The life of a mahoot...kind of....Pai!!!

As an (very) early wedding present 2 mates of ours, Dave and Pricey bought us a present whilst we are away. We decided to do a Mahoot training course that we had seen in the Guardian's travel supplement before we came away. Mahoots train and look after elephants. The place we went to had rescued them from the logging industry in Laos. Most were pretty old and blind in 1 eye because of the work they had done. Such beautiful creatures.

To start out we just had a normal elephant ride to get used to being so high off the ground. We noticed the commands that the Mahoots used. Pai is go, sai is left and ho is stop. Cannot remember right and quite frankly I don't think we really had much hope as elephants pretty much do what they want.

Then Ed got cocky and sat on the head himself. You sit with your legs hooked behind their ears right on their necks, it is actually quite comfy if a little strange at first

Then the real stuff started. No seats just us on them, bareback. But first you need to get on!

Step 1, feet up on their leg and pull yourself up using their ears, which sounds awful but they are seriously tough. At this point I am thinking, you have got to be having a laugh with me mate

Step 2, get pushed by the mahoots because you can't do it yourself....

Step 3, look really pleased with yourself.....

So then the fun started, look mum no hands!

Then you have to get down. The looks on our faces say it all. Very weird feeling when an elephant decides to sit down with you on it's back.

We left the elephants overnight in the jungle to feed. They get chained up or else they would being poached again for logging, but it is a very long chain so they are free to roam pretty much. Good job as they eat about 250 kilos of vegetation at night each.

Then it was off to a waterfall for the afternoon so the Laos people could laugh at us. They all swim in their clothes so they seem to think it is very funny when we take ours off. Ed did his usual diving in act. I couldn't even swim against the current until some porky pale northerner pulled me across the river and gave me a leg up to jump off with him. I didn't get a lot of choice in the matter

We spent the night in a swish lodge, getting much moire accustomed to flashpacking it these days! I have had enough of pretending to like roughing it.

The next day was even better, in fact one of the best days of our trip so far. We trekked ( that bit wasn't fun as I hate it, as I am sure you all have gathered by now) to get the elephants and then rode them back to camp. There we washed then in the river. A little hairy getting down the muddy slopes but we held on.

The elephants loved it being scrubbed down, their skin was so tough it was incredible They were squirting water with their trunks at us. Then we got them back to camp and started another feeding frenzy.

We then kayaked 4 hours back to Luang Prabang which got a little hairy when we capsized in the rapids. Sadly not got many pictures as we were worried about the camera. Rightly so it would seem.

Our guide Sok had lunch with us on the banks of the Nam Khan river and sheepishly told us about his pregnant girlfriend. A big no no in Laos before marriage. He was going back to his village to ask the chief if they could marry. It was gonna cost him 7 million kip, about 450 quid

To end here is a really funny photo of Ed whilst we were awaiting our kayaks (you do a lot of waiting for stuff in Laos)

A MAHOOOOTSIVE ( like it) THANKS TO DAVE AND PRICEY

Luang Prabang - boozing, buddhists, boat races, cute babies and blowing away prejudices

Luang Prabang was our 1st stop off the slow boat and a very lovely one at that. UNESCO World heritage sight (everything seems to be these days) and beautiful with it. Loads of temples (wat wat wat to follow) and the whole French colonial thing is pretty nice too. Laos immediately felt like a place we wanted to be, locals still hanging out and going about their business. Refreshing after a slight feeling of Disneyland in Thailand.

A Monk and some mulbery paper drying in the sun

Drying buffalo meat in the sun

The amazing Wat Xiang Thong

We got up at 5am to see the monks receiving their alms. The Laos people get up very early everyday and generally it is to do this. Sadly yet again there were Westerners behaving very badly. You must always be below a monk in Laos and instead of this they were peering over their shoulders trying to cop a look at what was going on! There was even one with a huge camera in their faces. So I got straight in there and told him to quit it. I cannot abide by these people. We got so lucky with our weekend in Luang prabang as it was the big Boat Race weekend. It is supposed to signify the end of the rainy season (in fact the rain is worse now than it was then) The locals were out in force, busy at the markets, gambling and drinking vast quantities of Beer Laos, the best beer of our trip so far.

The money has got weird, 16,000 kip to the pound so we were millionaires on arrival 3 times over!
Then there is the food, getting weirder by the day. I guess when you are a developing country with not a lot to go round, you just gotta eat whatever...and they do.

Baguettes are pretty good though

We hung out with the nice people we met on the slow boat for a couple of days. Some of the best banter we've had on our trip from a good bunch of lads from England except for Martin's random bouts of being off tour, see below. Wendy, absolutely ace Aussie and so wise for her years! She is on her way to Scotland so be nice please! Mum, maybe you can get her over for dinner!

L to R: Andy B, Martin Kolankiewicz, James Bacon, Wendy Heywood, me and Ed

The heat is tooo much to deal with here so waterfalls were on the cards for a spot of swimming.

Wendy and I resorted to the cooling effects of baby powder

The baby frenzy has re-started, as with each new country, they get cuter. We loved the ladies and baby at our guest house. The kids do seem to like playing with guns though. Check out these 2 little dudes holding hands but looking hard with it!

This guy has taken the French colonial thing way too far. Quel dommage!