Elephant ride

Technically, this post should come before the Spidey post. Please forgive.

As noted previously, Laos has many offers for ecotourism. The country does have a few environmental issues (if you want to know, we can discuss in the comments section), but generally speaking it is pristine. There are fishing and kayaking trips on the rivers; cycling and hiking trips into the jungle; there are even waterfalls which are clean enough to swim in and under. The country is quite beautiful.

We signed up with a company called Tiger Trails in Luang Prabang to go on an elephant ride and kayak trip. There are elephant rides in a few different cities, but we were in LP for a few days so we decided to give it a try.

We arrived early and were driven out to the elephant camp where we were introduced to our guide. He then showed us where the elephants lived and introduced us to the elephant trainers (called mahouts). You may be aware that elephants have long memories, and one of the impacts of this is that they truly befriend their trainers. In fact, if a mahout moves away or dies, the elephants can go through a depression or mourning period because they miss their trainers so much. This was touching to us - I cannot really say why.

We were not aware that they had a limited number of seats on the elephants for our trip, and when they asked who wanted to ride on the elephant´s head I have to admit that I didn´t step right up to volunteer. Actually, Erin was much braver than I, so she jumped right aboard. I for one was very impressed.

The mahouts led us on a path through the jungle and down into a creekbed. The path down to the creek was quite steep, and I thought I was going to fall out of the little chair. Erin will have to contribute how it felt to actually be hanging on to the elephant´s ears to keep from toppling over the trunk.

One of the funniest parts of the trip was when one of the elephants behind us started to pass, our elephant decided to go faster. She did not want to give up her spot in line. This caused the elephant in front of us to go faster, and we eventually were in an elephant race. It was hysterical. At least it was hysterical from where I sat. Again, Erin may have had a different perspective on the pachyderm race.

After the elephant trip, we had lunch and then set off on the kayaks. As I noted above, Laos is incredibly beautiful and seeing it from the river was breathtaking in places. As you might imagine, it was we were breathing heavy for more than just the sights too. We hadn´t really excercised too much lately (not our arms anyway), so we were not very prepared for paddling 4+ hours. Also, we were very careful to use sunscreen, but we were so sunburned that evening. It was the first time in a while that we were really red and shiny.

We felt like we deserved some take it easy time at the end of that day, so we rendezvoused with some of the folks we had met during the trip for some evening beers and gossip. Scott and Charlie were very fun and interesting to talk to. Their extended trip (not very dissimilar to ours) is going to end soon, and we hope they return home safe and sound. We hope that we return home safe and sound too.