I left off last in Luang Prabang, the charming Mekong adjacent provincial capital in northern Laos and well pickup there too. My second stay in this romantic city proved even more enjoyable than my first. The crowd at Khamany inn were much more social and chilled out (no late night loud sex in dorm rooms) and I put more energy into exploring the town and surrounding area.
Freshly inspired by the book party, on Saturday I headed to big brother mouse for some English practice classes bringing 4 other guests with me. After a delightful two hours of talking to young Laotians including novice monks I hurried back to the hostel and hopped on a jam packed tuk tuk to Kwang Si waterfalls. This exact pattern was actually repeated Sunday two, so there we go, two days in one paragraph.
Okay two paragraphs. The waterfall was truly beautiful and also included a bear park and plenty of smaller falls to swim in. I spent the bulk of each day writing my novel in the shadow of the big falls, knee deep in the rushing water. It was inspiring and I had two good writing days straight. Here’s some picture’s of the falls and my still shrinking form:
Oh yes, on Saturday on the way back in the tuk tuk we encountered a pretty strange sight. It’s hard to describe, so we’ll try with pictures first.
The buffalo seemed very content drenched in the cool mud, pissing and shitting around and even on each other. To be honest, considering the ever growing heat of Laos, I wanted to climb in and join them.
Sunday night was capped by a surprise invitation to dinner and a confirmation of my plans for the next few days. A few Spanish men had cooked up a feast of various Spanish and Lao dishes and I was lucky join in the banquet and talk to a few dozen people, having just decided that I’d be on the road to Sayaboury with half of them the next afternoon, searching for the somewhat elusive elephant festival.
I paid them back for the food by being a part of the dishes team, but in the crowded kitchen common room area the cleaning passed quickly as we all kept chatting and learning about each other and our respective trips.
The next day we all boarded a minivan driven by a local friend of my new friends and embarked on the journey to Sayaboury, arriving perhaps an hour after sunset. I was a little surprised when we pulled into the yard of a school and piled out of the minivan. We were camping, which was a bit of a shock but turned into an absolutely awesome time.
We had a four-man tent and three hammocks for eleven people, luckily we met some friendly Lao people who had come for the festival and were staying in the classrooms. They invited me to sleep in there with them and a few others us ended up taking the offer, after accepting their incredibly warm welcome of part of their dinner and Lao Lao whiskey for all. (Even I had to take a nice big sip, it just would have been rude not to.) A few other people ended up taking their offer too and so I wasn’t alone bedding down on the concrete floor with just a scarf as a sheet and a quick dry towel as a blanket. It wasn’t luxury, but it turned out to be a great experience, especially thanks to the morning.
Once we got the tent and hammocks set up we took the short 5 minute walk to the festival grounds where we found a hopping seen full of smiling locals and very happy children. Their were carnival games, bumper cars, tons of live music and dance, and even a small roller coaster and Ferris wheel. We were definitely off the tourist track as that night I saw only one or two non Lao people. I also found a pretty awesome surprise which a bunch of us bought and enjoyed over the next few days. Batman and elephant neon coloured bubble containers you can wear on a chain. Pretty epic.
We got back to the school fairly late, and I was sure I’d lost my I-pod but that only put a small damper on the evening and a crawled quietly to my concrete bed ready for the next day. It was a fitful and interrupted sleep. One of the locals had plugged in some sort of flashing neon spinning light into one of the sockets which I couldn’t figure out, but I did eventually drop off to sleep.
The real magic came the next morning at 4 Am when one of the locals walked into the room and flipped on the fluorescent light in the classroom. Almost instantly all the Lao people were up and working, a few hours ahead of the sun. Us westerners stayed in bed and drifted for a while longer, not wanting to get in their way, but around six we woke to a trumpeting roar. My eyes flitted to the doorway and saw a curious looking face and trunk just outside. That got us all out of bed and we walked out into the yard to find 6 elephants playing with each other as they ate their breakfast and got prepared (dress up party) for the festivals morning parade. We got to wander around in the morning mists and interact with them for a solid 90 minutes before they headed off to the stadium.
We followed not soon after, though not before I found my I-pod in our minivan, and found the stadium already packed to the bring, leaving us standing in the quickly growing heat of the sun, surrounded by thousands of locals and a handful of tourists. Everyone was there, even the president of Lao who had his own booth and got to feed one of the elephants at the end of the parade.
After lots of different communities from the Sayaboury province had paraded, the elephants appeared, 65 of them all tolled, marched around the track to cheers. It was beautiful but more than a little strange and I couldn’t help but wonder just how crazy the elephants thought we were. They showed off tricks for the president and his wife including kicking a soccer ball around and doing some weird head movements.
By the time the parade was over it was maybe 10::30 am and I swear it was at least 35 degrees, probably closer to 40 and we were feeling it so we found the river and shade and passed out there for a few hours, reading, swimming and chatting. That afternoon and evening we split up to smaller groups and wandered through the markets also watching elephants bath in the river and play games together.
We eventually all met up back at the school in time for the elephants to arrive for dinner on the logs right where I was sitting. Staring down the barrel of a hungry elephant got me up and scrambling away as fast as I could as the elephant dug into the bamboo-ish logs happily. They spent another half hour with us and then headed off to wherever they sleep. Soon after we headed off to find dinner at the home/ almost restaurant of a local driver a few of our friends had met. We got there and at first had a bad feeling we were going to be hustled as they kept bringing more and more food to the table, still for me the ambience was worth it, the friendly elderly mother as the chef and the four young Lao kids running around screaming and laughing, always eager to interact with us.
One of the best things about the people I was with was there readiness to interact with locals, though none of us spoke Lao well, and over the two days we met and made friends with so many amazing local people, from our hosts in the school to a random coffee seller who spent a half hour talking to me about his home town in broken English. The people here have to be the warmest, kindest, and quickest to laugh of any of the countries I have visited, its perfect.
As it turned out the meal wasn’t a hustle at all, they brought us lots of food, charged us less than most places, and kept bringing more since apparently we were the first Farang’s they had ever hosted, and saw it as a great honour.
I ended up getting lost in one of the best conversations I’ve had in a while for a few hours over dinner with a Costa Rican member of our group who organized a lot of the trip. It was fascinating to discuss the world’s tragedies and triumphs with him and argue (in the best sense of the word) about some very complicated issues. Of course nothing is resolved, but I certainly walked away feeling as if Id learned something.
The other great thing about our little group, apart from their all around awesomeness was the mix of languages, French Spanish and English all being well represented which gave me plenty of chances to practice my second and third languages.
We headed back to the school fairly late but not too late to be disrespectful and found most of the Lao people still up. After some friendly conversation (sort of, more body than vocal) we settled down to sleep on the concrete again.
It’s amazing how fast the body adapts. I slept well on night two, waking early with the light and elephants again in time to pack my bag, thank our gracious hosts, bid goodbye to the elephants and my amazing travel companions before embarking on the unknowingly long walk to the bus station with the one French girl who’d opted not to stay until night time and try hitchhiking. I was tempted to give it a try but was heading the opposite direction of most people and thought 8 hours might be too much to try to cover in a single day.
The minibus ride which was supposed to be hellish actually ended up being a lovely experience. Somehow we left with a few empty seats and plenty of legroom (a first in Laos) and we took a new road through the Laos mountains which featured some of the best scenery I’ve seen since the Himalayas. We stopped at one point for roadside pees and I managed to snap a few photos.
I’m now in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, and will be here for a few days. It seems pleasant, not too big or hectic, though it comes with many prostitutes for sure. From here I’ll head down to the south of Laos and then into Cambodia. I’ve also booked a flight to Myanmar for march 20th from Bangkok which I’m very excited about. It seems like these are the last few years Myanmar will be able to hold onto it’s amazing culture and off the beaten path feel under the pressure of an exploding tourism industry, I’m sure it’s less incredible than it once might have been, but I think before long it may become another Thailand, and I’m glad I’m getting there first.
All the best to all you wonderful elephant festival people and I hope your continued travels all treat you well. I’m so glad I ended up changing my plans and coming on that mini adventure with you all. A definite highlight of my trip.
1 Comment
Great experience indeed! Thanks for the summary and all the best to You as well! Keep enjoying your travelling. It was Great to meet You and share This time with You. How are bubbling Batman and green elephant by the way? 😉 Leslie