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hello everyone from luang prabang! we finally managed to drag ourselves away from vang vieng althoug not before going tubing again!! we also visited a beautiful cave with natural spring to swim in, great for clearing the head after too much beer lao and laos whiskey buckets!!
we have said goodbye to all the aussies now although we may be meeting back up with doyle in pattaya, it depends when we arrive though. We have also said goodbye to all the other friends we made out of the big group that got together in vang vieng although again in drips we have met back up with people here in luang prabang.
ok so we arrived her in luang prabang on 8th june and had a pretty lazy day walking around getting our bearings, it is very french here, so i liked it for all the numerous bakeries!! ha ha! we met back up with guy and sarah from vang vieng and visited the Kuang Si waterfall together the following day. It is exceptionally hot here despite supposedly being the rainy season and we havent seen much rain so a visit to the waterfall was much deserved.
We also met up with torie and julie from vang vieng and visited alocal nightclub that night which was an experience in itself!... for those who have ever watched tasheiki's castle...it was as if all the contastants had been let lose in the nightclub! absolute crazy!!
Sarah and guy have now moved onto the gibbon experience, so there was only us, torie, and julie left, so we decided to go on a mahout experience, to say i was excited was an understatement!! A Mahout is an elephant carer, and they do not marry as they give there lives to looking after their elephant. So we decided to do the 2 day, 1 night trip on 11th - 12th june. When we arrived we dumped our stuff at our bungalow then went to meet the elephants, we then went on an hour and a half ride on them through the jungle. Our elephant was called sen chang and she was 30 years old. Torie and julie were on the male who was huge and 39 yrs old (can't remember his name) after the ride we had lunch then went to the nam khan river for more tubing and swimming. It was quite surreal really, as i was tubing there was waterbuffalow swimming across the river and then Si got talking to a local fisherman and was helping casking his net!
When we got back to the Elephant camp we changed into our extremely attractive mahout suits and our guide Lou taught us the commands to control the elephant ie lao for stop, go, reverse, sit down left, right etc we then got on an elephant each but had to sit on their heads, where the mahout normally sits, with your feet dangling behind their ear! The Mahout then sat further back incase you needed help controlling the elephant. We then set off to take the elephants through the jungle to where they were to stay the night. It was quite a slow process, as my elephant refused to do a thing I or the mahout asked it to do plus i managed to somehow get the mahout with wandering hands! typical!!
Ayway we had a great time trying to get the elephants through the jungle, it was particularly hairy when the elephant would have to climb down a hill and you thought you were going to fall off over its head!! the guide had our cameras and took loads of photos. We then lef tthe elephant sin the jungle where they sleep and then trekked back to camp. It was a pretty quiet night as we had to get up at 6am to go and collect the elephants again.
We didnt really sleep that night as we were sleeping on matresses in the bungalow with a mosquito net around us for protection from the millions of crawly bugs that inhabit the jungle, plus we had spotted a huge spider in one corner. That night i visited the loo and on the way back the spider had migrated to the corner of the mozzy net right by where i was to get back into bed, i nearly died!!
Anyway 6am came around pretty quickly and we were off through the jungle in our mahout suits again to collect the elephants to take they to get washed. There were only 3 elephants though as the elephant i had had broken the tree it was attached to in the night and had escaped....so the mahout with the wandering hands was out in the jungle looking for it. Si was going to change elephants with me as i didnt like my mahout but as the the elephant and mahout were missing i said for him to get on his elephant and i would help wash his elephant in the river... next thing my elephant and mahout turned back up!! So i had to get back on...nightmare, every time Si turned round the mahout was on his best behaviour...anyway we took the elephants back to the river and washed them, they are such lovely creatures all with their own characters. After bathing time we took them back to camp and we went bamboo rafting and tubing again doen the nam khan river.
We got back yesterdya from the experience and i took straight to bed as hadn't been feeling well, we have both had earahces and i now had a sore throat, although i think it may be from all the river water we have been swimming in lately!
Torie, Julie and I got up early today to go and see the alm giving at 5.30am. This is where local men and woman line the roads to give the monks food for the day. The monks pass by single file and the food that is put in their alms by the locals is the food that they have for the day. If no one turns out they will not have anything to eat that day.... si chose to stay in bed!
It has been great here, we have really enjoyed it, Laos has definitely been our favourite country so far, it is also so cheap 2.50 pounds for a lovely room, hot shower, tv and a/c and 50p for a beer! you can't really complain can you? we have mainly shopped today getting a few of you lucky ones pressies to leave at mum and dads for them to bring abck to the uk in august. We leave luang prabang to morrow and are heading to the capital Vientiane for one day and one night before heading back to Bangkok. We are unsure if we are spending a night there or going straight back to Pattaya...not sure watch ths space...
love to you all, miss you so much Michelle and Simon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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