Luang Prabang, Laos : 10&11 Dec 10

I am back from the two days as a trainee Mahout. Was an amazing 2 days and got heaps of time with the elephants. Don't think I make a very good Mahout though!

As soon as we got to the elephant camp we had a trek on an elephant sitting in the basket. The mahout got me to sit on the head of the elephant straight away and he walked behind... talk about being thrown in the deep end !!! Carlos from Portugal was in the basket with me and he preferred to stay in the basket so I had nearly an hour as the newby mahout. I was terrified at first ... felt like I was going to slide off especially when we went down the steep bits but slowly got my confidence. My elephant had the lazies and took alot of encouragement to go forward and lots of yelling of "Bai" which is elephant Lao talk for "Go" but she didn't want to go! I was really worried that my elephant was in pain with my fat butt and beer belly on her head but my guide, Tongcheng, said that the elephants are all very happy and well fed and cared for really well by the mahouts ... this is so true too ... over the 2 days you could tell the Mahouts have a very special bond with their elephants ... was very sweet!

At the elephant camp there is an 8 year old male elephant ... he's the youngest and very small ... there are 2 other males and 8 females... all the females are 40 years old or older so felt in good company :))

After the trek I checked into my cabin at the Elephant Lodge. Had this gorgeous timber cabin with a big deck overlooking the river all to myself and on the bed was a very sexy blue denim Mahout outfit to wear!! At lunch we learnt the Mahout commands ... go, left, right, stop etc.

Then after lunch we got our very own elephant to ride as the trainee mahouts. We went on another trek through the jungle for about an hour and half ... the Mahout walked behind and the elephant kept looking back to make sure he was there .. it was really cute. Don't think she was listening much to my commands. At the end of the trek we all ended up in the River for a bath. This was the highlight except the elephant wouldn't Boun-Boun... squirt me with water :(

At dinner met two Aussie girls, Rachel and Anastasia ... in their sexy denim Mahout outfits they looked like two little Oompaloompas :))

Day 2 we all got up early to take the elephants for another bath. They ran out of elephants so Anastasia and I shared an elephant with a mahout. Poor Anastasia was thrown in the deep end like me yesterday and I felt like the old hand. The Mahout made the elephant just about run down the hill to the river. We were screaming !! It was pretty funny. When we got to the water I got my own elephant ... she wouldn't Boun-Boun AGAIN!!! but she would go completely under the water and then would stand up really quickly over and over ... this was more fun I think than Boun-Boun.

So I said goodbye to the elephants :(( was a fantastic experience and it was so good to see the elephants so well cared for and happy.

After brekky my guide and I got taken to a spot further up the river and we kayaked five minutes to the Tad Sae Waterfall. Beautiful tiered waterfall with lots of swimming holes... the water is blue-green from the limestone I think. We had lunch and then kayaked 2 hours back to the elephant lodge. It's a beautiful river and a busy river ... people harvesting seaweed, fishing, swimming, etc. It was really interesting. The seaweed that they harvest (and there's lots of it) they press flat onto bamboo drying racks and press chilli, garlic, onion and sesame seeds into and dry it in the sun and then deep fry it in oil and it's like a beer snack. We tried some at dinner the night before ... very yum but very oily!

Back at Luang Prabang ... heading off for a 3 day trek tomorrow.