Hilltribes and a very long hike

So, you remember at the start of this adventure, Ebi-kun got sick and we ended up having to change our schedule around. Well, we had booked a day hiking with Tiger Tours, we managed to swap the dates but because we were flying out in the afternoon we could only do half of the original day. When we were at the office we decided to do the first part of the plan but backwards, So we would start at the Hillside resort, walk down to a hill tribe village and from the onto the waterfalls, a different set that the first ones we had been to.

We would then be picked up and dropped off in town where we would have time to grab some lunch before heading to the airport. That was the plan…

The guide met us at the hotel and said that the tuktuk would take us to the village and he would keep our luggage and meet us at the waterfalls, sounded like the plan. The ride to the village was much longer than I expected but you know, I don't know there area, but warning bells should have gone off then…

To walk through the village you have to hire one of the villagers and pay a fee, this has been set up to feed money back into the village and stop it from becoming a tourist/begging situation. There are actually two tribes here, living together but keeping their own traditions. It amused me that they live in very basic buildings but then there were enormous satellite dishes between the houses, gotta have TV!

It looked like many things are still done the old way but these days the kids are encouraged to go to school and many of the young people move to the city to look for better paid work.

Drying chili's and tobacco..

The girls seemed to be quite shy, unlike this little rabble of cuties who came up to say hello and goodbye, it reminded me very much of Ecuador.

The local equivalent to the 7/11….

Ebi-kun was amused at the goats wandering down the street and the chickens and cockerels wandering just about everywhere.

After we had walked through the village we made our was through an orchard and heading off to the waterfalls, it was still cloudy and dull as we set off…

As we walked the guide told us about the local plants and their uses. At one point he asked what time our flight was, when I said 2pm I could see a look of panic cross his face. We had already been walking for about an hour and according to the original schedule this section should have been an hour or so walk, I figured a little longer because we had Ebi-kun with us… warning bells start to ring… 

Turns out that the guide hadn't been told the full plan and he was taking us on what should have be the second part of the tour, we were still a couple of hour walk away from the waterfalls (not the ones we thought we were going to but Kuang Si, which is where we went the first day and they are an hours drive from town!) 

Now it was my turn to panic, the guide said it was doable but we would have to walk faster….

Ebi-kun was an absolute trooper, he kept up with the guide the whole time and managed to carry his bag until the last little bit. Some stages we walked through the forest, up and down rough paths then every now and then it would open out into a hidden valley, beautiful…

We made it to the waterfall and the guide phoned ahead and had some lunch delivered for us, so we scoffed that, at least we had seen these falls before or I would have been gutted…

We then had a bit of a kerfuffle with the tuktuk driver because we asked him to take us straight to the airport but he wanted paying extra. I stuck to my guns and told them that we had already paid for a full days tour and only did half a day and they had managed to screw that up. I won! They took us to the airport and we made it in time for the flight. *phew*

Farewell Laos, despite the things that didn't go to plan we all loved you! And now it is on to Cambodia…

Getting lost and getting wet in Laos

So after a daily lazy morning we decided to go on to do a bit of adventuring. Sam, the guy who seemed to be running the place gave us directions...go up behind your bungalow, past the solar water heater tanks, through the bamboo gate. Follow the path through the forest, turn right until you get to the rest spot.... the there was something about a stile and a place with a red roof, to be honest, I am not good at following verbal directions at the best of times and of course there was no map...

We made it through the bamboo forest...

And found the rest stop, the views were amazing, looking over the Mekong valley... One of the cool things was that there are no scary creepy crawlies or dangerous animals round, so wandering off by yourself is fairly safe...

Then we followed the path...

And totally didn't find a stile or a building with a red roof, we did find one with green walls though. We wandered around for a bit, we weren't completely lost since we could have easily traced our steps back to the resort, instead we carried on until we found a road which came out near one of the villages - hurrah!

We managed to wander back to the hotel without a search party being sent out for us. By this time it was late afternoon and it had warmed up a bit so Ebi-kun decided he wanted to go swimming in the pool, but first a bit of yoga...

Yasutoki went in the pool with him, a braver man than I, the water was cold! But looking at the place you can't blame Ebi-kun for wanting to go in..

They did have the place to themselves but they didn't last long...

And as they shivered in the pool, I sat back and enjoyed a rather strong gin and tonic! Cheers!

The next day was our last in Laos before we headed off to Cambodia...new adventures in a new land.

A Hillside Retreat in Laos

I think the tummy troubles have run their course so back to Laos we go…

When we arrived at Hillside Resort is was already dark and we hadn't got much of an idea of what the place was like. We settled into our room, had a shower then went for some dinner, turned out to be a bit of a comedy affair with them running out of half the things we asked for but it was good and I was too tired to care!

The next morning we just kicked back and relaxed, we didn't have any plans for the day so we started with catching up with our journals, we had been far too busy with the elephants to do it when we were at ECC!

The resort is up in the hills and was rather chilly to say the least! A few games of ping pong helped! There was also volleyball and boules and in the restaurant they had a selection of games so there was no the to get bored.

The lazy morning ended with a lazy lunch. Ebi-kun is now missing the fruit smoothies, I think he tried everyone available, and I have to say, I am rather partial to BeerLao.

The resort is nestled in the hills, the bungalows are set in a lush garden, if it had been a bit warmer it would have been perfect.

After lunch adventures involved getting lost and getting wet… stay tuned…

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Doesn't time fly?

It certainly did at ECC. We had a program set up for the morning, it was very grey and mystical when we got up for breakfast…

First we headed up to the breeding area, it is an enclosed space that they use for, ermmm, yes, breeding!  But it is also where the baby wild elephant gets to hang out with his step mom. This is the rather rickety looking observation tower…

Mom and baby seemed very happy together, you often hear stories of elephants creating amazing bonds, you could see it happening with these two.

After observing mama and baby for a while we headed bad to the village. We took a tour of the hospital and they explained about all the work that the vets do. We also went to the museum and Ken talked us through the various areas there, it was very interesting and the museum is open all the time so you can just swing by when you have free time to read or check things out.

 

Then it was time for our final lesson. Yasutoki isn't really trying to ride backwards! He was trying out one of the three was to get on an elephant!



And he's off…

And I am so cool, I have ride single handedly!

Ebi-kun's last ride on 'his' elephant, she will be sorely missed.

Time for a family sot, except we were next to Mae Kham Ohn, who is the one who doesn't like kids so the mahout was trying to keep a distance from her and us!

Ebi-kun was sad to say goodbye to these kids, they were in a different group but we saw them at meal times and down time. They got on really well, idolized Ebi-kun and followed him everywhere, it was really cute. 

Kids playing boules as we waited for the final lunch. The little blond boy is 3 years old and in true three year old style, when he wasn't winning,  he was pouting and demanding it "wasn't fair" in such an over dramatic way, he had us all in stitches.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and got picked up by the boat, then a tuktuk back to the station and finally the extremely dusty bus back to Luang Prabang. We were filthy by the time we got there, The dust was on the inside and outside of my glasses, I couldn't see through them!

We then took another tuktuk, for about 30 minutes up to the hills of Luang Prabang to stay….

Find out tomorrow!

What is cuter than elephants taking a bath?

Baby elephants of course! There are two babies at ECC, the first is know as wild baby, he was born in the wild but his mother died, possibly shot, but our guide wasn't totally sure what had happened to her. So, baby ended up at the sanctuary, it isn't all sad though. One of the female elephants lost her baby, (well that bit is sad too) so she has become the step mom to wild baby, which is a happy ending after all.

Wild baby is about 10 months old and still needs to be fed milk, 4L at a time...

He also gets cooked rice, and like any baby starting to feed themselves, it is a messy affair with food been thrown everywhere!

But how can you get angry, just look at that little face! He also has a toy to take to bed with him, apparently he totally trashes the toy within a couple of weeks and they have to get him a new one. He spends most of his time in a paddock next to the hospital, so that the vets can keep an eye on him. Plus each day he is taken up to the breeding paddock (it is a secure area) to meet his step mom and they get to hang out.

In Laos, elephants don't get given a name until they are 3. First a shaman visits them to bless their 32 souls and then they are able to start their month long training. Once the training is done the shaman visits again. He write names onto pieces of sugar cane and then the elephant picks on, which ever he picks will be his name!

After we had visited wild baby we went to the nursery by boat to see the other baby and his mom. Mom is very protective so we had to stay in the boat, only the mahout goes near them.

Because they live in the forest and other people go through the forest to gather fruits or work, mama elephant wears a big bell around her neck, this is to warn everyone that it is a mama elephant and her baby. Anyone who hears the bell knows to leave the area immediately. 

They both adore sugar cane so we got to feed them...baby couldn't get enough and so tried to get on the boat! Mama would take a piece, tuck it in her trunk and then take some more, it is quite amazing to watch them close up.

Love this picture of baby and Eb-kun, they both look so happy!

Of course, it all ended up in the bath! Baby doesn't seem to be too keen to go in, it is their winter so he feels cold, the mahout used some sugar cane as a bribe to get baby in... just like human kids really!

So, what did we do after overloading on baby elephants? Let's just say it had something to do with Angry Birds...

The Elephant Conservation Centre, Laos - to the forest

Day two at ECC. I woke up early needing the loo, of course the bungalows are not en suite, so I had to pop down the path, the lake looked kinda eerie first thing…

Breakfast was at 7am, a choice of scrambled, fried eggs or omlette, toast baguette and a big fruit platter - I was seriously loving all the fresh fruit! After breakfast we met Ken and then it was off to the forest to fetch the elephants. We walked up and down for about 30 minutes to find their sleeping place, obviously elephants eat quite a lot so they get moved around each night.

They have to chain the elephants up so that they don't disappear off, never to be seen again, but the chain is 30m long and the elephants are smart enough not to get all tangled up. They were all impressing us, showing how they haul the chain back in using their trunk. Seeing an elephant out in the forest was amazing. 

There were 5 adults in our group and Ebi-kun, so he got to ride back and we had to walk! This time he was with the mahout which was just as well, the terrain was a little bit hairy!

Watching him go up this hill was scary, it was really steep and slippy clay, didn't seem to both the elephants though, nearly gave me heart failure trying to keep up! Ebi-kun said that going up hill was OK but going downhill was scary, I can relate to that, it is the same on a horse, although a horse isn't quite as far to fall.

It was back to the village for our mahout lesson.

Mahout class: This is where we learnt about the 3 different ways to get on an elephant (I would like to add that I had my own free-style technique that I doubt they will be teaching in mahout school anytime soon). We had to study the basic commands and then get on and try them out.

"Toy, Toy" (back, back)

"Pai, Pai" (forward)

"Haow" (Stop)

We all took turns practicing our new found skills and then it was bath time again for the elephants and lunch for us. One of the great things at ECC is that they put the elephants first, they need to eat for 12-15 hours a day and so shouldn't work for more than 6 hours. Unfortunately, elephants used for logging often end up working 10 hours or more, which is just not healthy. The elephants at ECC have an easy life now, no heavy work and plenty of rest and eating! 

What did we do after lunch, you will squeal with cuteness when you find out…