PAI PAI!!! (Go, Go).
Those are the famous words of a Mahout driver. Today we got up and suddenly it was my birthday.. wierd? I showered to the song of the beetles in my head "They say its your birthday.. daaadadd addda happy birthday". We went to the bakery and mixed it up a little got a cheese croissont and no fruit (the watermelon is going out of season and the last bowl we had wasn't that great... pineapple is still amazing though).
After that we went to the place where we were going to get picked up to be taken to elephant camp. WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cooler than band camp. It was a bumpy ride, and a full mini van full (literally the guides were sitting on wicker baskets and there was not any seats missing). It was about 30 minutes to the elephant base camp. When we got there we were taken to a bungalow to change into our mahout suites.. really classy... not! Anyways they were funny and we all looked ridiculous in them (there was us, a couple from the UK, and a couple from Holland) We had to wait about 15 minutes for the morning tour to finish riding the elephants and then we got our turn. I was really excited, and elephants are MASSIVE.. but i think there cute, and ours weren't that smelly. Although they do take VERY long pees and well you can think of what else big they do... they also fart loud. But still cute in a wierd way. Elephants are also very bristly and not soft, not that i thought they would be like i did a Panda. (tyson: just because you think everything should feel like a teddy bear, well now you know a panda, and an elephant aren't soft and cuddley)
From there on we went for an hour and a half jungle ride on the benchs while our driver drove us around. The jungle was hot, and there was really big spiders and they were gross. About 3/4 of the way into our walk the driver asked if we wanted to switch and of course i said yes. It was cool and i wasn't afraid at all. The elephant was pretty easy going but i didn't enjoy when the guide would attempt or did smack her with a branch when she misbehaved (misbehaved being she wanted to eat the branches off the trees.. i was ok with that) When Tyson got to drive the guide was going to smack the elephant again but i grabbed the stick from him and said no... he just lauged and put it down. But i really hope they are nice to them. Who really knows... I gave the elephant who's name was (Bouy yang) a head massage for the most part.
After our walk we fed our elephant some bananas and then we ourselves had lunch. After lunch we got our elephant training course. Basically a list of 10 commands to drive an elephant. Go, move right, move left, stop, no!, lay down, get up, turn around, take this, spray water. We practiced on eachother quizzing eachother but really when it was time to drive our elephants ourselves (with the guide in the back) we forgot everything but PAI!!! PAI!!! go, go. (tyson: you could also tell the elephant to go left or right by using your feet behind the ear opposite to the direction you wanted it to turn, that's how I turned my elephant) I also did that too but in a gentle way. Anyways we drove our elephants for about 20 minutes. Then came back and had much waiting time which was the only bad part. We basically walked through a village that took 4 minutes and then took a boat to the other side where the lodges were and sat there for about 1.5 hours at least. We eventually fell asleep and then it was time to finally bath our elephants.
I had a hard time getting on my elephant when it was lying down, but eventually made it. The bathing was a little bit disappointing we didn't get to scrub them, just splash water all over them and get them to splash other people for a bit, but then we went for another ride to the jungle to put the elephants to bed. I think i could use an elephant i think i would be a good Mahout! (tyson: i don't know if it was just because the river was really high that we didn't get off and scrub, or what. The walk through the jungle was really cool, as we walked along a stream with the water up to the elephant's neck. It was really pretty, but I didn't have my camera.)
Once we took the elephant to rest we got changed and waited about 15 minutes for the bus to take us back to town. Overall it was a good day. An experience I won't forget especially on your birthday, not many people can say they rode an elephant on thier birthday (and Franko this isn't a lie... I really did ride an elephant unlike you getting bitten by a shark).
When we got into town we were hungrier than hippos.. haha i am so funny, but really hungry. We went back to the guesthouse to change into our evening wear (basically misquitoe wear) and had to grab the malaria pills. We went for pizza again (I know I know im in Laos eating pizza but its my birthday and i like pizza so leave me alone! we had spring rolls too!!!) (Tyson: good thing everyday isn't her birthday, jk....) We then went searching for cake. We found dessert pastries instead in a quite bakery and it was good, we had a debate rather travelling was good or bad for a country.. wasn't really a debate but a discussion. Sometimes we feel bad for trying to experience a culture and record it in our memories and our film... maybe we feel this way because it is sooo touristy here, compared to our last wild adventure. At the same time it is still easy and relaxing and so its a toss up.
Anyways that was the day in a nut shell. Pretty fun all and all. Tomorrow not sure what the agenda is, maybe a slow boat up the mekong for the day, or just kick it around here and see some more wats. We only have 3 days left in Laos before heading back to Bangkok before flying home. It feels really strange not thinking this is for 4 months but only three weeks.
Talk to you later!
Sara and Tyson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Are you going to bring a baby elephant home to live under your bed? Did they spray you with their trunks when you had the bath? I know what you mean about the touristy thing, you feel bad in a way but also remember that tourists for the most part help the economies of poorer countries. But going from last summer's trip to this summer was a lot more touristy for me as well, but that is to be expected.
Hey, did you know that Britta climbed to Everest base camp? She said it took 21 days with just her and a guide! So cool, we have to do that some day!
Post a Comment