So I am supposed to be in Vang Vieng right now. Vang Vieng is the party capital of SE Asia where thousands of college and gap year kids come to tube down the river and drink (and sometimes drug) themselves into oblivion. It’s about all there is to do in Vang Vieng. So that’s where I was headed. Ready to relax and hang out, drinking with the kids and playing on the river. I was in. I may be old, but I was ready to, at least for a day or two, let loose and have a good time. That was the plan anyway.

And thus, the question you may be asking yourself is - why am I not in Vang Vieng right now? So I was on the plane here to Laos with a dozen or so American college guys who were willing to do just about anything it took to get to Vang Vieng. I realized that I, on the other hand, was not. Connor, my Irish buddy, had just come in from Vang Vieng. It took him 13 hours on a bus. They got stuck in the flood waters three times. They hit a water buffalo. You read that correctly, their bus hit a water buffalo. No joke. Apparently it was a big deal…the farmer who owned it came running out and demanded that the bus driver pay him for it. Connor wasn’t to clear on the details, not speaking Lao and all, but eventually I guess they got it all straightened out. So yeah. Also, apparently the road itself is one step shy of un-drivable and the majority of the bus vomited at least once from motion sickness. And they were on the good bus. The bus behind theirs broke down and the 13 hours turned into 2 days. So although Vang Vieng beckoned to me (mostly because I had an already paid for guesthouse reservation), it was pretty easy for common sense to drown out her calls. So, I passed on Vang Vieng and the 13 to 48 hour bus ride from hell, and opted instead to spend a few extra lazy days in Luang Prabang eating, shopping, and heading out to the waterfalls for a swim when the mood struck me. I do not regret my decision in the least.

So instead of a vomit inducing, water buffalo hitting bus ride, today I went to Elephant Camp. Good decision. It. Was. Awesome. I got to spend all day riding, feeding, and swimming with an elephant named Chocolate. It’s called mahout training…they teach you to ride on the elephant’s neck and how to command them (of course the elephants speak Lao, not English). We had a group of five mahouts-in-training and we had a blast. Truth be told, it’s a bit unsettling at first. To climb atop this creature and trust it to listen to you and not go bolting off into the jungle. But once you get the hang of it….riding through the beautiful, untouched jungles of Laos on the neck of an elephant….too cool for words. We even got to wear these sweet denim jumpsuits and silly hats. Perfect. To end the day we rode our elephants out to the river for a swim and then back into the jungle where they sleep at night. We trekked back to camp wet, tired, and deliriously happy. One of my better days in this lifetime, for sure.