Blogs from Muang Hongsa, West, Laos, Asia

We'd seen posters advertising Elephant Festival around Luang Prabang and decided that we really wanted to go. We'd passed on tubing in Vang Vieng and thought that spending three days photographing and admiring elephants dressed in silk costumes was a great alternative and more our kind of thing. From the posters we'd seen the festival promised to deliver 100 elephants, all competing for the prestigious title of “Elephant of the Year”. Elephant processions, elephant bathing, mahout demonstrations, ancient Baci ceremony, traditional Monk blessings, live performances from Lao and foreign artists, night markets, fun fairs and much, much more. Thinking there might be a rush of tourists heading to the event we got up early to make sure we were on the first bus to Sayaboury where the festival is held. We were two of about 6 ... read more

It was finally time to leave my favorite little town of Luang Prabang. I've indulged too much, toured the sights, gotten a 1/2 hour head massage & haircut, spent an hour hemming pants with my guesthouse mom, learned even more Laos from a local tour boat operator as I helped him translate documents into English & ate even more Indian food from one of the many restaurants named Nazim or Nisha (...does anyone know the significance of that??? Apparently in Laos all Indian restaurants carry one of those names!) So, off to the 1st Annual Elephant Festival I go! Our boat trip up the Mekong river to Hongsa was some of the most spectacular scenery I've seen in all of Laos. A few net fishermen along the river banks, rock sandbars as we cruised through bubbling ... read more

Elephant Festival The elephant festival at Hongsa was interesting! It was the first year that it has run so it was a little rough around the edges. For instance, the 'elephant race' was cancelled at the last minute for safety reasons- stopping 50 stampeding elephants is not easy. The 'elephant of the year' contest was pretty tense- but the best elephant won in the end, though we're not entirely sure what the judgement criteria were. It was all good fun and we ate some really good food. We stayed the weekend in a little old ladies house and we reckon she can now feed her family until next year's festival. The highlight of the festival for Ness was feeding the baby elephants, and the highlight for Pete was when one threw a stick with his ... read more