Mahout Camp at Elephant Village

We decided that it would be great to go to Mahout Camp to learn about Asian elephants. There is a special place about 30 min. out of LP called the "Elephant Village". We booked a two day/one night adventure to learn more. The village was very "chill" with elephants wandering about, Mahouts leading groups through their rituals and commands. As you will see from the video (soon to upload) we each had our own elephant and Mahout to help us throughout the trip. There are 14 Asian elephants that have been rescued by the program. Rescued from strenuous work in the timber industry and mistreatment apparently. It's ironic is't it? That they work in the industry that defeats them? Asian elephants are endangered due to loss of habitat and are found in Laos, Thailand, India and Burma. They eat a miraculous 300 kg of food (herbavores) and drink a miraculous 200 gallons of water/day as well. After we met our elephants and learned how to get on--I needed a bit of assistance by the way--we took a trek with our elephants down into the Nam Khan River and enjoyed the scenery of the place. After lunch we took another trek across the river and up into the jungle. After some time we took a flat bottomed, skinny river boat 30 min. up the river to a series of waterfalls that run across the limestone rocks and we went swimming in some emerald pools that were quite low because it's the dry season now. It was refreshing and fun. By then it was 5pm and time to rest and change at the Mahout Lodge before dinner. The Lodge was a beautiful, simple building with 5 rooms that were elegantly appointed considering where we were. They harvest teak and Mahogany here in what appears to be in a sustainable way. So all of the furniture is beautiful with carvings and tiled floors. Jesse was thrilled by his bug net and made himself a little tent fort for the night. The beds here are as hard as can be... but I'm getting used to that. Our group of 9 was interesting too. We had a French couple with their 2 year old son,  a German couple and a young guy from Ireland-we all got a long well and had fun practicing our French while eating some good Laotian food...fried sea weed with sesame seeds, fried rice with very fresh stir fried veggies and beef in a spicey sauce with a side dish of rice noodles with egg and veggies. Some cold Lao Beer which I like. This beer tastes a lot like the Singha beer that is a Thai beer I like too. I did not really enjoy the Bia Hanoi much. In the morning we were up at 6:30 am to take another trek with our elephants to bring them to the river for a bath and swim!! Enjoy the photos from Mahout Camp and we'll get the video uploaded soon.

BTM