The land of a million elephants

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24 hours consuming nothing but bread and water seemed to cure whatever ailed me so I stopped in at a nice place on the main street for scrambled eggs, a baguette and a pot of English breakfast tea. Gave the pho a miss this morning just in case. The weather had even rained itself out over night. I was supposed to head off to see the elephants at 8.30 but apparently everyone sleeps late around here as I was the only one booked so they asked could I move it to 10.30. Given they had agreed to the delay yesterday I figured another couple of hours wouldn't hurt and took the opportunity to do my regular lap of the main street and back along the Mekong river bank with a stop for a coconut milkshake at Joma, which is something of an institution here. Anyway 3rd time lucky and we were off to see the elephants. In the seat in front of me was the cutest little Japanese girl, we played a sort of hide and seek that had her in fits and kept the other half dozen passengers in the minibus amused. When we arrived at the Elephant park she latched on to me like a leech so I had my travelling companion for the day, very cute, a great conversationalist, albeit in Japanese, and 3 years old. The park holds 12 elephants that have been rescued from logging sites and is on land that the government has made available long-term on the proviso that the park be open to tourists. I know there is a lot of debate about whether or not you should ride elephants and I was in two minds about it but at the end of the day if the tourists don't come the park closes. The elephants will do 2 or maximum 3 15 -20 minute rides a day and though it's hard for me to judge they seem to enjoy it. First up we fed the elephants, one a baby, they eat enormous quantities in a day so the main function of the guys working there seems to be cutting fresh bamboo shoots for them. Then it was into the howdah and away. The Elephant has a very strange gait and I can well imagine people getting seasick if they were on one for any length of time. The final call was to have been washing the elephants in the river but the Mekong is in full flow right now so the elephants, very wisely, won't go near it. So back into the bus and 10 minutes down the road are the Kuang si waterfalls, a spectacular site with all the water roaring over them. At the foot of the falls is a little footbridge, the crossing of which entailed one getting drenched. My diminutive travel buddy was determined to cross it though so off we went hand in hand. But not satisfied with doing it once we had to go another couple of times just to make sure I was soaked right through to my wallet, which, as you know, is pretty close to my heart. I sat in the sun and dried off as best I could for an hour then it was back into the bus for the trip back to Luang Prabang with my little buddy curled up fast asleep beside me.

Clouds were pulling in when we got back into town so I thought I'd better get to the top of Mt Phu si, which is right across the road from my guesthouse. There are a fair few steps to climb but the view of the town and surrounding countryside from the top is quite spectacular. Spent about an hour chatting to a young monk/novice near the top of the hill. He joined the monastery at 16 when his parents died and is now 19 and almost finished his novitiate. He joined the monastery to get an education and is learning English and Chinese. He hopes to continue to study languages in China for 3 or 4 years before coming back to Laos to work as a translator. These kids are so motivated. He told me that Laos has 49 ethnic minorities and 3 major groups, Lao, Hmong and Khmu. He said that most Laotians now believe in Buddhism but the Hmong used to believe in spirits in the trees and the Khmu believed in ghosts. I suspect there is still a fair bit of mixing and matching going on.

Snapped a few photos at the top of the mountain just as the heavens opened and bright boy had left his umbrella in the guesthouse. Headed for the foot of the mountain at speed and straight into a restaurant for fried rice and pork before taking advantage of a brief lull in the rain to get back. Sat on the balcony until the lightening and almost deafening, window rattling thunder overhead drove me back into my room.

Couldn't resist adding the last photo just for giggles.

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Comments

[Nkajlo Vangh]

SEA Observer
The article sounds impressive for a small landlocked country that only a name is left over for tourists' taste. Most elephants had left Laos, including the few rare white elephants found in Louang Prabang and other northern provinces. They were probably sold out to other countries, particularly Vietnam or China - Lao PDR's usual patronages. Now only about 47% of Laos' forest are left: Sold out soon too!