Pictures, Finally!

The last two days have possibly been the coolest of my entire trip. I was on a two day "elephant experience" trek out of Luang Prabang, Laos. There are tons of elephant treks around here, and I wouldn't have known about this particular one if I hadn't met someone who had already done it. On most of the treks you get to just ride the elephants, sitting on a bench on their backs. But we got to know the elephants a bit better than that. What we did was called the Mahout Experience -- a Mahout is the local name for a man who owns, trains and cares for an elephant. Many of the elephants in Lao are used for working in the logging industy, and many of them are abused. More recently, they are used for tourist rides, and the particular company we went with ensures that the elephants they use are treated well by their Mahouts, in addition to giving a very fair portion of the profits back to the Mahouts themselves.

Meeting and feeding the elephants -- I had run out of bananas at this point, but the elephants did not believe me. Getting assulted by one of those trunks is a very odd experience!

It was after the elephants were done with their "tourist duties" for the day that we got to hang out with them. We started off with an hour ride back to the elephant camp, during which we had the option of sitting on the neck of the elephant the way the Mahouts do. Riding on the neck of an elephant is really wild, because you feel every movement it makes, and there is nothing holding you on except your own balance and muscle. And every time the elephant moves it's head, you move with it. It was pretty scary at first, because you are waaaaaay up off the ground and an elephant does not exactly have the smoothest walk, but it was really fun once I got used to it.

Back at the camp, the Mahouts took off the benches and pads, and we rode them (the elephants, not the Mahouts) into the jungle where they slept for the night. We didn't stay in the jungle, we got to stay is a swanky resort, sort of by accident too. We had payed the cheaper price and signed up to sleep in bamboo huts which for some reason did not actually exist. So we ended up in the nicest rooms any of us had stayed in for the entire trip, at no extra cost.

This morning we were up at 6 to go into the jungle to get the elephants. Then came the absolute best part - we rode them right into the river to have a bath. The elephants were about 3/4ths submerged, and we sat on their backs and scrubbed them clean. It was one of the funnest and most random things any of us had ever done, so we were giggling like kids the entire time.

After the bath

I have never had any particular affinity for elephants before, but now I am absolutely in love with them. They are so gentle and sweet, especially for such a large animal. Of course, all of the ones we worked with were female, apparently the males are a little less easy to control. The coolest thing was the way the Mahouts commanded them -- almost purely by voice. From what we saw, the elephants knew the words for Go, Stop, Left, Right, Backwards, Stay, Kneel, Sit, Lay Down, Pick up your trunk, Pick up your foot, and the absolute best -- they could command them to use their truck to pick stuff up and move it for them. When we were bringing them back from the jungle, one of the elephants had tangled its chain up around a bunch of trees, so the Mahout just told it to use its trunk to pull the chain until it came lose. And all of us were standing there with our mouths hanging open going "cooooool!" So now I really want an elephant. Hey, isn't Christmas coming up?

Here are some more photos, I'll put up as many as I can before I have to go catch my bus. They take a long time to upload. They are all from Laos, the other photos were already burned to disc and mailed home.

Me with some lovely local kids in Si Phan Don, in the south of Laos. The photo was taken by a little girl who was curious about my camera, so I let her snap a few shots.

Sunset at Don Det Island, Laos.

Ok, that's all I have time for now, I'll try to put up more later!