Going beneath the radar (elephant trekking in Laos)
Once upon a time, when I was in love with Australia, I read that being in love with Australia was like falling in love with a teenager, I didn't understand that until she revoked my visa and sent me home to a cold and wet England.
Well, I'm older and wiser now and I'm in love with Laos - but I know that whereas Thailand can be your wife, reliable, safe, understanding and well, comfortable; Laos should only ever be your mistress. Fun, exciting, slightly dangerous (well in the sense that there's no mobile coverage, the showers are usually cold and the beds usually hard - see how soft my steady wife, Thailand, has made me) you keep her in your mind long after you've left and it only takes a couple of days of home comforts to forget the frustrations.
Besides, you can see things in Laos that seem to have long disappeared from Thailand (sometimes for the better I might add - but that's for the next blog).
I recently went for a recce trek with the guys up at www.elephantadventures.org a pioneering company trying to provide an alternative living to logging for the elephants around the town of Hong Sa - logging is not a bad living but they recognise that at the current rate it is not a sustainable income and would prefer to see something in place when the trees run out.
More on logging elephants, Elephant Adventures and Hong Sa in general over the coming months but for now my holiday snaps, a short trek for three days with two logging eles - giving them a rest believe me. The tusker Bak Sinoun and a female Mae Dok with their mahouts Tao Theung, Nan Vong, Boun and Kong That - from a country where the tradition of fathers, sons, brothers and cousins owning and operating their own elephants still survives. Mr Peng, an experienced mahout in his own right (his elephant was logging with another family member) was our guide...
...the eles wait patiently outside Mr Peng's house whilst we have a hot tea against the mist...
...the turkeys are well used to eles here in Hong Sa...
...as we walk into the forest a sick man is carried out - I've got my feet wet for the first time!..
...threshing the rice in a Khmu village in the forest, a buffet for the eles, straw and stolen rice...
...the alternative to wet boots is a bamboo tightrope...
...washing the elephants downstream of the kitchen, forest etiquette is observed!..
...as the valleys narrow the river crossings increase and the stream picks up speed...
...another day another chance for thievery...
...but the rest of the produce is safe from the probing trunks!
PS. Regarding the first sentence, don't worry (especially if you're talking to Aoy) it was purely illustratory, I do have a Thai fiancee but I would never consider a mistress of any nationality!
Well, I'm older and wiser now and I'm in love with Laos - but I know that whereas Thailand can be your wife, reliable, safe, understanding and well, comfortable; Laos should only ever be your mistress. Fun, exciting, slightly dangerous (well in the sense that there's no mobile coverage, the showers are usually cold and the beds usually hard - see how soft my steady wife, Thailand, has made me) you keep her in your mind long after you've left and it only takes a couple of days of home comforts to forget the frustrations.
Besides, you can see things in Laos that seem to have long disappeared from Thailand (sometimes for the better I might add - but that's for the next blog).
I recently went for a recce trek with the guys up at www.elephantadventures.org a pioneering company trying to provide an alternative living to logging for the elephants around the town of Hong Sa - logging is not a bad living but they recognise that at the current rate it is not a sustainable income and would prefer to see something in place when the trees run out.
More on logging elephants, Elephant Adventures and Hong Sa in general over the coming months but for now my holiday snaps, a short trek for three days with two logging eles - giving them a rest believe me. The tusker Bak Sinoun and a female Mae Dok with their mahouts Tao Theung, Nan Vong, Boun and Kong That - from a country where the tradition of fathers, sons, brothers and cousins owning and operating their own elephants still survives. Mr Peng, an experienced mahout in his own right (his elephant was logging with another family member) was our guide...
...the eles wait patiently outside Mr Peng's house whilst we have a hot tea against the mist...
...the turkeys are well used to eles here in Hong Sa...
...as we walk into the forest a sick man is carried out - I've got my feet wet for the first time!..
...threshing the rice in a Khmu village in the forest, a buffet for the eles, straw and stolen rice...
...the alternative to wet boots is a bamboo tightrope...
...washing the elephants downstream of the kitchen, forest etiquette is observed!..
...as the valleys narrow the river crossings increase and the stream picks up speed...
...another day another chance for thievery...
...but the rest of the produce is safe from the probing trunks!
PS. Regarding the first sentence, don't worry (especially if you're talking to Aoy) it was purely illustratory, I do have a Thai fiancee but I would never consider a mistress of any nationality!
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