Monks on Parade

Today I managed to get Betsy out of bed bright and early to see the monks receiving their alms from the locals.  Every morning between 530am and 6am (except Sunday's it seems) the monks walk through the streets where the locals give them sticky rice for their bowls.

Today is also our last day in Luang Prabang.  We were here for 6 days the longest we've been anywhere and honestly we were ready to leave a couple of days ago but we had to wait for our boat which isn't leaving until tomorrow.  We haven't done as much sightseeing as we'd have liked in Luang Prabang as it has just been too hot!  Accuweather.com currently shows the "realfeel" temperature in Luang Prabang to currently be 135F!  Ouch!

We have a 2 day boat trip up the Mekong tomorrow morning and on Thursday night will cross the border into Thailand.

Mae Pua & Mae Cot...Our Elephants

LUANG PRABANG, Laos - The experience at the Elephant Park Project was amazing.  We were part of a 5 person group that headed about 30 minutes outside of the town center to have a day with the elephants.  When we arrived at the park our guide explained the conservation efforts of the park, the rules we needed to follow when we were around the elephants and interesting elephant facts.  At this park there were 7 females of varying ages.

Then we climbed a small tower so that we could get onto the bench-like seat that is on the elephant.  Stacy and I both climbed onto Mae Pua along with her mahout (the elephant's keeper for life) and we were off into the jungle.  There were parts of the path that were very steep but the elephant handled it gracefully; unlike her passengers!!  We soon reached the river and made our way across.  As we were going along, our mahout asked if I would like to take the drivers  seat.  As I climbed down from the safety of the chair onto the elephants neck, I was thinking, "how do you stop this thing."  All of a sudden, there I was with my legs tucked behind the elephants ears, sitting on her head & walking through the water.....what a thrill!  Soon we came to a sand bar in the middle of river and our mahout took our camera and jumped OFF!!!  Yes, I was still driving and there was no mahout on-board....he was taking our picture as we were walking along.  Stacy took a turn also and chauffeured me around on the elephant.

We returned to the station were we had begun our elephant ride.  Next we then attended "mahout school" where we learned the different commands & how to get on and off the elephant as a mahout.  The bench-like chairs were removed from the elephants backs and we each climbed onto our own elephant as a mahout. 

 Stacy's elephant, Mae Cot, is the leader of all the other elephants and the oldest one at the park at 60 years old.  I stayed with Mae Pua as my elephant.  She is the youngster of the group at 17.  Her mother died when she was 3 and her current mahout quit school to be the one to take care of her.

We rode our elephants  back to the river for their bath.  Once we made it to the middle of the river I saw Stacy with Mae Cot partly submerged and getting a nice bath.  As soon as Mae Pua and I reached them Mae Pua completely submerged her entire body into the river and me with her.  Mae Cot never did this while Stacy was bathing her but Mae Pua was very playful and decided this was fun....continuing to do this 3 or 4 more times.  Even though there was elephant dung floating around a bit, this was still the most amazing experience!  You can tell the elephants love to be in the water and be scrubbed with a brush.  They are flapping their ears and moving their trunks all around.  So much fun!!!

We then went to the other side of the river and a short way into the jungle where we said goodbye to our new elephant & mahout friends.  Our guide explained that the mahouts will continue taking the elephants up into the mountains to eat and sleep.

The remainder of the day we were served a lovely lunch and given massages in huts overlooking the river.  The end to a day I will never forget!

 

VIP = Vomit Inducing Potential

Luang Prabang, Laos - VIP was stamped in big letters on the front of our bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang and while the bus was decent I think it was more an inference of the twisty trip to be expected from Vientiane to Luang Prabang.

We arrived in Luang Prabang last night after a 10 hour bus ride. Now it is only 380km (~230 miles) from Vientiane to LP but it takes 10 hours as the road twists and turns through the mountains most of the 10 hours (see the sat photo above of part of the route).  We reached an altitude of almost 1500m and then back down to 450m and then back up to 1200m and finally reached LP at 340m above sea level.

At times we could have walked up the hill faster but our bus driver was more than willing to make up time going down the hill.  He took the twists and turns faster than I would want to take them in my BMW!

Luckily neither Betsy nor I have a predilection to motion sickness but the bus ride did claim a couple of victims.

It was a beautiful (if long) ride through the mountains though and our first impressions of Luang Prabang are that it is a very nice town and we are looking forward to spending a few days here.

Tomorrow we get to spend a day with the elephants learning to be Mahouts (elephant trainers). This is probably the thing Betsy is most looking forward to on the trip so I am sure she will provide a detailed post of the experience.