#14 Luang Prabang: Elephantville / Elefantfalva (Laos / Laosz)

English version:

Next morning a van picked me up and we went to the Elephant Village. Whoop whoop! I booked the extended tour with these guys for 170 usd which allowed me to stay there for the night. I was part of a small group: Aaron Hanson from Brisbane and his girlfriend, Jennifer Edlund from Vancouver were my partners in crime. Lovely folks, I loved them a lot.

Our guide was Joy, the young father of 2 who was so cool, relaxed and very very helpful. He did everything for us to make our stay unforgettable. We started the fun with a mahout training which was about learning the voice commands of the elephants. So I used voice commands to control both the elephants and the gopro and the elephant sometimes got a little confused. She curiously waved her huge ears when I started or stopped the recording. Btw I screwed up the gopro transfer and lost all images and videos I took there. On this part, I will rely on Aaron and Jenny to send me theirs… Fortunately they took tons of vids there.

After the mahout training we did a short circle on our elephants within the village and learned how to balance on the neck of the elephants. This place – the elephant village – doesn’t use the howdah – the elephant seat – which is bad for the animal as it causes injuries on their back. Instead you do the cowboy way, and jump on the bare-neck of the elephant right behind their ears where our weight doesn’t cause them trouble. You grab her ear and jump up and while you are up, you hold her forehead. The skin is very thick and hairy 🙂 The face of my elephant reminded me of my French friend – Thibault – but I was not allowed to call her that way 🙂

The animals you can ride are females as males can be crazy. These elephants here are typically 30 – 57 years old and 2.5 – 3.3 tons. Elephants in captivity this way can live even 80-100 years. But the ones used at construction companies and other tough places die around at 40. These guys here really take care about their elephants.

Once we finished the practice circles, we went to see the baby elephants (a boy and a girl). They got a good bunch of watercress leaves which made them happy. They also showed particular interest towards the colour of Jenny’s water-shoes. Their big trunk tried to smell the shoes and sniffed and blowed the air like a hoover.

After our visit at the babies, we switched our elephants into 4 by 4 and rode them into the Mekong and went for a 30 mins ride in the river. Then after lunch we went in the jungle on them. the jungle was amazing with birdsongs and some interesting plants. For example in the jungle Joy showed us a black flower which is highly poisonous. Painful to touch and lethal to eat.

Following our jungle trip, we checked out the gorgeous Tad Sae waterfall where we splashed in the water to cool ourselves down.

We had an awesome dinner in the elephant village under a hut with Jenny and Aaron and then we walked to our wooden house.

The place was 5 minutes boat ride or 20 mins walk through the jungle from the elephant village in a lush wooden house with private rooms and huge balconies. Deep in the jungle with an incredible view to the Mekong. Opposite side of the river there was the place where the baby elephants spent their days. Night time they are with mum.

It took a good 20 mins to walk there through the jungle after dinner. We went there in pitch black under Joy’s leadership and using our torches. We saw 2 scorpions on the way Joy said he was bitten 5 months ago and it was a 24 hours constant pain. Farmers easily can be bitten when they open the corn and this little fucker is inside. So this is a perfect Secret Santa present for masochistic friends, colleagues or family members.

We had an amazing evening at our place. We followed the tradition of Tom Cox from Myanmar and mixed lager and dark beers together, then watched the unrealistically shiny stars on the sky and talked about a lot of things. It’s so cool when a girl from Canada, a guy from Australia and a guy from Hungary talk about their countries, languages and other interesting topics and we were very interested in each other’s views. Like most of my evenings in South East Asia, this was also a very memorable one. Thanks guys!

The next morning after breakfast we crossed the river to start the main attraction. We jumped on our vehicles and went to the Mekong to wash them while we are sitting on their necks. There are no words to describe the feeling when your elephant submerges into the Mekong and you are up there 🙂 We got some brushes to scratch their necks 🙂

This was one of the best things I have done in my life.

If you are in Luang Prabang, don’t miss out on this: http://www.elephantvillage-laos.com/

After the Elephant village I spent another nice day in Luang Prabang. I rented a bicycle and shot some nice photos and didn’t miss my favourite thing: the sunset.

“So far” facts – English version:

# of travel buddies: 8
# of travel buddies murdered: 0
best meal: Thai cashew chicken curry
best dessert: coconut rice
worst meal: some brown soup with cooked pork, blaaaaaa
# of flights: 1
# of trains: 5
# of taxies: 10
# of buses: 6
# of shared taxies: 3
# of motor-taxies: 2
# boats: 1
# of waterfalls: 6
# of snakes: 0
# of big spiders: 6
# polar bears: 0
# yetis: 0
# of dives: 0
# of sharks: 0
# of manta rays: 0
# of whale sharks: 0
# of dolphins: 0

Magyar verzio:

A kovetkezo reggel egy mikrobusz jott ertem es elindultunk az Elefantfaluba. Hurrraaa!!!

A hosszabb verziora fizettem be, amiben benne volt, hogy ott tolthettem az ejszakat is osszesen 170 dolcsiert. Egy kis csoport tagja voltam: a brisbane-i Aaron Hanson es vancouver-i baratnoje, Jennifer Edlund voltak a buntarsaim.

A turavezetonk es vendeglatonk pedig Joy volt a ketgyermekes fiatal apa, aki oriasi arc volt es minden tole telhetot megtett, hogy felejthetetlen elmenyeket szerezzunk. A mokat mahout traininggel kezdtuk, ami parancsszavak megtanulasabol allt. Igy mind a goprot, mind az elefantomat szavakkal iranyitottam, es az elefantom ez miatt neha kivancsian legyezgette orbitalis meretu fulvitorlait. Nem ertette, miert kerem meg hogy elkezdje a felvetelt. Itt jut eszembe, hogy sajnos elkurtam a gopro felveteleket, mikozben fajlokat masoltam ide-oda, igy Aaron-on es Jenny-n a vilag szeme, hogy hazaerkezesuk utan elkuldjek nekem az oveket… Szerencsere rengeteg kepet es videot lottek.

A mahout training utan mentunk egy gyors kort az elefantunkon es megtanultuk, hogyan iranyitsuk oket, es hogyan egyensulyozzunk fent a nyakukon. A luang prabangi Elefantfalu nem hasznal howdakat – elefantnyerget -, ami seruleseket okoz az elefantok gerinceben. E helyett cowboy modra felpattansz az elefant nyakara, kozvetlen a fule mogott, ami nem okoz problemakat a joszagnak. Megragadod gigaszi fule tetejet, fellepsz a terdere es felpattansz, majd a homlokaba kapaszkodsz vegig, ahol jo vastag a bor es oriasi szorok meredeznek elore.

Az en elefantom arcra nagyon hasonlitott a francia haveromra – Thibaultra – de sajnos nem hivhattam Thibaultnak 🙂

Az allatok itt az Elefantparkban nostenyek, mivel a himek konnyen megkattannak. Az itt elo elefantok, amiken elefantagolni lehet 30 – 57 evesek es 2,5 – 3 tonna sulyuak. Elefantok ilyen korulmenyek kozott, ahogy itt elnek elelnek akar 80 – 100 evig is. A szerencsetlenebbek, akik viszont maig epitoipari cegeknel dolgoznak, alig elnek 40-ig. Itt az Elefantfaluban nagyon jol tartjak ezeket a hatalmas boszme teremtmenyeket.

Ahogy befejeztuk a gyakorlokoroket, athajoztunk a folyon, hogy megnezzuk a baby elefantokat (egy fiut es egy lanyt). Kaptak egy jo adag watercress levelet tolunk agakkal es boldogan pozoltak a kameraknak. Jenny cipojenek szine nagyon tetszett nekik, nagy erdeklodessel szagolgattak ormanyukkal ami sziszegett es fujtatott mint egy porszivo.

A babyk latogatasa utan negykerekbe kapcsoltuk allatainkat es csigalassusaggal begazoltunk veluk a Mekonga, ahol fel orat poroszkaltunk veluk. Ezt kovetoen ebed kovetkezett a folyoparton, majd dzsungelturara indultunk elefanthaton. A dzsungel csodalatos volt rengeteg madarhanggal es kulonleges novennyel. Joy peldaul mutatott egy fekete viragu novenyt, ami allitolag erintesre fajdalmat, fogyasztasra halalt okoz.

A dzsungelturat kovetoen elmentunk a gyonyoru Tad Sae vizeseshez, ahol csobbantunk egyet, hogy lehutsuk magunkat a forrosag miatt.

A nap vegeztevel egy nagyon finom vacsorat fogyasztottunk el szinten a Mekong partjan, kis etkezosatrunkban, majd utnak indultunk a dzsungel melyen levo fahazunkba, ami 5 perc hajokazasra vagy 20 perc setara volt. A haz 4 lakosztalyt tartalmazott, hatalmas Mekongra nezo erkelyekkel, melyen a dzsungel sziveben. A folyo szembenlevo oldalan pedig a baby elefantok voltak nappal, ejszakat az anyjukkal es a nagyival toltottek.

20 perc seta volt tehat, hogy hazaerjunk vacsi utan. Sotetben, elemlampakkal mentunk vegig a dzsungelben kitaposott osvenyen. Joy sokat meselt utkozben es mutatott 2 alvo skorpiot is fak odvaiban. Ot 5 honapja megcsipte egy, amikor otthon dolgozott a foldeken. Foldmuveseket gyakran megcsipik ezek a rohadekok, amikor a kukoricarol bontjak le a leveleket. Nem halalos, de allitolag 24 oras folyamatos uvolto fajdalom. Mazohista baratainknak, kollegainknak vagy csaladtagoknak kivalo karacsonyi ajandek.

Amint hazaertunk a myanmari Tom Cox-ra megemlekezve, lager es barna sort ontottunk ossze, majd bamultuk a valoszinutlenul fenylo csillagokat az egbolton es kozben jokat beszelgettunk. Tok kiraly, amikor egy csaj Kanadabol, egy srac Ausztraliabol es egy Magyarorszagrol beszelget egymas orszagarol, szokasairol es nezeteirol. Ahogy a legtobb estem itt Del-Kelet Azsiaban, ez is egy nagyon kellemes emlek lesz. Kossz sracok!

A kovetkezo reggel, reggeli utan athajoztunk a folyon, hogy megkezdjuk a fo attrakciot. Felpattantunk ormanyos jarmuveinkre es begazoltunk a Mekongba, hogy a nyakukban ulve megfurdessuk oket. Megint csak nincsenek szavak, hogy leirjam az erzest, amikor az elefantod total lemeriti a fejet percekig a viz ala, mikozben te is ott ulsz rajta. Kaptunk egy-egy kefet, amivel jol megvakargattuk a nyakukat.

Az egyik legjobb dolog volt, amit eddigi eletemben csinaltam.

Az Elefantfalu utan meg egy kellemes napot toltottem Luang Prabangban. Bringat bereltem es lottem nehany szep fotot es termeszetesen nem hagytam ki a kedvencemet: a naplementet.