The pick-up van drives by the hotel just after 8.30 and I hop on, and are joined by C from Australia, the couple H and R, also from Australia, and F from England. The drive to the Elephant Village is 30 minutes and we leave the city of Luang Prabang and drives up towards the mountains and the river Nam Khan. The five of us have booked the "2 day mahout experience" in which we are to ride the elephants and sleep one night at the Elephant Lodge. The first thing we do when we arrive is check the place out and a a cup of tea or coffee, whatever you prefer. The Elephant Village is a beautiful place with a little feeding station, a pool, a couple of bungalows, a restaurant and an elephant hospital. And a breathtaking scenery. We sit around for a bit, introducing ourselves to our new group. After a while, we are to practice to sit up on the elephant, which is not easy when you're 165 cm tall. I manage to climb up and go a lap around the camp, sitting on the elephant's neck. When F climbs up we are all impressed how gracious she is, while we all have good laugh when R (shorter than me) tries to sit up on the elephant's neck. After the little elephant sneak peek, we check in at the elephant lodge, a house a couple of minutes up the river with very nice rooms and an amazing view from the terrace.
Back at the camp we are to do our first real tour on the elephant, and we sit in chairs strapped to their backs. The elephant take us around the camp, out into the river and then through the jungle and a little village. In the river, me and F's mahout climbs off to take some pictures and our elephants decides to walk around the little river island on her own. They are exceptionally well trained however, and she don't walk far from her mahout but mainly strolls around on her own. After we ride, we wait just a little bit before we are to take the elephants to where they sleep, out in the jungle. Again we sit up, me even less graceful than the first time. We ride though the jungle, sitting on their necks and just go with it. I don't know how much the mahout behind me controls the elephant, but I think she also knows the way back. I think the name of my elephant is Mae Uak, but I am not sure. The last hours of the afternoon is spent at Tad Sae Waterfall, not as beautiful as Kuang Si, but still, the fall is simply amazing. It's so idyllic it almost feels manmade and fake.
We then have dinner and return to our lodge under a sky full of stars.
Next morning the alarm clock goes off at 6.30. am. 7.00 the group is once again gathered and this time we are to collect the elephants from the jungle to led them back to the camp. This ride is a little scarier, as most of the way is downhill. It feels like your are going to fall down in front of the elephant and that she will step on you, but we get down safely. The mahout is also ready to catch you if you fall. When we get down to the river its bathing time and the best moment of the experience, possibly the best moment of my trip so far. The elephants are dirty after their sleep and really need a wash. me and my co-mahout arm ourselves with brushes and buckets and Mae Uak walks into the river to have her morning bath. I cannot possibly explain how wonderful and incredibly fun it was, but let me just say that when I jumped off Mae Uak I was just as soaked as she was.
Hopefully I will be able to return to and do the mahout experience one more time before I go back to Sweden.
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