South East Asia 2019: 15th May - Elephants and Sunsets

A slow start to the morning as we are not scheduled to leave until 11:30am. So a slow walk around the main streets of town and then a cool down in the room are in order. Yes it is hot, up over 40 Celsius each day (or so it says).

At 11:30 we leave for the MandaLao Elephant Conservation area. A place where rescued and retired elephants are able to live out their lives. These are just the females as males are far too aggressive for the tourists. We travel one of the main highways of Laos. How they can tell the difference between a main road and a pot hole strewn street is amazing. Oh yeah, there is no difference, just the sign posts!!

We arrive and yes there are elephants, and more elephants. These ladies have had some trauma in their lives as they have had to survive hard work, land mines and deprivations, but now they just have to survive tourists feeding them bananas once a day and baths in the river. We are allowed pictures with them, feeding them, scratches and a lot of pats.We have a great time, plus of course learning about the work done at the sanctuary. Then it is off down to the river for a scrub and clean and some fun for both elephants and mahouts. Back up the bank for some last photo opportunities and some snacks and then both elephants and mahouts are off back across the river; for the elephants to go into the local jungle to enjoy some "me" time and the mahouts to go home for the day, before an early rise to find their charges and bring them in for the days tourists. Not too bad. Each of the elephants are checked daily by the veterinarian. They are well looked after .... now. We then adjourn for lunch overlooking the river before returning to our hotel.

In the evening we are off on a sunset cruise which includes dinner. Our transport to the boat is a tuk tuk. Great ride. We go down the stairs to the bank and make our way to our boat. It is cooler by the water side. We pick a table and have a cold beer, like one does when one is hot! Each of the group arrive via the same tuk tuk (we think) and choose a table. We're off. A short cruise down stream, before heading upstream so that we can view the sunset between the mountains. Not colourful but it is a beautiful setting between the mountains and with the river in the foreground. It is a little bit of a shame that some bright spark put electricity lines across at that point, but it really doesn't detract from a great sight. We have a meal while we are moving and then stop at a makeshift stage at the village to watch the local girls do some dancing. It is a great way to end the evening.

Fantastic day.