an effervescing elephant
what does one do when one has seen all the deep fried pig heads and feet and frogs to eat in the night market and sampled the lao lao rice whiskey and gazed in amazement at the hand woven silk handicrafts? one goes elephant riding, that’s what one does. so that’s what i did.
i ran through all the regular touristy stuff here in luang prabang, including shopping and haggling and wat viewing and taking in a cultural performance of native song, dance and drama. only thing left, it seems, was to go for the elephant ride. so, i chose an outfit called XL (in association with Tiger Trail) that does sustainable tourism and guarantees that at least 25% of the cost to take tour s goes back into the community supporting the tour, such as the hill tribe villages you visit and/or the elephant care center where they provide the rides and mahout (elephant guides/trainers) training courses.
so i went on an elephant ride. admittedly, i was slightly nervous about the height involved with getting up on old ban (ban is a 38 year old male who’s expected to live to about 70 years old), but my guide and main mahout man made sure i was a-ok. he even held on to my knees on the down-hill parts! and he had a lovely singing voice, too. he really had a good command of ban and never once used excessive force to steer ban in the direction we needed to go.
the ride took an hour and was very slow going but the scenery was gorgeous, all jungly as you’d expect. we took a long drink in the river (we being ban), oddly in the exact same spot he’d just peed in – elephants are smart but not THAT smart.
after the ride, my guide ken (the tour guide, not the mahout) took me to a dry waterfall (that has water in it cascading down three tiers in october/november, wet season) and crazy cave WAAAAAAY up in the mountain above the falls. my knees are suffering from the uphill hike today. those who know me well know that (a) i have had bad knees for years and (b) i am terrified of heights. both of these obstacles were overcome for the sake of a nice view and a ride high high high up on an elephant. i’m quite proud of myself for it, actually!
there’s a whole bunch more i can say about luang prabang and so here goes: the architecture is really cool, the flora and fauna all lovely, but what really makes this place the unique and wonderful place it is (it is NOT all the german & french tourists, i tell you what) has got to be the locals. there is no “gimme your money, falang” attitude amongst the locals. everyone seems to be pretty content to go about their business, not bug/harass/annoy foreigners, and basically enjoy life in these fabulous surroundings. perhaps it’s because they know what they’ve got and appreciate it. perhaps it’s because they’re buddhist. perhaps it’s because they dine on pig heads and feet on a regular basis and that makes them a bit goofy. whatever it is, i wholeheartedly approve. the only negative here is that now it’s the low season and the field hands are slashing and burning their fields nearby which is creating a brownish haze over the valley. it makes my eyes sting and i feel like i’ve got an ongoing chest cold.
did i mention that my room costs all of $12 a night and i have the luxury of a queen sized bed, hot water (sometimes scalding hot), fan, 6 windows AND french doors leading out to my own private balcony that overlooks the mighty murky mekong river? no, i didn’t? yeah, i have that. the guesthouse is a 2 1/2 story affair made of teak and concrete. you have to leave your shoes at the front door cuz all the floors are polished to perfection, as are the floors in most of these restored old buildings (most of which date back to the 1930s and 1940s – i know this because the dates are carved into the fronts of some of the buildings, not because i’m clever and particularly knowledgeable about french colonial/lao architecture).
besides all that great stuff, the real reason i’ve stuck around here is that sunsets from my balcony are sublime. they’re even more so with the inclusion of a Beer Lao or several in the mix. there is no tv, no phone, no air con (i am not a fan of air con unless it’s really effin hot, i mean like 90+ degrees)…just the odd van morrison or similar oldies cover song wafting up from the restaurant across the street. it’s a rough life, i tell ya.
in a nutshell, i have enjoyed each southeast asian place i visited so far. each has had something or other that’s interested me (the exception being parts of bangkok mostly because of the smoggy air & rip-off tuk tuk dudes) quite a bit. vientiane has a bustling riverfront scene and hot young euro-trash tourists (israelis included); vang vieng has happy tea and pretty views (and lame reruns of “friends” in every restaurant playing for the baked loungers who seem to lie there for hours at a time. how boring!); luang prabang has wats galore – including my favorite (say it out loud and you’ll see why) Wat That; nong khai in northern thailand had too many bugs for my taste even though i slathered on the deet day and night, but does have gorgeous river views and cheap lodging and food. nice folks there, too, even the tourists. AND, it’s just a hop skip & jump from the Friendship Bridge to laos, so there’s that as well. am bagging chiang mai and chiang rai, i think, in favor of more time in cambodia, vietnam and some downtime at the beach in southern thailand before tackling malaysia and it’s muslim ways and indonesia.
next up: gonna wing it on down to bangkok on saturday to hit the post office for a pick up, then mosey on over to siem reap to lay witness to the best preserved temple structure on earth, angkor wat. stay with me people, i’m just getting started here…
ex oh,
gossipgirl (sydney, that last one’s for you)
ps: i have finally found a good book to read that isn’t a guidebook. gotten really tired of guidebooks, though i’m still lugging around 1/2 dozen of them in my pack. anyways, it’s a memoir of a lady who survived the holocaust called “other people’s houses”. the title stems from her childhood as a refugee living in various foster homes in england while her hometown of vienna gets sacked by the nazis. it’s a fast read but i’m enjoying it & will likely give it back to the book trader here when i’m finished with it.
Tags: Laos
karen_shelver
Hey, K!
I finally had a chance to ketchup on your stories! looooved reading them. ooooh, the DEET. it would freak me out, too. i always thought i would poison myself, somehow.
anywho, keep the stories coming – enjoying them so much!
What a great journal you’ve got going. Thanks for the detail. It makes us all feel like we’re there.
Glad you’ve shed the “plague”.