So another Amazing day in Asia!
Honestly guys, the longer i am here, the better things seem to get, and the less I want to leave. We keep meeting people who are a month or two into thier trips, and we realize that 3 weeks just isn't enough time to do these fabulous countries justice. Theres just so muxh to see and do! But Alas...c'est la vie.
Today Fungus and I booked a Gold experiance at the Elephant Village in Luang Prabang. And it was so great...we started off the day taking a winding dirt road through the Laotion countryside...and it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen...green covered mountains surrounded by white mist as far as the eye can see and minutes go by without anyone driving past. It's quiet and lovely. You see ponds and dugouts full of water lily next to limestone road cuts and you really do feel like you're in another world!
When we arrived at the Elephant Village we were greated by 4 elephants meandering by these thatched grass huts. It was like someyhing out of Jurassic Park. We were then given a quick run down of how to control the animals before being lifted right onto them ourselves and toured around the village.
The Elephant Village is a sanctuary and hospital geared towards preservation anf protection of the Animals. It's endorsed by Unesco for its humane treatment of the animals and is one of the few places in Laos thar prides itself on its conservation efforts. That part was pretty important to us as there are many elephant tour operators in Asia that are torturous for the animals, and we were dead set against supporting any program like that.
So after taking a quick ride on the elephants (just to get comfortable with the animals) we ventured off to visit a new calf and it's mother on the far side of the compound. We bought a bunch of bananas from a local women, which we fed to the calf...he kept slobbering on my hands with his trunk and was kinda clumsy and overly excited! It was pretty cute. They then put us back up on the elephants for a stroll down the river. It was pretty incredible to be sitting atop a 10 foot and mammal while our feet splashed in the water!
After lunch they then took us down to the river to bathe the elephants before they were released into the jungle for the night. My guy kept spraying me and smacking his trunk against the water while i scrubbed her behind the ears! I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't stop laughing the whole time!
The elephants are released into the jungle around 2 or 3 pm with thier Mahouts so that they can spend the night foraging in a more natural environment.
After they departed we hopped into a dugout canoe and went down the Nam Khan river to check out some waterfalls...and honestly guys, the waterfalls were some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We climbed up these white travertine terraces into pools of bright green water that were tucked away in the middle of the jungle. It was incredible. I've never seen anything like that before! We played around in the pools for about an hour before we had to head back to the boat to go back to Luang Prabang.
It was such an incredible day. In the evening we ventured out to the night market to grab a bit to eat. Luang Prabang has one of the biggest night markets I've ever seen. It just goes on and on and on! I bought a couple of paper lanterns and some pouches while keerit wanted bracelets. The prices were more than reasonable (once we were done haggling with the vendors) so we were quite content.
Homestly, half the fun of shopping in Asia is haggling with the shop keepers. My brother has it down to an art. He can always get the exact price he wants for an item. In the end if we pay a doller more for something, we're not too worried, but street vendors take pride in fleecing tourists, so we don't really like getting charged much more than that.
Anywhoo I'll leave you guys with a few photos of our Elephant Adventure. Unfortunately my phone ran out of memory halfway through the day so I didn't get any of us bathing the animals (those are on Keerits dslr). But I'll upload more when we get home!
For now here are some of us with the elephants and the market and one of the terraces (photo credit: Tommy davis)
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