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Our exciting day is here- we are going to ride the elephants and see the Tad Se cascading waterfalls. It was the day my 76 year old fearless mother was to ride a 70 year old elephant into the mighty mystical Mekong river.... Or should I say, slide a elephant into the river!
Let's start at the beginning. We couldn't wait to get going, mom was slightly anxious as we were not sure if she would ride with one of us. As it turned out, all three of us rode on the young 29 year old one. Mom and I clambered gracefully onto the seat, and Terry was the mahout and rose on the bare neck.
It was hilarious how not one of us could remember how to say our dear elephant's name. The mahout had to walk as we were all on his elephant. We were glad to see that none of the mahouts use a hook or any other type of stick. The elephants just responded to commands which he tried teach us to use. Again, an exercise in futility! Who could remember the words??? Bai! Sai??
Mom could not contain herself and did become a 'backseat driver' and would throw out a loud BAI! every now and then, just to get into the spirit of things!
Bai meant Go! As our elephant was continuously meandering and would follow her mahout when he would go off the trail into the jungle to chop down treats for her. He had this huge sharp machete that could cut through anything. When she saw him coming with a huge banana tree branch she would flap her giant freckled ears in anticipation like a dog waiting for a treat. Terry's legs took a beating! The mahout was entertaining as he smoked, took numerous pictures with our camera of us,(as well as the other two couples!!) got treats, and yelled BAI! to Kumnwam. Our elephant even listened to him and picked a huge tree trunk and threw it off the path into the jungle. Our mahout even cut down an umbrella for mom and me and made is pose for the umpteenth time!
We finished our crazy 45 min ride and I switched places with Terry for the last 10 minutes. the ride ended with us going down a sharp slope slippery with mud which our elephant sis not like. She kept trying to find other paths.
We disembarked and now got ready to wait our turnto baths the elephants in the river. They wanted us to each have our own elephant - which made Mom a little apprehensive - little is an understatement! She went First with her mahout sitting behind her. The descent into the river was at about a 50 degree angle! It was a DEEP ride into a narrow clay ditch which was squooshy and slippery. Her poor old elephant - ( this time she had an older elephant) DID not like it, but did start the descent. Did you know that elephants can slide down with their two back legs flat out behind them? It was hilarious to see, but mom was not laughing! Mom was yelling, and desperately clutching the elephants ears! "Jan, this DEFINITELY over the edge! My arms are shaking!". I felt pretty terrible for her.
We couldn't get her off, she had to go down to the river! Once in, we made sure to tell our guide to tell her mahout not to make he elephant submerge her at all. It looked looked he was sad he could not, but we pulled the now often repeated statement-"She is 76 you know!"
She relaxed a little bit and after a few minutes actually was laughing (she has just corrected me and said it was it was NERVOUS laughter!)
Terry and I had fun, the young elephant was really into pulling us into the water - but I was not going to falloff and hung in for all I was worth- (my inner thighs were sore for two days!) Terry's elephant was the 70 year old so I traded him and he and the mahout had great fun cannonballing off the elephant and being submerged.
The poor elephants had to climb that steep slippery slope again. But they are such powerful animals, they managed it
quite well.
After the whole thing was done, we got into a longboat and set off soaking wet) off the Tad Se falls. mom was getting close to saying she enjoyed the elephant bathing, or at least glad she did the bathing part.
The falls were stunning - aqua cascades and warm to wade in. Mom loved them and was ready to say on the trip home in the boat, I am glad I went and we laughed our heads off about her death grip on the poor elephant's ears.
- comments
Melissa Atkinson Loved reading the Laos posts and the pictures are great too! Jan, I feel like I am right there with you guys, great details! Sounds like you all are loving Laos. I cant wait to hear Madeleine's elephant story in person! Take care and happy travels :)