Blog 7 Elephant camp

Riding on the head of an elephant is much more exciting than sitting in a howdah (chair/saddle)on its back. We are currently staying at Elephant Camp XL and have just returned from an early morning ride. We got up and dawn and followed our mahouts into the jungle to collect the elephants. They had been foraging on a steep hillside and it was impressive watching them walk down with considerable grace while their mahouts nonchalantly sit on their heads. Once the elephants were on less steep ground we were invited to climb aboard. At the command “Seung” the elephant would bend its front leg and the rider would climb aboard. “Pie” and we started forward. We quickly became accustomed to the elephant’s gait. With knees on the elephant’s head and feet tucked behind its ears it was quite comfortable.

Mahout training is what they call this two day experience. It is not quite as much time on the elephants as we expected, but it is a very pleasant time and a break from some of the harder travelling we have been doing. Meals were served al fresco on a terrace overlooking the river. With a full moon, comfortable shirt-sleeve temperatures and a beer lao it was difficult to find anything to complain about. The bedrooms were comfortable with mosquito nets draped elegantly, and endless hot water for showers.

The camp was set up to rescue elephants in danger of being retired from forestry with a bullet; in Laos there are still 540 elephants working in forestry where they are often subject to a fairly brutal existence. The ladies of the camp - all 8 elephants are female, range in age from 30 to 84 and some of them are showing the ravages of time. It’s not the wrinkles, there’s no such thing as a smooth skinned elephant, it’s the eyes. Several had lost an eye in logging accidents and at least one had a huge cataract. The elephants were not worked as hard as we have seen in other places and are given the afternoons off to graze in the cool of the forest for even now in the coolest time of the year it is over 30 degrees in the early afternoon shade. The mahouts also seem to treat the animals more gently, only one carried a traditional hooked hammer driving tool and even that was a light hook with a wooden handle rather than the more mallet like ones used elsewhere.

This will be the last Laos blog as we leave for Hanoi this afternoon. We have greatly enjoyed the country and this city of Luang Prabang is a real gem. Ideas for the return trip are developing well.