An elephant never forgets, nor will we

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An elephant never forgets, nor will we

January 12, 2010 by cloudysnorka

When researching this trip we heard many stories of Luang Prabang as being a city with a soul. From its UNESCO World Heritage listing to protect its french architecture, to its 32 Wats and unique flavours in their cooking, we hoped it would be the perfect ending to our fairly busy and adventurous trip. We haven’t been disappointed.

Pool at the Mekong Estate

We were welcomed by our host Khamphanh from our accommodation at the Mekong Estate, a private residence on the banks of the Mekong, and from that moments we slipped into Laos time quite easily. What’s Laos time you ask? It means you stop wearing a watch, don’t set an alarm, and anything booked for a particular time will still happen…just give or take a bit. We were quickly greeted by the two resident pets, a tabby cat and an adorable puppy called Tuk Tof. Check the photos below of Paul trying to get a reaction from the tabby who visits at breakfast.

Adam and Tuk Tof having a wrestle

With no real plans made for the 5 days, we ventured out on our bicycles provided and peddled our way around the compact, yet beautiful streets of Luang Prabang. We discovered a bustling night market that is the best of it’s kind we’ve seen on our trip, held each night along the main street of town, it is filled with the amazing silks, weavings, souvenirs and crafts of the diverse local cultures of Laos.

Paul realising he's a better teacher than student

Khamphanh recommended and booked us into a cooking class at a local family run restaurant. Paul nervously had agreed to trying this out earlier in our trip (probably after a drink or three) and upon our arrival we were greeted by two local chefs and found that we would be experiencing this on our own! The four dishes demonstrated included some of the flavours and ingredients we have become accustomed to seeing in Laos cooking, yet had never been able to place what they were. Now not only do we know what they are, we can confidently (sort of!) prepare four unique Laos dishes, and without being too modest, did blow our socks off when we had finished cooking them!

Laughing after bath time

Venturing out of town we had picked up a tour to a fantastic elephant rehabilitation village. The elephants had either been purchased, or ‘rented’ from farmers and loggers – providing them a much improved quality of life, significantly better diet and a much easier day of taking tourists on rides and playing in the water during their bath time. The village had 9 female elephants ranging in ages from 17 to 65 (their oldest elephant of 101 passed recently).

Our private tour consisted us learning some of the ways of the Mahout (elephant carers) including commands, feeding, riding techniques and bathing. Let us tell you that when you are 2 metres off the ground on an animal that eats 130 kilos of food a day and weighs in the tonnes, it is humbling to ride on their necks while they carefully carry you up and down steep hills and through the water.

Adam was given the oldest and largest elephant (trying to not take that personally…are they saying something?) who was extremely patient and careful and followed the commands given to the letter. On the other hand, Paul was given the precocious teenager, the 17 year old girl! She did what she wanted, when she wanted, including a stop at the sugar cane store for a snack, and what seemed like repeated attempts to try and knock Paul off her back when she was having a bath. The Mahout working with Paul was laughing constantly, while almost surfing on her back he would give commands that would get her to almost jump up in the water bucking Paul all over the place, then submerging completely under the water – quite a unique thing for an elephant to do as most rarely submerge their heads. Adam found his had less than lady like qualities during her bath, as she proceeded to break wind and go to the toilet while he was facing her back end cleaning! It has been one of the best days of our lives, getting closer to these gentle and inquisitive creatures, who having now spent many hours with us, will remember our scents for approximately 3 years.

We have two days left of our trip, with the most challenging tasks being riding our bikes the short trip into town for crepes, juices and slow shuffles along the beautiful streets. A perfect wind down to the last 4 weeks.