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Luang Prabang Day 52 - 56
We are back in Luang Prabang for a second time unable to leave, we have caught the Luang Prabang syndrome. It is so easy to just stay here for a long time as you lose all perception of time and days.
Coming back here after the tour the town feels very busy and full of tourists though compared to any other asian city it is very quiet.
We have spent the last 5 days with our lao family consisting of me, Chris, Cecilia and Amber... with an honouring member - the owner of the restaurant we have been eating at everyday (mama lao). We haven't been up to too much but the days have been going by very quickly. We have had a couple of massages - some good and bad experiences including boob massages and chris' male masseuse being a bit handsy...
We went out with the tour company (stray) to a bowling night out and ended the night in a lao nightclub.. it was a strange experience and turns out that they love heavy metal versions of Bon Jovi.
Amber, Cecilia, and I signed ourselves up for a one day elephant mahout training day. It was a insight, scary but very enjoyable. we started the day with an elephant ride into the jungle on an howdah. Halfway through the ride we swapped places with the mahout and sat on the elephants neck. it was scary.. plus the elephant is surprisingly prickly.. When it was my turn the elephant proceeded to have a number 1, pickup a branch and wack me. We then learnt some basic commands and how to mount and dismount the elephant. lets just say mine wasn't very successful and i needed two people to help me on and off the elephant. We then had some lunch which was good for me as i needed time to recover. After lunch we mounted the elephants again and took them to the river to bathe them. I don't know how i got stuck with the biggest elephant!!! whilst bathing the elephants we managed to stand up on their backs and heads. I only managed the back. I really enjoyed myself and think it is one of the highlights of the trip so far.
Tomorrow we are off to Chiang Mai, we have a flight in the afternoon as we decided that a 2 day boat trip with uncomfortable seats to the thail-laos border wasn't really for us. Our lao family members left today so it has been a bit strange without them.
onwards and upwards!
- comments
Kelly Hi - it's really good to hear that you're both having so much fun and gaining so much valuable experience culturally. We loved reading your blog and reading your mishaps experience Tina. Lots of love to you both. We've booked to be in HK by 21st July so if you're both in HK at the same time; it would lovely to meet up. Missing you Love Kelly and gang XXX