Laos - Elephant Mahot Training - Luang Prabang

The trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang wasn't to bad, just really really long....! It's amusing, because when you look at the map, Luang Prabang is infact only about 90k's away from Phonsavan. However, due the mountains, bad roads and the fact there are next to no bridges in Laos, the trip slowly takes up and down these huge mountains, around rivers and towns, eventually turning a 90k trip into a 245k trip. All I can say is thankgod for Ipod's, books and the fact I was on a good bus!



After arriving in Luang Prabang a little after 5.30pm, I found a guesthouse and then met up with Ville at his hotel. Ville was leaving for Thailand within 3 days, so we decided to go find a 2 day trek we could do together before he left. We headed to All Lao Travel Services on the main street, where we picked up a leaflet for a 2 day Mahot Training Course & Trek. It basically consisted of Elephant riding & trekking through the jungle, Elephant Bathing in the river and a 5 hour trek. All for $70US each including all food and accomodation. We signed up to leave the following morning at 9am.


That morning we woke up to pouring rain, which luckily stopped at around 8.30am! We were picked up from the travel center, where we met our guide Souk, and he drove us away from Luang Prabang for about half an hour. We arrived at this river, where there was no bridge and no boat to cross, so we had to wait for about 20 minutes for the boat driver to rock up and take us across to our accomodation! Apparently he was asleep....






Once we finally got over the river to our accomodation (which was fantastic might I add!), we were given our "Mahot Gear", a stunning dark blue denim uniform which was about 3 sizes to big for me! Mind you, I had kind of stopped caring about how I looked when I left melbourne, however in this get up I did feel like a bit of an idiot, yet very gangsta at the same time!



We crossed over the river again, and walked for around 30 minutes. The first evidence of Elephants we saw very giant massive Elephant poo on the ground, which resembled bright green coconuts. For this rest of our time, every time we passed some (which was quite a number of times!) Ville would say "mmmm fresh coconuts for breakfast!".



Then as we walked up a hill, we came face to face with our first Elephant. They were absolutely massive! I had never seen Elephants before, except at the circus once when I was a kid, so I was completely awe struck by them. There size was the main thing that got me....they were huge! The camp was home to around 6 Elephants, ranging in age from around 25 - 50, male and female.

Our first Elephant ride was reasonably tame, we had a Mahot (Elephant Trainer) riding in front, and myself and Ville were on the back in a seat. It was a good introduction into what was to come in the afternoon...! We trekked through the jungle for around 1 hour, which given how slow the Elephant actually moves, was only around 1 or 2 k's. It was brilliant though, riding up through the trees, along streams, up big hills. It was suprisingly smooth the whole way.

Things started to get a bit more interesting as the Mahot lead the elephant into the River for the first time, which was the most bizarre thing I have ever done. The elephant just casually walked through the river, stopping to have a drinking every now and then, which was understandable as he was lugging us three and it was about 40 degrees! Me and Ville then got our first shot riding the Elephant for a little while, to get used to the feel and learning the comands to control the Elephant.




We headed back to the lodge for some lunch and a quick rest, before heading back to the camp for our first solo ride of the Elephants. Well, almost solo, we still had the mahot's sitting at the back just incase we started to fall off! I was sitting right at the front, on the Elephants neck, with absolutely nothing to hold onto....no ropes, no seats, no nothing. Now, when you are trekking on flat ground thats not that much of an issue, but the minute you start climbing up hills its another story! It was a little scary, but lots of fun at the same time.

After about 45 minutes, we dropped the Elephants back to the camp, and headed back to the river, where the Mahots met us about an hour later. We hopped onto our Elephants, and took them into the river for bathing. This is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life! As they Elephant got deeper, the Mahot told her to sit down so she (and me!) would get almost submerged in the water. We then proceeded to spend the next half an hour throwing water all over the Elephants head to clean them, and also cool them down at the same time. The elephants were loving it, Ville's Elephant wouldn't stop diving its head under the water every few minutes nearly throwing him off in the process!



Once we had finished, we walked the Elephants back upto the river bank, where the Mahots took them back to the camp.

Ville, myself, and our guide then spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the river trying to cool down after such a hot day!

We headed back to the Elephant camp at around 6pm, and rode the Elephants back out to the Jungle where they slept away from the camp for the night. After saying goodnight to them, we headed back to the lodge, where we had a fantastic dinner made for us, which we needed after such an active day.

The following morning, bright and early at 5.45am, we got up and picked up the Elephants from the Jungle and rode them back to the camp. So while all you guys were at work or eating breakfast, Ville and I were riding Elephants through the jungle! Just another Monday morning in Laos really!