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So we arrived in Luang Prabang, got a tuk tuk to a guest house and headed out immediately to look around even though it was already starting to get dark. We went and enquired about the elephant trips and then stumbled across the night market - I was in heaven. I love a market - but this is by far the best one I've ever seen! It was heaven and hell though as everywhere I looked I saw something I was desperate to buy, but we dont have the money, or more importantly the space in our backpacks to buy up everything we want! But we still got a couple of very small things and enjoyed wandering around looking at all the woven things, paintings, clothes, jewellery etc - amazing! We walked all the way down to the end and found the food part, which is a long alley way of food stalls which are basically bbq's and tables of fhole fish, chicken, pork etc and then other tables with noodles, rice, veggies. Battered wooden tables and benches in between the stalls for people to sit and eat with their fingers while watching others pass by - it was awesome. Gemma and I had huge dinners for about one pound each, its such a shame we didnt find places like this in the other places we've been to as we would have saved a lot of money on food we preferred anyway! After dinner we headed back to the guest house as we had some stuff to plan and organise, then we had an earlyish night.
The following day we were up early to get lots done. We hired a push bike each and cycled round the town which was so much fun! We went to a couple of Wats and had a look around which were cool (I still find the monks in their orange robes very creepy though!) and then cycled down along the river, stopped in at a cool little book exchange place so I could pick up some new reading material (I got a book called The Kindness of Strangers which is all about kind acts experienced by travelers which have really touched them- its really cool book) The brakes on our bikes werent great but we both adapted to driving on the right really well. We also stopped for a pedicure as we hadnt had one for about 3 weeks and needed it! It was a good chance to sit down and cool off also as the sun was blazing down upon us!
We decided to cycle out to the Chinese day market which didnt have much but was nice to have a walk around and see the stalls and food and people. We were the only falang there which was nice, doesnt seem that many people cycle out that far. We rode back after, stopping at the post office and then going to book our elephant tour for the following day which I was too excited about! Then went back to the hotel where I realised that ONCE AGAIN I had burnt myself with the sun! Not happy with myself! Once the sun had gone down we went for another meander through the night market and back to the food alleyway again for cheap dinner - it was raining by now, quite heavily and after dinner we stopped into an internet cafe to get out of the rain, which stopped, but then started up again even worse than before as we were leaving - torrential isnt the word! We couldnt have been more soaked if we'd sat in a bath tub fully clothed! We went to bed about 11pm in preparation for our day of elephants the following day, although I didnt sleep well as I laid awake wondering what would happen if I was on an elephant and it panicked and caused a stampede, or if I fell off would I fall under its feet and be crushed as flat as a pancake! They are wild animals after all! Eventually dropped off.
The next morning we were picked up early by the Elephant Village tour guides and we drove out to the Elephant Village! There were another 4 girls and one couple in our group and 2 of the girls were especially lovely. When we arrived and I got my first glimpse of an elephant I nearly went mad with excitement.
We had researched this company to make sure we were not paying into something which was treating elephants cruelly etc and we deffo made the best choice with these people. The elephants were all female (less aggresive and easier to make friends with than male elephants - plus no tusks!!!) and they were all ex logging elephants. They had come to Elephant Village with their Mahouts who had been offered jobs there to come with their elephants and let them live their lives there rather than logging. Elephants eat an enormous amount of food so for a mahout to afford to feed one they had to really push them when logging, most of the elephants were underfed, treated really badly, had no access to veterinary care whatsoever, and usually worked to death eventually. At the Elephant Village, they are required to earn their keep by working 9.30-1pm every day. Work consisits of taking a couple of gentle leisurely strolls through the jungle with a couple of tourists on their backs, stand and be fed by the tourists between strolls, be adored, admired, then taken into the river and a toursit give them a good old scrub bath! At 1pm they are finished for the day and they are let off into the enclosure (which is jungle and massive) and spend the rest of the day relaxing together and grazing. They get to be part of a herd and the programme also brings in some males to mate them when they can - in fact one of the elephants was actually pregnant when we went which was cool (elephants are pregnant for TWO years!). When the elephants get to a certain age they get retired and live out the rest of their lives in comfort and dont have to work at all. They live to about 80/90 years old. The programme also rescues old and wounded elephants from villages that would otherwise be killed for their meat as they are no use for logging.
The first thing we did was learn 'elephant language' which I'm pretty sure is Laos but I forgot to ask! 'Seung' makes the elephant lift you up on its leg to get on its back, 'Pie' makes it walk forward. 'Qwa' means right and 'Si' means left. 'How How' means stop and that was the one I made sure I learned first! Then it was time for a practice and one by one we had to climb up onto an elephant via its leg (very difficult!) onto its neck and have a quick round on it - I was petrified as it was so unsteady and hard to hold on - I really thought I was going to fall off, especially was we walked down a slanted part! But I managed to stay on and it was pretty amazing being able to touch a big old elephant! I was just glad to be able to get on to be honest as smaller, fitter people than us had had a lot of trouble trying to get on but I managed it fine, must be horse riding skills?!?! lol
While the others in our group had their turn in practising, Gemma and I went up to the feeding station and bought some bananas to feed the elephants that were hanging around there - amazing! Their trunks are so funny, and they actually make snorting sounds like little piggies when they are taking the bananas from your hands! Then we went for a ride on their backs - in the seats, so Gemma and I got to go together, which again was unsteady and nerve wracking, we were on the last ellie at the back of the group who had a mentalist mahout who kept trying to get Gemma and I out of our seats and onto the elephants neck even though we were going through thick mud - I kept thinking all it would take was one foot of the elephant to go from under her and we'd all come crashing down and fall down the steep bit of the jungle! Scary stuff! The ride was about 30 mins long and then we went back to camp and fed our elephants again. We all then had a really nice buffet lunch, then split into 2 groups of 4 - Gemma and I went with two of the girls we got on well with. Each of us were given an elephant to ourselves which we again had to climb up on via its leg, then we rode them down to the river. I was shaking as the ground down to the river was very steep and I was scared to fall, my mahout held onto me for mst of it, then showed me how to bend my legs right up behind the elephants ears - which made it so much easier - I didnt really even need to hold onto its head anymore as the legs were enough to keep you steady! Got into the river and it was the best experience of my life!
Our elephants were standing up in the river but only the top of them (which we were all sitting on) was visable. We were handed some scrubbing brushes and told to get them clean! You know when you scratch a dog behind its ears and it kind of relaxes completely and doesnt move and you can almost hear an invisble 'Ahh thats so good!' That was the vibe from my elephant - she was loving it! She was a naughty elephant though and played a few tricks on me, the funniest being to bend down and submerge herself completely - trying to stya on an elephant thats completely submerged with water up to your neck is difficult and scary but very very funny, she did this a few times, once when the mahout was sitting on her head and he was fully clothed and got drenched! I couldnt help but cuddle and kiss and smell my ellie while I was scrubbing her, it was so surreal and so amazing. I managed to stand up on her back as well but she ducked down again to play with me lol. We only had about 20 mins in the river which was a shame but it was so good and we got some amazing photos. Took them back to the camp and fed them even more!
After this we took a boat 15 mins down the river to a waterfall which was pretty cool, we were all stil gushing over the elephants. We stayed there for about an hour then we were driven home by the tour guides.
We got back to the guest house and went out immediately to take a look at the photos in the internet shop. Then went to the market and had the chicen on a stick dinner again (it never gets old here). We went home, showered and went out to a bar called Lao Lao Garden which was quite lively for Luang Prabang, had a few glasses of wine and a good old natter. When we left we were a bit tipsy and got in a tuk tuk and directed the driver in elephant speak (Si, how how!) and Gemma made him almost wet himself when she shouted 'get out of the way Falang' at some westerners in the road. Went to bed in preparation for an early start tomorrow and another 8 hour bus to Phonsavan. Luang Prabang is a little piece of heaven on earth!
The next morning we were up at 6.30 to pack our bags and get a tuk tuk to the bus station. We had an 8 hour journey to Phonsavan which is where the Plain of Jars is (the Laos version of Stonge Henge) which apparently most tourists dont venture out to as its a bit off the beaten track. We really wanted to see it though which is why we went. It was a local bus that took us there and we stopped about 100 times as everyone likes to do their shopping on the side of the road every 20 mins or so which is a pain, and we didnt stop at any toilets so we had to join everyone else is weeing in the mountainside bushes which was funny, especially as Gemma and I were crouched down together at ne point when a mini bus full of locals went past and all had a good look at us! We couldnt stop laughing, I think our chuckles echoed round the mountainside. Curvy roads again and hairpin bends but all i nall the journey was ok.
Once we arrived we took a tuk tuk to a guest house which is highly recommended by the Lonely Planet - they were littlw wooden huts which were really quite cute and we were happy with the price which was cheap! Although there were a few bugs in the room so I finally decided to get my mozzie net out after 12 weeks of travelling and not using it once. Gemma had chucked hers the night before and we couldnt push our beds together so we were both going to get into one and synchonise our spooning to avoid bugs. The key to our bungalow is attached to an old bullet shell, and everyone you go here there are bomb shells outside houses, restaurants etc almost like badges of status! We went for a walk to book a tour to the Plain of Jars and stopped into a hotel to enquire about prices - this hotel seemed to be the place all the tourists stayed and we looked at the price list was was about 4 times as much as we were paying and we felt very smug! We went for some dinner and to another tour operator and booked the tour with them for the following day. They had a huge bookshelf behind reception full of bomb shells and army helmets etc - kind of morbid. We went for a few beers in a local bar and were feeling excited about the tour the next day. went back to our bungalow, squeezed under our mozzie net ito our small bed and I was just writing in my diary when a sound on the right made me turn to look - just as a huge rat when runnin gup the fecking wall! Well I have never packed so fast in my entire life, I was out of bed, into my hoody (over my bed clothes) and backpack on my back ready to within about 2 mins. We told the reception lady we couldnt stay and thankfuly she didnt make us pay anything - and then we went and checked into the hotel that was 4 times as much - smugness gone! Although the room was luxurious compared to what we're used to and we were both secretly glad that we'd been forced to go there! Was slightly traumatised but it was very very funny and the big soft beds, air con and promise of no more rats soothed the trauma away pretty quickly!
The next day we weere up early for the Plain of Jars tour, got picked up at 9 and driven out to the first site which was SO cool! No one knows why the jars are there or what they were used for - some say burial, some say for makin Lao Lao (evil Laos whisky that blows your head off) but no one is sure - they are 2000 years old and a mystery. You used to be able to climb on them and stuff but they are all protected now, however you can still walk among them and touch them - apparently in 2015 you wont be allowed to do that anymore so we were really glad we got to experience it. At the site there was a shop selling souvenirs and Gemma and I bought these bracelets that are made from US airplanes/bombs that were dropped! It sounds quite inappropriate but I love mine - and I just love the fact that the Laos people have taken something so awful and horrifying like old war planes and bombs, and made them into something new which they sell - all the money for the bracelets goes directly into the village - I mean its just a brilliant philosophy to have - to take something negative and turn it into a positive. Everytime I looked at my bracelet I am going to think about how even the worst things can be turned into something good.
Next stop was a whisky village where they make Lao Lao which was cool to see how its done. We all got offered a shot which I accepted (the other girls didnt) and which set my belly on fire! We then stopped at a russian tank which was a bit creepy really then we went to the second jars site where we also had lunch and there were the cutest little puppies I have ever seen which I coulnt stop cuddling! Gorgeous! The lunch was a noddle soup which was a lot like pho and really nice. We then went to the jars which were cool. Then onto the 3rd jar site and then home - all i nall a really nice and interesting day.
When we got home we were aching (there was quite a lot of walking between the minivan and the jars) so were looking forward to each having a hot bath but we discovered our room had no hot water so the hotel receptionist moved us to a superior room for the same price - result! Had a lovely sleep and woke up to the beautiful smell of incense coming from somewhere outside - loving that smell.
Following day we were on a bus pack to Luang Prabang at 8.30am, no breakdowns on the journey but the bus did seem to be made of cardboard, and we had millions of stops again, plus more experiences of watering the mountain grass ha ha. Everyone on the local buses buy corn from people on the side of the road on these journeys so today I thought I'd try some, I peeled it open and the corn was not yellow - it was black, blue, green and grey - looked like jewels - bit worried about eating it but evceryone else was so thought sod it And it was LOVELY! Cant wait to have some more. Once we got back to Lunag Prabang (8 hours later - but SO good to be back!) we went and booked our bus tickets to Thailand - 16 hours on a night bus that does not have reclining seats....dreading it! But for 27 quid you cant complain! Then we had a look round the market - again! Last chance to see it properly, and went and had the usual chicken on a stick dinner in the food alley way. Afterwards we went out to sample some more bars - we'd read about a great bar called Utopia so we went to check it out - it was mad - very very chilled, dark, we laid on a ledge that was hanging over the river with a huge drop beneath and hardly enough light to see where the edge was! It was relly cool but just too chilled, no seats - lying on the floor- and we knew we'd end up falling asleep or something so we had one then headed to Hive bar which was a bit busier. Had a few more drinks and a giggle til closing time then headed back to the guest house for a good nights sleep.
This morning we got up and packed up our bags to check out at 11 - we have left our bags in the hotel and are spending the day uploading photos, maybe going to the museum, chilling out until we get picked up at 6pm for the Thailand bus.... so next time I write I will be in Thailand! Our 5th country in 3 months! Am so looking forward to getting back there although I dont think anywhere will ever compare to Luang Prabang for me..... I hope to come back here one day!
So until my next blog from Thailand, I hope you are all well and taking care. Mucho love long time x
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