elephants.
Their skin was tougher than I thought it would be; it felt almost fake. And it had hairs all over it, not soft hairs, but spiky ones that actually prickled. We took some more photos and a few minutes later the other group was back and it was our turn.
We went up this specially designed ramp to the ‘mounting’ area. Our elephant, Van who is 35years old, was apparently a strong elephant so on got myself, Jackie and Joey.
The ride went for just over an hour and we switched places between sitting on the seat on his back and sitting on Van’s neck. It was so cool sitting on his neck while we walked through the jungle and even though a river. Amazing.
After the ride we got to feed the elephants bananas which they loved. There was a younger elephant there that was being very cheeky and kept taking the bananas off people, pretending to eat them and hiding them in his trunk. After, we headed back to the hotel.
We had a bit of time so we walked into town to get some lunch. We went to this amazing café called ‘Joma Bakery Café’ that does the best pastries. I got a banana shake and an apple croissant. Delish!
We walked back to the hotel in time to get ready to get picked up to head out to the Kuang Si Waterfall.
The drive out there took about an hour. It wasn’t too bad because the scenery on the way out was stunning and it was beautiful when we got there. On the walk to the top there is a Bear Conservation Centre which has an enclosure for endangered Asiatic Black Bears that have been rescued from poachers. We caught a few glimpses of them but they were all sleeping.
We kept walking up the hill to the swimming area. The water was a stunning pale blue colour and it was surrounded by lush green foliage. We were here for about 1.5hours; swimming, taking photos, and jumping off a rope into the swimming area. It was a lovely relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
We did the one hour drive back to the hotel where we got freshened up and made our way to a bar called ‘Utopia’.
Utopia is definitely not to be missed. It is a relaxing zen garden by day and a tropical jungle lounge by night. It is lit up by candles and you sit on pillows on the floor while overlooking the Nam Khan River. It was so peaceful and would have been nice to come here during the day as well. We had dinner here , I had a very delicious Carbonara pasta. I’ve been pretty good with trying the local food but tonight felt like I just needed some pasta.
After dinner a few of us walked to the night markets again. We just got a few little things then made our way to Hive Bar again. A lot of the other were just getting there so we all sat around having a few drinks until about 11:30pm when we, again, got kicked out because they were closing so we headed back to the hotel for some sleep before our super early start tomorrow.

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