Day 2 and I promptly signed up for 3 days adventure in the provinces. I did a mad dash after brekkie to pick up a cheap (10$) and nasty (bull-attracting red with plenty of tacky sparkles) jumper to protect me from the unexpected Laos winter. At the tour office I met my guide Tickie, the same guy I’d caught downloading porn the day before – it was quite funny to watch his embarrassment. But he turned out to be a great guy and we set off on bicycles through town, over the old bridge and into the countryside. Laotian country if hillier than Cambodia, but the most striking difference is how everyone is hidden away in doors – there are very few people or vendors on the roads. We rode for about an hour, joking and hearing about his wealthy Western sponsors – he is remarkably well traveled for a 20 year Laotian boy, only out of the monastery one year.
We arrived at the elephant camp and I went off with the same girls I’d been meeting all over town all weekend. We traveled by road and boat to the Pak Ou caves and were bombarded by tiny children waving miniature bamboo bird cages in our faces, but most of the little sparrows looked, at best incredibly sick and injured, most were probably dead. I wondered which tourists bought these to make them think it was what we wanted!
Back at camp it was time for my Mahout training so I climbed onto the seat of my elephant named Star in Lao with my trainer, Song. After we had entered the jungle we swapped seats and I sat on the elephants neck and learnt the Lao commands, Pai (go), Hau (stop) and the leg kicks that steered her. Star appeared a little fed up from her repeated walks and baths that day so decided she’d rather eat half the jungle instead of listen to my instructions!
Back at camp, I rode solo down to the banks of the Mekong for bath time. The elephant submerged completely and held its breath ridiculously long, soaking me up to my waist! That was fine until elephant poo floated past me!
That evening I walked with Tickie the km or so to the Whisky village. We watched a game of kick ball by the super athletic teen boys, saw the whisky fermenting in the earthenware pots then joined the monks for their nightly chants in the pagoda.
We shared a delicious sticky rice meal with a local family, with mum getting quite liberal with the Lao Lao shots! After dinner we walked back to camp to drink beer around the camp fire while I scared Tickie with ghost stories under the full moon. We slept on the open platform on the bank of the Mekong to the sounds of the jungle and the bright moon lighting the countryside around – magical!
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