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So eventually we got our tickets for the slow boat and we had to pay 90,000kip whist Lao pay 50,000kip, nice.
We embarked on our journey, now we have already done a slow boat down the Mekong through Vietnam and Cambodia ans so didn't expect it to be any different, but it was!!
The main thing is, that laos is just jungle and forest out here and the Mekong is huge, wide and very powerful. We saw all sorts of things, people fishing, driving speed boats, fishing rods left to their own devices and then checked at the end of the day, swimming, bathing, selling and moving stuff via the river, moving house practically by riverboat, elephants working on the slopes of the jungle, people catching otter and rat to sell to our comrades on the boat, the hugest and most beautiful sandbanks where children were playing and a scary amount of whirlpools!!
The main reason for htis trip were to get a cheap riverboat trip and to see elephants working in the jungle.
Many, many hours later we arrived at Tha Suang and the other westerners looked confused by our departure from the boat and to
the small village via the 10 meter sand banks.
We negotiated a ride to Hongsa and were off with the locals up the mountain and into the jungle, It was a fantastic trip and took about 2 hrs, the roads were pretty dodgy and I don't mind saying i was pretty scared of our near 45 degree angle we seemed to be in the entire time(but even this could not wake up the three little sisters who were sitting directly opposite us!)What we got to see though were sweeping views over the jungle and to the little clearings people had cultivated in which to live!! These random little spots are really isolated and in the most precarious positions just as some of the huts were on the sides of the Mekong.
Eventually we arrived and in one piece after having gone through these isolated houses that eventually became villages and then small towns. Weird we did n't expect electricity let alone big satelite dishes, we are in the middle of no where!!!!! We shared the ride with the most friendly and interesting bunch of locals and one could even count to 10 in English!
Dumped at
the local bus station, we checked out the local villa/guesthouse opposite and checked in as soon as we found that the rooms were only 30,000 kip. The house had massive rooms which were nicely decorated, containing lots of old wedding pics and heavy intricately carved wooden tables and chairs which adorned the front room. The family terrace had tables and chairs to swan about in at night, we had made a good choice.
Food, being that the guesthouse prices were very steep, made us go in search of cheaper alternatives, and we found some old veg and sticky rice eventually, there was not much choice and the portions were very small!!!!
Next morning we tried to figure out where these famous working elephants were, but nobody seemed to have a clue at our guesthouse. So we trotted over the road to grab some breakfast, sticky rice dipped in pureed spinach, all wrapped in banana leaves, followed by banana fritters, fruit and noodle and mushroom fritters. We walked over to the bus station and managed to get a driver to take us to the elephants for 15,000 kip each!!! Bargain.
The drive was great, just the most beautiful
scenery, smiling faces, rice, rive and more rice, open fields, lots of stilted houses, and a real spacious feel about the place. After 20 minutes of driving we pull over into a small village and the driver gets out. So do we and explore the little village, we come across 4 small children playing, so Dan joins in and lets the children try on his sunglasses and teaches them to high 5. After another 20 mins the driver returns to explain to us in very broken English he cannot take us any further due to the roads, however the men at the village can bring the elephants to us for 250,000 (14000 kip to the pound)kip each!!!! We obviously decline politely and the driver then goes on the hunt for his friend who speaks excellent English. He returns and explains to us that the elephants are working, therefore to bring them to the village would cost a lot!! However we then find out we can walk 5 km through forest to see them working, so we go in search of the elusive elephants, with the driver staying at the village , waiting for us to return in 4 hours!!!!!
We set off asking people where the elephants are every 300 m or so, passing another small village and then we go off road, through rice paddies, with people giving us directions. The track then goes really off road, through streams, past a waterfall through more streams following a small path, with Dan at the back using a stick to mark arrows into the soil, so we know where to go on our way back. Luckily Dan and I wore hiking footwear, and mine were standing up to the test of the streams and dirt tracks we were wadding through. It was also pretty hot now and Dan popped up his lavender parasol!!!!!! After 90mins of walking, the path ended, there was no - one around to ask for directions and we could see no elephants, so we decided to give up and walk back taking in the beautiful scenery and the peace and quiet of the country, as its been a long time since we have experienced such tranquility after spending 4 and a half months in the 2 most populated countries in the world!!!!!!
That afternoon after we returned from our uneventful trip to find working elephants,
we went for a walk around Hongsa, as the sun comes down , it gives a fantastic sunset, with a deep orange colours reflecting on the rice paddies, with mountains and jungle in the background and stilted houses on the paddies, it was beautiful. This combined with all the locals saying sabadee and children running around made it a lovely place to visit, even with no elephants. That night we ate the local soup and noodles again, played cards and relaxed drinking copious amounts of cold water.
When we woke next day and climb into our truck to take us to our next destination, an elephant passed us with a man on top, maybe we should have stayed in Hongsa the previous day!!!!!!
GUYS, this blog is directly after Luang Prabang and before Luang Nam Tha, we originally wrote this blog and the computer crashed, not saving the blog, therefore we couldn't face writing it again straight away!!!!
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