After hours of debating, Deirdre and I decided to do a one day Mahout training course north of L.P. We are both against turning rescued elephants into a side show, however the company that we chose seemed to be the most committed and ethically sound regarding the treatment of their rescued Asian Elephants.
We were each assigned our own elephant for the day and learned how to communicate with them in order to ride, bathe, and feed the gentle beasts.
It was an amazing experience and both Deirdre and I had a blast.
Yesterday we travelled to some natural water falls with a cool British couple we had met the day before. The blue grey lagoons and swimming holes were something neither Deirdre nor I had ever seen before. The swimming was fantastic and the company was great as well.
This morning we woke at the crack of dawn in order to witness the daily procession of monks walking through the streets while townsfolk place balls of sticky rice (and other grub) into their begging bowls. Although these processions occur all over Laos, L.P's peaceful atmosphere and wat concentration make the ceremonies an especially interesting and romantic scene. Unfortunately, the result has been a high number of tourists who do not respect the wishes of the monks (no eye contact, no photos, maintain silence, participants kneel so as not to be higher than the monk setc) and the scene is uncomfortable for those who educated themselves in these rituals prior to participating.
This afternoon Deirdre and I left beautiful Laos for Chiang Mai, Thailand. What a difference a 1 hour flight can make! There is a 7-11 beside our hotel, I had a tall mild coffee from Starbucks, and we are attending a bare knuckle kickboxing match tonight. Welcome back to the "western" world!
Without a doubt, this will not be our last visit to Laos.
Enjoy the photos,
Off to the kickboxing match!
Take care,
CF
This whole trip looks like a huge waste of time. Why bother? bizzarf.
ReplyDeleteThe former barfness being my first comment, I stand by my younger self.
ReplyDeleteHa, no i don't. This looks like fun.
ReplyDeletei love love love the photo of you and D when her elephant submergerd (sp?) her.. the dude who was riding with her knew well enough to stand up so that he was not soaked! the trip of a lifetime for sure..
ReplyDeletewhich, as i said earlier, is good.. as D is NEVER allowed to take a month off ever again.
:)
Hey Kim,
ReplyDeleteThey told us that some of them like to "dive" but I didn't know my elephant would be the swimming champ! She did it 4 or 5 times. There were 8 of us just screaming and laughing the whole time. So much fun.
How many more days until your trip? 4 or 5? woo hoo!
Deirdre
Wow, those pics are stellar. I am sorry that I haven't commented this week. Work has been really busy but we have a three day weekend and Rory is going to love the elephant pics.
ReplyDeleteEveryone misses you but is so happy that you guys are having fun. Love Jules xoxoxo
I rode an elephant once at the Shrine Circus and I didn't have to fly half-way around the world to do it. Mind you..I had to take the Crosstown bus to the mall and then get a transfer..so, I suppose it's kind of the same.
ReplyDelete