AT

16/10/11

I'm awake with the sunrise, much to my annoyance. My head cold is getting better but still making sleep a pain and during the night I worked out that the windows, which have bars on, do not have any glass in just mesh. Sometimes being a light sleeper is a real pain in the backside!

We set out to explore around 9 and already the sun was out and the temperature was rising fast, by midday the humidity would be at it's highest too so now was a good time to do any walking around. We grabbed our smoothies and headed for the highest point in town which is mount phousi and the temple which sits on top. It's only 300 steps to the summit, but since everything else sits just above river level it gives a fantastic 360 degree view of the town and the surrounding areas. Of course climbing up to the temple incurs a fee of 20,000 kip per person but if you follow the trail around the back of the temple and down the other side some of the stone Buddha's, all painted gold are fantastic to look at and there is even a cave to look in which has an alter inside. Again a lot of the tourist missed this as they just walked to the top and back down again, but I work off the philosophy of keeping going until I get shouted at and so far that's only happened on the kayaking.

From the temple we walked a loop around the end of the town and back along the Mekong riverside to the centre. Luang Prabang is built on a little finger of land between the mighty Mekong and the Nam Khan rivers so this has made it easy to defend and another reason the French decided to build a fortress here when they took ownership in the early 1900's

By 11am the temperature had soared so we decided to stop for drinks and food and looking through the menu we both went for the pancakes and syrup, well, why not!

After a rest we walked down the main street to try and locate our boats office and confirm where the dock was. While doing this we passed a shop selling tours to the Elephant Village, which was just outside of Luang Prabang and was a reserve for elephants, caring for the sick and trying to release them into the wild again. After a quick look through we went for a full day with the elephants, walking them, washing them and generally finding out more about them. It's amazing what you find when your not looking for it!

We eventually found the office and located our dock, which was tucked away with no signs, so that's going to be easy in the dark then!

We spent the next few hours in our room relaxing and trying to plan the next few days, I'd finally cracked the password for the wireless Internet in the hotel next door ( why should I pay for it?) and I had an email from a hostel in Chang Rai saying they had room should we arrive in Thailand in time.

This next part you may struggle to understand, we decided to go for a run around the town. It was still very humid but the roads were clear and it's quite flat. We looked at the map and saw a loop, which we guessed would take 30 mins and took in all the non tourist areas on the outskirts. Becky was also itching to run as she had not done so since leaving the UK 3 weeks ago and I'd not stepped out since Calistogo 2 weeks ago, this may hurt!

Thirty minutes later two sweaty bundles rolled back to the hotel, I had been so in the zone that I'd run past and it was only Bex shouting at me to stop which made me slow down. But we felt good and vowed to do it again tomorrow, as long as we could both move in the morning!

We hit the Market in the evening and picked up a few bits and pieces for people back home, but since room was already tight in the bags we kept them small but we were spoilt for choice!

17/10/11

Elephant day and an early pickup, so after a quick stroll to the Market to get a couple of smoothies we were ready and waiting when the minibus arrived. They used to offer the option of a Landy but to many tourist complained it had no aircon! ( I later saw it at the park, it has no roof! Who needs aircon?) so once again the pampered tourist wins and minibus it is. After a bouncy 20km, I did raise the land rover point after one small river crossing, we arrived at the elephant village and the setting could not be better, right on the edge of the jungle and next to the Nam Khan river. It was built by a german tourist who arrived in the country in the late 90's and never went home, he even still lives nearby and at one point in saw him wondering around, so not wanting to miss an opportunity I practiced my GCSE german, only to get a reply in fluent English!

It was during a drinks break that I noticed most of the group gathered around a small enclosure with wire mesh covering it, they were all laughing at something, so fee,ling like I was missing out I walked over. The enclosure was for animals rescued from local markets or the cooking pot, in this country if it moves you can eat it! One Austrian tourist saw wild animals for sale and wanted the centre to rescue them,  and to help them she donated this enclosure so they could be saved and released back into the wild when recovered. Sitting on a beam was a small monkey, apparently he had only been there 2 weeks and a tourist had "bought" him at the Market and took him here to be released.

I then saw the reason for the fuss as he preformed his party trick. He quite happily sat there, put his head between his legs and grab his "friend" in his mouth. Not bad i thought, but allegedly the pop star prince could do the same but he wasn't finished, the monkey then sat up straight with his " friend" still in his mouth!

Now I saw why all the girls were interested and I felt very inadequate as I dragged Bex away.

Our first lesson was elephant control and to help us we had a "small" one to practice on. After learning the Laos for left (Sai)  right (Kwa) and stop (How) it was our go, and I suddenly found myself at the front ( everyone else had crept back during the talk) so up I stepped to the small 8ft tall elephant!

So here is another confession, horses have a problem with me, every time I get on one it does something silly, like sit down or bounce around like a kangaroo and it normally ends with me on the floor. So it is with this in mind that I grab the elephants ear, give the command for it to raise it's leg(Seung)  as a step and swing my left leg over it's neck. Apparently the key is to sit right at the base of it's head with your knees resting on top of the ears, give the command to go and your off. We start walking and all I could think of is the Disney film Dumbo and the singing crows, but she stayed on the ground and I quickly learnt to say left and right whilst kicking the opposite leg and the most important command, stop!

All of the group had a go, while the rest watched and laughed as some of the less able bodied tried to climb up and then slide off after the lesson finished. This gave me the chance to look around the complex and to my delight, tucked away in a shack I found a couple of series II landys, both of which were used when the business first started and both were still in working order, I wonder if I could get a drive later?

We walked down to a small launch which would take us across the river to the jungle side and our elephant trek. It was here that we first saw how strong the current was and how much the launch struggled the short distance upstream to the drop off, I say drop off but it was more like a Normandy beach landing than a ferry dock!

I bought a bunch of bananas to feed our elephant, and these all disappeared in seconds as the trunk kept reaching out for more, eventually she got lazy and we had to put the food in her mouth, but a happy elephant is an eating elephant!

It was now time to ride through the jungle, but this time we had seats on the back and a Mahout (this person, lives,sleeps and cares for the elephant like it's their own child)  riding on the neck, and these elephants were huge, 10 to 15 feet high, but so gentle with it.

After 10 mins our  mahout turned around and asked if we wanted to drive, so Becky took control and the mahout jumped into the seat next to me. Becky continued to drive for another 20 mins until we reached a patch of dense jungle, where our mahout then jumped off! So not only has he not done any guiding yet, he's now not even on the bleeding elephant and has decided to strole off through the trees. Bex and I swapped over and the mahout eventually got back on the elephant ( probably because Becky is much better looking than me!) I then rode the elephant downhill, which is a very interesting experience and back into the camp. It was here that I was expecting him to take over, but I carried on to the loading platform and stopped the elephant so we could get off. I had never expected to ride on the neck for the jungle trek and it was a fantastic experience, none of the other mahout let their clients do this so we were very very lucky, and looking through the photos we took, both of us have huge smiles on our faces for the whole experience.

After returning across the river for lunch we crossed back again for the highlight of the day, bathing with the elephants. We were each given an elephant, a Mayotte and a scrubbing brush and told to take the elephants to the water. My mahout didn't even get on board as I led him down and into the river and up to his neck in the water, which meant I was up to my waist sitting on his neck! I then started to scrub his head as every  now and then he would shower me with water from his trunk. On her elephant becky was encouraged to stand on his head by her mahout, once up the mahout gave a command and the elephant threw Becky into the water, that's one elephant who gets an extra bunch from me.....

Eventually we had to walk them out so they could go and play in the jungle, so we waved goodbye and jumped on a boat for a cruise up river to find a waterfall with crystal clear water, which compared to the muddy brown of the main river would be a nice change. After 15 minutes on the narrowest boat in the world we arrived at the falls, and were not disappointed, the water poured out over a series of limestone pools, giving the water a jade colour and very clear! A short walk took us to the waterfalls and a pool deep enough to swim in, so for the next hour we dived and swam in the freezing pools of Nam Khan.

I never did get to ride in the Landy, but if I'm honest it would only have a disappointment after being a mahout for the day. There are several elephant adventures to be found in Luang Prabang but this was by far the best.

18/10/11

Ouch! A 0530 alarm call for the Mekong Cruise but this did allow me to get out of the room and see the buddhist monks giving alms to the poor pre dawn. Why do tourists have to spoil everything? The monks don't like having their picture taken as it harms the soul, but if you ask they normally don't mind. Lined up along the side of the road like paparazzi were all the tourists, mostly western, flashing away with their cameras, completely ruining the spiritual moment, probably for the monks too. I walked away from the main crowd and found a quite street nearby where the monks were still giving, I politely asked if I could have a picture, which they allowed and snapped away, without a flash. The pictures will never win a prize, but I kept the moment and that was more important to me.

We grabbed a tuk tuk to the boat, as usual he tried to quote us 40,000 kip each (it cost 50,000 in total from the airport in a taxi!) but I batted him down to 20,000 in total which was more than reasonable for the distance, but I did smile when someone else jumped on after we stopped and the driver went through the whole over charging thing again, no harm in trying I suppose.

Apart from the crew we were the first to arrive at the pier, so I walked down the steps to see if we could come aboard. On my way back up my left ankle twisted over and I heard a pop then crack, bugger!

By the time I got to the top I already had a nice swelling on the side of my foot by the ankle bone, great way to start two days on a boat!

We loaded up and found a set of seats on the stern, out of the way of the others. We were joined by another Brit and his Aussie wife who had both been travelling for the last 6 months, both in their 70's but they had some great stories of places they have visited and how much things had changed since the 70's when they first met. By now I had a small golf ball sized lump on my foot and was limping around the deck, but luckily no bones had broken so it would only be a few days before normal service resumed, I hoped!

Some 30kms along the boat stopped at the Pak Ou caves, which were a buddhist shrine. We were told we could go to the upper caves due to time, normally we would have ignored this and run up the 200+ steps to take a look, but being out of action somewhat we stayed at the lower cave and got back on the boat after 5 mins. It's not that they arnt impressive, but a couple of Americans asking stupid questions like " do they get cell reception here?" were starting to annoy me! The slow boat carried on with the 300km trip, slowly winding through the Mekong river valley, jungle on both sides, every now and then slowing for rapids or rocks but never going so fast you miss anything.

100kms in we stopped at a village where they sold local scarves and whisky made from rice. Unfortunately the only thing this really did was encourage begging to the western tourists and again with the cell reception, what is it with this bloke?back on the boat the temperature had dropped and wind had picked up so we were all ow wearing jackets wondering how much further it was to our overnight stay in the jungle. Darkness was just settling in and it was a little after 1800 when we moored at the Luang Say Lodge, roughly 160kms from Luang Prabang and 11 hours by boat.

I had picked this boat because of the stopover point and the fact that we would get a hut in the jungle over looking the mekong for sunrise, but just as we opened the door the rain started, sods law I suppose.

So after some food we lay there listening to the rain gently bouncing off the bamboo roof and I soon fell asleep under the mozzie nets.

19/10/11

A good nights sleep and back to restaurant area for a buffet breakfast. Surprisingly neither of us had been bitten or attacked by wild animals during the night so I guess the nets did their job.

Today we were looking at another 140kms by boat to the border town of Houayxai and from there is a 5 min river crossing to Chang Khong and Thailand which costs 10,000 kip. The sun also decided to come out and this made the trip a lot warmer than the day before, so the fleeces went away and the sun cream came out. The weather also encouraged more people to the stern of the boat where there was a little shade, so our little hideaway from the day before suddenly became a little more crowded.

Roughly 60kms in came our only stop of the day and another village and as we stepped off the boat the full heat of the sun hit you like a brick, I don't think anybody onboard was up for this one, let alone the 30mins we were told we'd be moored! We walked around with Kee, our guide for the trip and he had a hard job keeping people together as everyone was trying to find shade whenever he stopped to explain something. I had decided that a game of hide and seek with the local children was far more interesting than learning about rice whisky (Again!) Being only 2ft tall gives the children an unfair advantage in my eyes, and they were bloody good at hiding. When it came to my turn I was found within seconds and I called cheat, but I was laughed out of the village.

Back on the boat things didn't change, we moved slowly upstream until Thailand was visible on our left and Laos on our right. We had been warned that the border crossing was organised chaos and they were not wrong. Hundreds of people all trying to get onto the narrow boats which service both sides, but I spotted a gap and got us on a boat which was just leaving and just in time as people were getting pushed into the water from the slipway.

While on the cruise we decided to try and get a minibus to Chang Mai, which would be a 4hr ride or as a second option get a minibus to Chang Rai which is 2hrs, our only problem and as it turns out, our downfall was the fact we had not booked and we were just hoping to find space. Not this time!

All the buses were full and they don't run again until 1030am, and these were all full too, bugger!

We trekked the 2kms to town and found a place to stay for the night and to plan our next move, which was to be Chang Mai. The green bus leaves 3 times a day and costs 70 Baht each, the drawback to the public bus is the 6hr journey time but we wanted to arrive sooner rather than later so we aimed to get the 6am and hoped that this would be the quieter journey.

A quick warning about entry to Thailand. UK passport holders get an automatic 30 day visa IF you arrive by air. If you arrive overland or by water you only get a 15 day visa and the punishment for overstaying is very severe! We will have to get a 7 day extention when we arrive in Bangkok, good job we checked!