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!

Let the partying begin…

After we had left the baby and mama elephant, we popped back to the centre to pick up some beer and then it was out on the lake for a sunset cruise.

The centre from the lake…

We had a German couple in our group, the husband was really funny, a complete joker, plus Juliette, the French girl and us. Then we had a guy driving the boat, our party animal guide Ken and another chap plus a couple of girls who appeared from I don't know where. At least the beer was cold…

When we picked up the girls, they bought with them some food, I am not entirely sure what it was, the angry birds stuff looked like kamaboko (a type of Japanese fish cake), I gave that a miss but the meaty stuff was good.

Ken gave us lessons on how to dance Lao style, which was quite amusing!

And Ebi-kun ended up driving the boat…

It was a fun way to finish a fun day, once the sun went down we headed back for dinner and a good nights sleep for our final day…

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...

Christmas day Adventuring In Laos…

We decided to take a river cruise in the afternoon of Christmas Day, different that our usually slump in front of Muppet Christmas Carol full of turkey and Christmas Pud! So we headed off down to the pier and ended up charting our own boat! 

We hadn't had lunch so I thought we would just grab a quick sandwich, I forgot that nothing is done quickly here, so we ended up with chicken burger and chips - freshly made, not from a fast food joint…

And of course a beer!

The Mekong wasn't as high as it is in the summer since it was the dry season, it is still a mighty river and I am not a fan of water, the boat had holes in it and I wish we had life jackets. We didn't need them which was a good thing!

Ebi-kun had fun waving at the local kids, you can see how high the river gets in this picture, there was quite a lot of farming going on along the river banks, I assume they get swallowed up during the rainy season.

Our first stop was at a small village…

The main street on a whole was quite poor but there were a couple of homes that obviously had money. These were fishing nets out to dry.

The village is famous for it's silk scarves and LaoLao whiskey. I think most people visit in the morning so many of the stalls had shut up shop, this lady was happy to demonstrate the weaving. The scarves at the front are raw silk and nicely made, but obviously handmade. She takes 3 days to make the plain ones and the more colourful ones take a week. The ones on the table behind were cotton and obviously made by machine. I did buy a couple of scarves, I only wanted one but ended up with three - bloody good sales woman!

Surprisingly, in the poor and dusty tiny village was a fabulous way, spotlessly clean and stunning… 

Then it was back on our private boat and back up the river to the Pak Ou caves, it takes about 2 hours going up (against the flow of the river) and about an hour coming back. There were a few other boats, one was a big tour which meant it was quite crowded inside, and we had to climb over a boat or two to actually get to dry land. Health and Safety has not yet reached these parts!

The caves are home to hundreds of Buddha's, to be honest, the caves by themselves are not that exciting but worth going on the boat trip, it was lovely to just kick back and watch the scenery go by. This is from the lower cave which actually flooded in the 1960's which is quite hard to believe because it was quite high off the river.

Then if you climb another 300 odd steps there is another cave which is really dark inside, we had torches which was handy, if you don't you can borrow from the ticket lady at the entrance of the cave.

Once the caves had been explored we hopped back on the boat and headed back to town. We decide for Christmas dinner we would go to the restaurant over the other side of the river, it has great reviews and meant going over the bamboo bridge - which was a little hairy in the daylight and very hairy after beer and in the dark!

The restaurant, Dyen Sabai was lovely. There were a collection of tables set out with cushion seating, some in little nooks and other over looked the river. Be decided to try the Laos fondue so we had to sit at a specific table.

Cheers!

Our starter… from the left, eggplant dip, crunchy chicken, spicy (make you cry type of spicy) water buffalo dip, local sausage and riverweed. In the pot is sticky rice. It was all delicious except the spicy dip, which was just too much for me!

We had absolutely no idea what Lao fondu was, it turned out to be a combination of yaki-niku (BBQ meat) and shabu-shabu. It is cooked at the table in this special dish. There is stock in the moat and then you beat in a couple of eggs. Then chuck in all the veg, plenty of it there was. Then you use fat to grease the top of the pan and cook the meat on that!

I'm not sure why the boys look so serious on the picture, it was a really good night and we were full to busting!

Which was a bit of a shame because we got back to the hotel to find that they were having a party and all the guests we asked to join. I managed a few sips of wine then we used Ebi-kun as an excuse to go to bed early!

So that was Christmas day, tomorrow we head off on the next part of the adventure…

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