sabaidee!

anything would have been nice after vietnam, i expect, but laos was particularly awesome. there was such a laid back, chilled out vibe that was impossible to ignore, and we all recovered from the chaos that was vietnam in no time.

vientiane was nice, if a little sterile. everything was clean and orderly and spread out. we hired bicycles and rode around to a few temples. we saw pha that luang, the national symbol. that was pretty impressive. we also visited wat si saket, a 200 year old temple filled with hundreds of budda statues.


after a few recovery days we headed north to vang vieng. when we got off the bus we were a little worried, as it looked like tourist party town, but after settling in to our guesthouse and getting a snack from a friends cafe (yep, they have cafes that play friends from open to close, with bed style seats to lie in) we started to relax.

the next day we hired tubes from the old market and a tuk tuk dropped us three km north of town. we were greeted by people yelling 'free shots at my bar!' and lots of drunken backpackers swinging from trees into the river. we jumped in our tubes and headed down stream, relieved to find the crazy busy bars stopped after 100m, leaving a few quieter ones dotted along the rest of the way. we decided to stop at a bar and waved a guy holding a rope. he swung it out and pulled us in. it was awesome sipping g and t's watching people float by and soaking up the mountain atmosphere. we got back in our tubes and kept drifting down the river, stopping at a few more bars before winding back up in vang vieng.

jess had read about an organic mulberry farm 4km out of town, so the next morning we rented bikes and cycled out there. the ride seemed to take aaaages, but when we got there and ordered mulberry fruit shakes it was so worth it. the drinks were amazing and the food was better! everything was organic and most of it was grown there. everything we bought supported the local school (someone recently donated a bus and they were raising money for a full time driver) and they offered volunteer work. jess wanted to do mud hut building, but we didnt have enough time.

we then cycled back in to town and 7 km in the other direction on crazy unsealed 'road' try more like 'river stones'! we were heading for a blue lagoon at the base of phu kam cave. after the ride we were hot and bothered, but still climbed the steep stairs to the mouth of the cave. after admiring the cave for a little while, we headed back down and straight for the lagoon. it was the most amazing blue! the water was freezing, but awesome after all the exercise we had done. we jumped off the rope swing and tried to avoid the fish that hung around the bridge. we then headed back to town ready for a long bus ride to luang prabang the next day.

luang prabang had a fair bit to live up to, seeing as we loved every part of Laos so far and it was meant to be the best town there. it definately didnt disappoint! like the rest of Laos that we visited, it was cool and laid back. nothing is much of a problem, and quirky little coffee shops are easy to find. we were convinced by a guy at the bus station to stay at his family's guest house, and it was a really nice litle place.


the first night we were there we found a sign for a place called Utopia, which we had read a little bit about in lonely planet. it was awesome! it was about 500m down a little winding alley and when you went throught the bamboo door, an oasis opened up, with funky cabanas and a deck that overlooked the Nam som river. the best part about it was the chairs.. or lack of them.. they had there pillowy things that were triangle shaped, and on the ground! it meant i could do my favourite thing which was eat and then lie down and relax under the stars.

we had read lots about an elephant sanctuary that was a place that they keep several elephants that had been saved from the toils of the logging industry. they offered a few different options for tourists to go and visit. at first i didnt want to go becasue i thought it would defeat the purpose of being a sanctuary if we all went there and gawked at them. but i read more and realised that they only let a small number of people in at a time, and the elephants depend on the money that we pay to visit, because it costs so much to keep them. we also read that everyone who goes there is taught about the elephants, and they believe that the more awareness there is, the more hope the elephants have. we learnt that laos used to be named as 'The Land of a Million Elephants', but now there are only 1600, so its really important that someone does something about it. some of the elephants that we met had scars from abuse and they had even been fed ecstacy by the loggers so they worked better. after we decided it was a great place, we chose to do the one day mahout training.

we were in a group of six, and we went about 20 minutes out of town (luang prabang is quite rural) and pulled up at the most beautiful place. our guide Lo taught us heaps about the elephants and then we went on an hour long walk, sitting in the baskets on teh back of the elephant. each elephant had her own Mahout, who is a carer for the elephant, and who will care for her until the day she dies. if she out lives him, his son or daughter will become the mahout of that elephant, so she is like family to them. our elephants name was Mae San, and she was 45 years old. i wont lie, i absolutely shat myself. i dont get scared by that many things, but i was shaking like a leaf! i started to relax after a while, and the elephants then went down a hill, into the river. it was beautiful. then our mahout completely surprised us, and asked if we wanted to swap spots with him... we were like... WHAT?! and he was like.... YEAH! but in lao. so i scrambled across the elephant and after a bit of careful manouvering i was on the elephants neck with my feet tucked up behind her ears, and the mahout was lazing in the basket!! it is really the most amazing feeling. i cant even describe it in a way that might give you an idea. after a while, i swapped with ange, who was much more cool calm and collected that i was, and we made our was back to camp.

we were given an awesome lunch, which was pork curry and vege stir fry with rice. delicious. and then we we each given our own elephant, which we had to very clumsily climb up on (i ended up kicking the mahout in the stomach) and we were going to be the elephants mahout for the rest of the day, while the real mahout sat on the back. we learnt the words for left right, go and stop, but i had a sneaky suspicion the elephants knew not to actually listen to us..

we headed off down the hills, and of course i had to have the biggest tallest elephant, and we seriously went down dirt faces that were at impossible angles and there were times i thought i was going to fall and break my neck. we ended up splashing into the river, and we were given a brush and the elephants lay down in the water and we washed them! they seemed to LOVE this part, and gaels elephant kept splashing everyone with her trunk.

that day was one of the best days i've ever had. i felt so happy and exhausted by the end, and we were sad to say goodbye to the girls.