Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

The 4th of March was a great day! It was the day Henk and I were getting up early to attend our first day of a 2 day/1 night mahout course run by All Laos. We would be training on elephants to be mahouts, also known as "elephant drivers." The minivan picked us up just before 9:00 AM and took us out to their elephant park. The van was full with half-day course attendees and 2 girls who were attending the 2 day course with us. We marveled at the scenic drive, then brought our stuff up to camp when we arrived.

Oh! One funny thing Henk wanted me to note. When we were sitting around discussing our plans for the day, one of the Lao guides noticed me putting in my contacts and looked puzzled. Henk explained that contacts were lens for the eyes, like glasses but placed directly on the eyes rather than in front. It was quite amazing to see contacts are still somewhat unknown in these parts of the world! Anyways, we were then brought up to see what we had been waiting for: the elephants.

The first one we spotted was a baby boy. It was a bit sad to see the chains around his ankles, but we understood it was for safety. He wasn't trained yet, and even a baby elephant could trample one of us quite easily. Didn't want that! Our group was led by our guide, Souk, to a large platform where our mahouts would 'drive' their elephants individually up to us and we could jump into the little basket-seat placed on top of them. Henk and I were the first to get in one. We touched the elephant's skin... so warm, thick and rough!







Our guide drove our elephant for a while and we got to just relax and enjoy the ride. But we quickly found out that it was only the beginning. Soon, Henk was asked to take over for our mahout, and he climbed onto the elephant's neck. After our scenic ride, we were shown our room and given our official mahout uniforms. Baggy blue pants and a matching shirt. Not very flattering, but better to wear it then get our clothes dirty. After donning our new uniforms, we headed to lunch. One chicken and rice and chicken sandwich later we were busy practicing our new-found mahout lingo:







Pai Pai - "Go Go"
Pai Xai - "Go Left"
Pai Qoua - "Go Right"
Hao - "Stop"
Toi - "Go Backwards"
Jou - "Bow Head Down"
Ya Ya "Stop Being Naughty"
Map Long - "Lay Down"
Boun Boun - "Spray Water"

We tested our knowledge of the phrases by calling them out to each other and seeing if we could react in the right way. Once we had mastered these we were taken back to the elephants for a test of our skills. This time we each had our own elephant, and we climbed onto the elephant's neck for another ride through the jungle path. I was pretty nervous to ride on the elephant itself rather than in a safe little box on the top of its body... I kept having to press my hands down on its neck to keep my balance, worried I would fall off!











Partway through this ride we rode the elephants into the water for their bath. During our attempts to clean them, they started spraying us with water from their trunks. I got totally soaked! For some reason, Henk's elephant didn't want to spray him -- his elephant wasn't trained enough yet. But his mahout still soaked him with water anyways. As we made our way back with the elephants, we really saw the extent to which Henk's elephant wasn't trained. The two day course girls and I took our elephants and went to the right, but his elephant followed some other elephants going left. The mahout and Henk tried to turn the elephant around but it didn't want to follow their orders. Once it finally did turn, a car happened to come by and the elephant got scared breaking out into a mad dash! Henk told me later that he almost fell off but managed to grab onto the elephant's ears hanging on for dear life screaming "HAO HAO!" ("Stop Stop!)















After that stunt, the elephant had to walk through the jungle off the path to bring Henk back to us. The mahout then indicated to him that the elephant had been bad and was going to be punished. The most shocking thing about the entire experience was realizing just how fast elephants can actually move when they get scared. They had been rumbling along very slowly all day and it was quite a surprise to see such a display.



Next was some time spent tubing down the river at the camp. We were driven by long boat to the tubing spot and then floated our way back down to our cabins. It wasn't a rough ride by any means, but still took well over an hour to make it back. Since we were now soaked with muddy water we went back to our room for a quick shower and some relaxation time before dinner.



And mmmm... dinner was a nice feast! Sweet and sour chicken, rice, noodles, veggie dishes and fruit. After such a long day on elephants we were glad to sit down and enjoy some tasty dishes. During dinner our guide discussed our plans for the next day. We were going to get up early in the morning to get our elephants from the forest and go through their morning routine. After this we had the choice of going for a 3 hour hike to some villages (Kamu and Hmong) or kayaking. The decision was pretty easy -- the villages sounded interesting and the water was too low for good kayaking.



On the 5th we arose to freezing cold weather! Shivering, we put our blue outfits back on and went to get our elephants. This time we had different elephants, which we walked through the jungle back to the bathing spot for a morning bath. Again we got soaked! This time, Henk's elephant managed to get him wet even though it didn't spray him directly. Instead it just banged its head on the water to splash! After bathing the elephants, we took the boat back to our cabins for a shower and breakfast. Next it was off to the hike! It took a while to get out to our hiking spot, but after we made it there we discovered the hiking part wouldn't be too difficult; it was the heat that was dangerous!















Our first stop was about an hour and a half into the hike at the Kamu village. From Sawadee.com:

The Kamu are one of the small tribal groups, living along the Thai-Laotian border of Nan province. At the present there are about 10000 people of this tribe.

They originate from Laos, mainly of Luang Prabang and Xieng Khoung districts. They first migrated as labour and worked either in the teak forests or similarly isolated employment.

They are living now in small villages located on mountain slopes and survive on subsistence agriculture supplemented by hunting, fishing and trading.

The Kamu practice an animistic religion. In their native homeland Kamu shamans are considered to be excellent magico-religious practitioners and often participate in Laotian ceremonies.

We were quite surprised to see a non-tourist oriented village so close to the main city! Souk brought us to visit the children at school and we got quite a lot of attention from them. Their classrooms looked pretty bare, and we wondered how they were able to pay attention to the teacher at all in the heat of an open-air classroom. After visiting with them, we had our packed lunch in the village and walked around a bit more seeing different houses and villagers at work. As we explored, Henk noticed a bunch of 'seed' looking objects drying in the sun. He grabbed one to take to our guide who explained it was hops for BeerLao!











The second part of the hike was much rougher considering the heat. By the time we made it to the Hmong village where we were to be picked up in the minivan, we were quite exhausted. A few pictures of the village and a glass of cold water later, we returned home to rest. Later on that evening Henk went out to grab me some dinner of sublime cheese and chicken sandwich creations and himself a tuna sandwich. He'll now tell you all about the madness of Vang Vieng...







Francesca