My Laotian Adventure: Where the Highlight Was Helping an Elephant

A week in Laos Being in Vietnam, I saw the chance to at least “scratch” Laos. As I only had eight days, I planned to fly to Luang Prabang and take the train to Vientiane to fly further on my trip. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen that only a few significant airports are directly connected to Laos (i.e., Bangkok, Hanoi, and Singapur). So, flying in and out was always via a connection flight. I don’t particularly appreciate connecting flights, but the trip to Luang Prabang made everything worthwhile.

To keep it short, I should have something different than Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It’s just a big city, not beautiful and besides a big park of Buddhas and some temples, it is also really boring…

But Luang Prabang kicked it! The entire city of Luang Prabang was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. This recognition was due to its unique blend of traditional Lao architecture and French colonial structures. Besides a big and crowded night market and cruises on the Mekong River, you can spend money on food and massages. Laos is a very poor country; therefore, everything is cheap. The only thing you need is a lot of cash. Credit cards barely work, but you can pay directly in USD or EUR. I can’t recommend withdrawing money from an ATM as the banks charge you around 5% for that service. So bring some cash from your home, and you are fine.

One day, I took a tour of the Kuang Si Waterfalls. Located outside the city, there are stunning, tiered waterfalls cascading into turquoise pools. This natural wonder is perfect for a refreshing swim. You can easily spend two hours swimming and drinking coffee in the sun.

And the other activity I did was one of my most precious animal experiences. I don’t particularly appreciate using animals for tourism and earning money, especially activities like riding elephants. Therefore, I was happy that a) Laos forbids tourists from riding elephants and b) elephant sanctuaries care for these very emphatic animals close to Luang Prabang. Taking a tour is not a touristic adventure. My day at the sanctuary was filled with caring for the elephants, which meant a lot of work. In the morning, it started with feeding them. For 2 hours, I fed the elephant lady with Bananatree, Coconut tree, and Bamboo. And wow, an elephant can eat a lot. An adult elephant can consume 150-300 kilograms (330-660 pounds) of vegetation daily and 150l of water. That’s also the reason why they spend 16 hours a day eating.

After the massive breakfast, I went to the next river with “my” elephant. Actually, the river was only 200m away, but if you have ever thought walking with a young kid in a candy store is stressful, try an elephant in the forest! Every leaf, every blossom is sooooo delicious… And that’s why they stop whenever possible.

But then the fun part started: having a bath in the river… How does it work? Elephants love water, so it’s not a big deal to tell them to go into the water… even to lay down there was not a big deal to tell them… My elephant even started rolling; my apparent fear was to get overrolled :D… But nothing happened… So I brushed and scrubbed down every dirt from the big gray body… Funny, the skin is so thick that the elephant is not feeling anything 🙂

After the elephant lady took a slight dive, we returned to the camp… It was time for me to have lunch to get energy for the afternoon exercise.

And the afternoon session was just a big walk with the elephants. The elephants sleep in the jungle at night and will be escorted for breakfast again the next day. So I just walked with them to their night place. It was so slow again that it sometimes felt like walking backward.