We first heard of the Elephant Conservation Centre (ECC) from an in-flight magazine whilst flying from Borneo some months ago. Its mission is to offer the chance to learn more about the tradition of keeping domestic elephants whilst making practical efforts to conserve the rapidly vanishing domestic and wild elephant numbers in Laos. The centre has the only elephant hospital in Laos, and runs mobile vet units to remote parts of Laos to treat elephants, it also has a mahout training programme (with its resident 4 adult elephants) and elephant breeding programme (currently two infants in their nursery). Visiting also sounded quite fun, we could get to go to mahout school ourselves for a few days! There are around 1000 elephants in Laos, of which around 400 are 'domestic' i.e. born in captivity and used either in the tourist trade or in logging. Traditionally many elephants were used to drag logs, and the wood used for home building etc, and there were many thousands of domestic elephants. Each domestic elephant would have a lifelong bond with its mahout, the young teenage mahout training the young elephant and then working together as a team for their working lives. There were also a huge number of wild elephants living in the Lao wilderness, in fact Laos was known as 'The land of a million elephants'. With increased mechanisation and habitat destruction their numbers, both wild and domestic, have plummeted.

Getting to the centre was our first challenge. The instructions were deceptively simple ' take the morning bus to Sayaboury, we will meet you there at 12.30pm'. Finding and booking the bus was actually quite easy thanks to our helpful guesthouse, who also got us to the bus station. Then the chaos of Laos public transport ensued. The bus was an ancient Chinese model and utterly 'no frills'. Luggage, which seemed mainly to consist of sacks of rice, went on the roof. There was also a basket of ducks quacking at my feet, they went into the luggage compartment under the bus. I supervised our rucksacks being loaded onto the top of the bus whilst Brenda went to get our allocated seats. Of course, there was someone already sitting in them, who refused to move, so Brenda took two other empty seats. Then the owner of the seats turned up and started getting a bit annoyed. All I could see was Brenda waving frantically at me from inside the bus whilst I helped get the luggage on, so naturally I waved back. By the time I got on the bus the driver was moving the people who had sat in our original seats out and calm was restored. The bus was now, by our prissy Western standards, full, 90 minutes before we were even due to leave (though this is difficult to be accurate about as there were 3 published departure times, we just arrived for the earliest). People kept on coming, and the driver wasn't going to turn away good money. People sat on bags of rice, suitcases, the steps at the front, even plastic stools taken from the roof and put down the middle aisle. Finally, at 9am, the bus wheezed its way out of the station.

The going was fairly good at first, until we hit the unsealed dirt roads that made up the majority of the journey. Till now, we thought people were wearing surgical masks for hygiene reasons, but actually it was to stop them inhaling too much dust. Also, small bin bags had been thoughtfully distributed by the driver at the start of the journey, which we now realised were vomit bags because the road was so bumpy. My bum was also numb from the hard seat and we were both sweating terribly from the sun beating through the window...no aircon or even fan on this bus, and the windows were shut because of the dust. The heat did have the positive effect of mildly sedating us though, but not enough to make the journey pass any faster. The one redeeming factor was the scenery outside. Here were tiny villages living off subsistence rice farming, backed by green mountains (at least 2000m I'd say, very impressive). Water was delivered by stand pipe or a local river. There were some generators for electricity, which people must have used to watch tv, because there were communal satellite dishes in most villages. Their other use besides transmitting tv images is to dry large amounts of chillies in the hot sun! The farming methods were very basic, everything was done by hand or by buffalo.

Suddenly the bus came to a halt in the middle of nowhere and all the passengers scrambled over the stools, luggage and sacks of rice to get out. Were we in Sayaboury already? Where was the bus station? Then we saw all the men standing facing the bushes, and all the women crouching in the grass. Wee stop! The driver sounded the horn and everyone labouriously boarded again to re-start the journey. After another stop to cross a river by an ancient looking car-ferry we finally arrived, sweaty and exhausted, in Sayaboury. Here we were met as promised by a minivan from the ECC, with the modern miracle of aircon, which we basked in on our way to the centre. Our final leg of the journey was to take a boat across the beautiful lake to get to to the centre on the far shore. At 2pm we felt like we had been awake and travelling for several days, not 7 hours!

The ECC is made up of a modest collection of mainly bamboo huts on the lake shore, including a large canteen, offices, elephant museum/library and lots of smaller accomodation huts. These were right on the water's edge and were very similar to the huts we had passed in the bus. Inside was a bed and mosquito net, outside a hammock and a wonderful view over the lake. We were warned to look out for bees and scorpions in our huts. Our visit started with a tour of the centre before meeting the elephants and mahouts. We also got to know Sven and Deborah (from Belgium), also visiting the centre, who I am very happy to say were a like-minded couple and great fun to share our dinners/beers with.

The elephants live in the forest at the back of the centre and are brought into the main centre by the mahouts in the morning for a drink and the day's activity, then in the afternoon they have a bath in the lake. They are usually back in the forest and settled for the night by 5.30pm ish, elephant bedtime. Our first meeting was spent being shown how to get on the elephant. There are several methods. I chose the first, which involves the elephant bending both front legs to lower its head, you then have to smartly vault, with legs out wide so as to avoid smacking it in the face or banging its huge ears, so that you land on its neck, holding its halter for balance and facing towards its bum. It will then stand upright when it is ready (usually before you are ready), and then you slowly twist round to face forwards, your legs dangling either side of its shoulders. If wearing shorts you then notice two things: elephant skin is not smooth at all and is covered in tough bristles that stick in your skin, also they have very sweaty ears which rubs where your legs are dangling! Brenda chose a different method to get on her elephant, where it crouches down and you use its right leg as a sort of ladder and scramble up. When the mahouts did their demonstrations they climbed up as graceful as cats. Our versions looked more like sacks of rice being manhandled onto a lorry...

After this first lesson we watched the elephants have a 'bath' in the lake. They love water and didn't need a great deal of encouragement to fully submerge themselves, trumpeting and spraying water all over the place. The mahouts jumped on their backs like stepping stones, scrubbing them with a large brush and encouraging them to get a good soak. They generally control the elephants with voice commands and an ear halter, though they did drop the ear halter whilst we were there and then couldn't get the elephants out of the lake (they were having too much fun) until they chased them out with a canoe.

It was fast approaching elephant bedtime, so Brenda and I followed our mahout (on his elephant) to their night resting spot. Elephants eat constantly (250kg + a day of fodder) and it absent mindedly tore up small trees and ate them, leaving a trail of trodden and part-chewed vegetation in its wake. We then turned off the main path and followed in the path created by the elephant. This walk turned out to be more adventurous than we anticipated, fighting our way through the overgrowth, down steep muddy slopes and across streams for around 2 miles to get to a good spot with bamboo and elephant grass for supper for the elephant. Here it was chained around one foot (the chain site is rotated daily) on a long chain so it could wander around. Then we walked the 2 miles back, only just getting back to the main path by nightfall. Thank God we wore boots! Later we shared our dinner of traditional Lao food of fried morning glory (it is a vegetable here so stop laughing!), chicken and beansprout salad and sticky rice with the 2 other guests over some Beerlao, and then an early night under our mosquito net as we were completely worn out...what a day!

On the itinerary for day 2 - 'short forest trek with elephant, learn to command elephant in Lao, elephant drink time in lake, visit vet and hospital, visit elephant nursery, elephant bath and bedtime, swimming in lake on sunset cruise' another full day of fun.

It takes some encouragement to make the elephants walk away from the lake and back up the hill to the forest first thing in the morning, perhaps they thought they would miss out on their swim. We started the trek following behind from a safe distance, to stop being swiped by their tails. About halfway Brenda was rice-sacked up onto the elephant's back and we continued back to the centre, skirting around the lake through the forest. At the end there was a small banana plantation for the elephants. Bear in mind that when elephants see bananas they go bananas, as they love them so much. They don't limit this love to the actual fruit either, tearing down the whole tree and stuffing them in their mouths. The vet explained later their order of food preference: grass, random trees/leaves, then sticky rice, then sugar canes, then pineapple and finally banana (they haven't found anything better yet).

Now came our chance to command the elephants. Mounting them in our own special way, we were then taught how to make the elephant go forward (say 'Pai' loudly and tap both hands on the top of its head), right and left (say 'Kwai' or 'Sai' and jiggle the opposite ear with your foot), as well as backwards and getting the elephant to crouch down so you can get/fall off. After all this exertion the elephants needed a drink and a bath so it was off to the lake again for a swim. We visited the elephant hospital and had an interesting chat with the vet about the logisitics of providing the only elephant veterinary service in Laos and had a look around the hospital.

The elephant nursery is a short boat ride away from the main site. Visitors can't approach by foot as the young elephants are a bit unpredictable and are accompanied by their mothers. An experienced mahout commands the mother and through her also the infant. The mahouts took their elephants down to play in the water so we could get a good view from our boat. The infants are all power without any control and charge about in the mud before falling clumsily into the lake, with mother trying to control them by pushing them around with her trunk or legs. Needless to say they were very endearing but I doubt we have the garden space to keep one.

We returned to the main centre to see the elephants being walked back to bed, but decided against another mildly harrowing jungle trek. In any case, we had plans to go swimming in the lake ourselves. It had actually rained a lot of the afternoon but by now the clouds were clearing to leave a fantastic sunset. We took the boat out into the middle of the lake and lowered ourselves into the clear water ready for a cold shock...to find it was pleasantly warm! Swimming and jumping into the lake whilst the sun set is a memory we'll keep for a long time.

Our final day at the centre was not actually spent much with the elephants but on a walk through the forest to see the 'Buddha footprint'. Not uncommon in Buddhist Asia, these are large, man-made single footprints made to honour Buddha. Our guide thought it ok to let us sit in it and drink tea though and talked to us about his life in Laos as well as his views of 'the West', which seemed entirely from films, whilst we swatted mosquitos. A precarious ride back to the centre in an unstable narrow boat (the big boat had given up from the night before) followed before our last meal at the centre. We then had to go back in the narrow boat (but this time with all our luggage) to get to the lift to the bus station. I'm not sure either of us breathed for the whole seven minute crossing.

The bus ride back was as miserable but interesting as the first. The bus was slightly better, there were fewer people on board and our luggage could fit on the back seat. There was another basket of ducks in the hold. The driving was hectic and daredevil, largely because the bus didn't have the power to get up hills without a good run up. A four hour demonstration of the fine line between rashness and courageous skill followed, and we could barely watch as we drove. This was punctuated by pee stops and the bus breaking down for about half an hour whilst the driver and his mate tried to sort out the dodgy clutch. Every time we approached the top of a steep hill and the driver attempted to change down a gear a collective sigh of relief was given when it finally went into first. At length we arrived in Luang Prabang, negotiated a tuk tuk and got back to our guesthouse.

We can honestly say the visit had been one of the best things we had ever done, and despite the discomfort of the bus journey we wouldn't change a thing. No doubt if the journey was any easier, the relief at arriving and the enjoyment of being at the centre would not have been the same. Away from the often over-touristed main sites, it was a great insight into life in rural Laos. It was also great to meet Sven and Deborah, who we kept bumping into over the next few days and sharing some more dinners and beers, hope the travels are going well guys!

Tomorrow we head to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, expect another update soon!

Love David and Brenda

xxx

ps here is the link for the ECC if you are interested in their centre/work

http://www.elephantconservationcenter.com/