Laos pt 4 - Elephant Village near Luang Prabang

We arrived back in Luang Prabang and booked a Mahout course at the Elephant Village, which is a sanctuary for ex-logging elephants. The elephants that they have rescued have a great life, are very well fed and there is a vet on site at all times. Also, some of the money they make goes to supporting the local villagers.

There was only 5 of us on the Mahout course and we got on really well. The village is in a stunning location and has great facilities (both for ellies and humans).


First we learnt some Mahout (elephant driver) words i.e. stop, go, left, right etc. and then we learnt how to get on an elephant and ride on it's neck. I got on the ellie with quite a lot of assistance i.e. our guide pushing me up with both hands on my buttocks (we have video evidence!).


Later on we rode an elephant in a Howdah . This was relaxing and fun and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and watching the villagers.



One of the Mahouts looking particularly relaxed:


After our ride we swam in the beautiful swimming pool to cool down:


Next we met up with the ellies again and rode on their necks into the jungle, which is where they spend the night. I ended up with the biggest and oldest one.


Some cute local kids:

After saying good night to our ellies we went on a boat to see some waterfalls and we also had an opportunity to bathe with a young ellie. The ellie in question was 11 and totally adorable. She kept spraying water onto the spectators and we had a great time together.


We then went back to our lovely hotel room to shower and then we had a much needed dinner with our fellow trainee Mahouts.

We were up very early the following day and we walked into the jungle to collect our ellies. We rode on their necks and they took us back to the river for their morning bath. My ellie decided to run down the slopes even though the Mahout was shouting instructions to stop. Trust me to get the stroppy, independent one! Luckily the Mahout was behind me and he clung on to me to stop me from falling off. It was a bit scary but also fun!

Here's my enormous ellie lying down so that I could get on her:

We and the ellies enjoyed our morning bath. We also had a go at climbing onto our ellies' head and jumping off into the river.


Our ellies then went off to have breakast and we went back to the hotel, packed and also had breakfast. We then sadly had to say goodbyes to the gorgeous ellies, our Mahouts, the other trainee Mahouts and our guide.

Our elephant experience was one of the highlights of our mega trip. It was such a privilege to spend time with one of the most beautiful, intelligent, powerful yet gentle, creatures on earth.

This is a model of Mosha the elephant. In 2007, when she was only 7 months old she was rescued and fitted with an prosthetic leg (in Lampang, Thailand), after losing a limb when she stepped on a landmine. She's since been fitted with 2 replacement artificial legs. What an amazing story.