an effervescing elephant
Thursday, March 6th, 2008what 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.
[read on]
karen_shelver