For our first full day in Laos, we enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in until 8:30, when we rose to a sky full of sun and a cacophony of chickens, motorcycles and car horns. Our first adventure was visiting the glittering Laos Royal Palace. Although incredibly hot and bustling with tourists from all corners of the globe, the palace was beautiful, featuring glass mosaics depicting the lives of Lao people, many impressive glinting gold swords and a delicately embroidered throne. After taking a couple of group photos on the gleaming white steps of the palace, we boarded our buses once again and headed countryside to visit some very special creatures.
With cameras in hand, we trod through grass and sand to feed and bathe ten ginormous, wrinkly and adorable elephants who lived in peace and splendour at the Elephant Camp. Although protected from being ridden all day by tourists, the elephants had special keepers who spent the day caring for their needs and occasionally boarding their wrinkly grey backs to lead them across the vast fields. Once we reached the banks of the Mekong, the elephants trod heavily through the powdery sand into the murky depths of the river, quickly disappearing underwater only to emerge soaking wet and very happy. With an affectionate nudge, the keepers lead the elephants uphill to their shady white-roofed stable where they received a generous handful of banana leaves.
After our enchanting encounter with the elephants we set off on another journey to a cascading waterfall for a picnic lunch and then an exploration of the sprawling pools and lush jungles. The waterfalls were a mesmerising blue, seeming almost unreal in their crashing splendour they were cool and filled with mangroves that crawled their way along the sandy banks. Once we had finished marvelling at the aquamarine pools, we trekked down narrow paths to a sanctuary for the preservation and care of abused and illegally trafficked bears. Although faced with many challenges such as a sun bear missing one of it’s front paws and others with mental issues leaving them fearful of humans, the bears were happy in their jungle environment with plenty of puzzles and mates to play with. As a collective group we decided to donate some of our fundraised money to the sanctuary in an effort to help provide the best possible facilities for mistreated bears.
As the sun began to set we embarked on our final activity to find dinner and shop and barter the wide and wondrous night market streets of Luang Prabang. Left to our own devices we split apart into groups and adventured north, east, south and west on a mission to find delicious and cheap food and many gifts and tokens for us and our far-away friends.
Sophie and Genevieve
