Luang Prabang and Elephants

Sou and I are now in the world heritage city
of Luang Prabang. We arrived here the other night by bus but first an
update from the last couple of days.

We went to the backpacker haven of Vang Vieng which is in a river
valley surrounded by limestone karst peaks. We rented a motorcycle
and cruised up the valley to visit a cluster of caves. One cave had a
tributary running out of it, so we rented tubes and pulled ourselves
through the cave. We travelled back about two hundered meters into
the cave. It was a very cool experience to be dragging ourselves
through the cave and only hearing the sound of rushing water.

After emering from the cave, we hiked around for a while, went for a
massage, then went back to the river to go tubing. The tubing was a
bit like Cancun at spring break. Enterprising locals had set up
several bars with rope swings and really loud music. Sou and I
bypassed the throngs of inebriated twenty-somethings and headed
downstream.

Two days in Vang Vieng was enough for us, so we got back on the bikes
and headed up highway 13 towards Luang Prabang. We muscled through
several mountain passes, but realized we had too far to go before the
day's end. Moreover, we heard that the passes got much much longer.
So... we decided to bus it to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a world heritage city surrounded by mountains. It
has a plethora of wats (temples) and we visited just the highlights.
We climbed the 239 stairs that led to the mountain-top wat in the
center of the city and visited a few others nearby. We wandered the
streets and alleys checking out the french colonial architecture and
dined at a restaurant on the river. One of the great remanants (in my
view anyway), are baguettes -- the baguettes make great egg sandwiches
for breakfast. For lunch they're eaten Lao-style, mixed with shredded
green papaya, carrots, and hot peppers. Delicous. The other remnant
of the french is bocci ball....

After checking out the city, we were ready to do something else. Sou
saw signs for Mahout training (elephant driver) and was intent on this
trip. So on the spur of a moment decision, we decided to go on a two
day mahout training course. It was just amazing! There were 9 female elephant the oldest being 65 and the youngest 17. We arrived at elephant camp in the morning and went on an hour long ride through the river and forest. It was quite the experience riding on these magnificent creatures. They are so graceful and majestic. After that, we took a Mahout (elephant driver) training course and learned how to drive, mount and dismount. The Mahouts make it look so easy but I can assure you it is not. That afternoon, we took our elephants to the forest where they are left to forage and sleep until morning. We returned for a nice dinner at elephant camp and after a short boat ride under the full moon, were returned to our guest house. The next morning, we woke early to retrieve our elephants from the forest. Another ride back through the forest and then elephant bathing. It was so much fun!!! The elephants walked halfway into the river and layed down submerging us and themselves into the water. With a brush, we cleaned and washed all the dirt away. You can see there trunks swinging around drinking water.

Now we are headed up the Mekong by slow-boat on our way back to
Northern Thailand....