Elephant Ride in Jungle on to Vientien

Friday up early and out to Elephant Park. Great adventure, the ride was on a very difficult dirt road only accessible via Land Rover. There were water buffalo grazing along the road (it was a one lane dirt road very narrow through the Laos Mountains. When we arrived, we walked to the Nam Kahn River, where a raft was waiting for us to take us to the other side. There was no, dock and it simply ran on to the shore. In the middle of the river our elephant was getting a bath. They take one every day. The Mahout (driver) was standing in the river with a brush, cleansing the elephant. We then followed the elephant to the base camp. The mahout directs the elephant by words (in Laotian) such as: Left, Right, Back-up, stop etc. The Elephant understands and obeys. They placed the platform that you sit in on the elephant back, then the Mahout and I got on the carriage by climbing stairs to a second story the elephant leans against it and then you simply step in. Dennis (our traveling companion) sat on the elephants neck in front of us. Later we switched off and I rode on the elephants neck. We took a ride through the jungle, down to the river and then back to where we started. It took about 45 minutes. Elephants don’t smell (maybe it is the daily bath), the gate gets some getting use to, but then it is ok. If you are sitting on the neck your legs dangle behind the elephants ears and you press down on to the elephants head for balance. You don’t hold on to any part of the elephant it isn’t needed. If the elephant is hungry he simply pulls out some vegetation from the earth and eats it as we move along.

After the ride we returned to Louang Probang and had a 1 ½ hour massage. Then we had lunch, and met the rest of the group to head to the airport. The Hotel book stated “Laos Air has been fixing their maintenance problems:. With that re-assurance we boarded our prop jet and flew south to Vientien. It is very tropical, hot, humid and sticky. We are getting used to always being sticky and wanting a shower (it doesn’t help). We checked into the hotel, had drinks with the group and then all went for a French Dinner. The street signs are all still in French and Laotion and there is a heavy feeling of the French Presence in the Architecture, and food. Back to the hotel, Internet doesn’t work, so we will see when we can post this.