Elephant Village Sanctuary!

Thursday, June 04, 2015
Luang Prabang, Louangphabang
Today is the much anticipated elephant day! This morning the driver arrived at 8am to take us, and the one other person on our tour, to the Elephant Village Sanctuary.
Once called "Land of a Million Elephants," Laos currently has only 1,500 elephants . Loss of natural habitat, expansion of logging industry, poaching and ivory trade has led to the steep decline in the elephant population in the region. Organizations like the Elephant Village Sanctuary are trying to reverse this trend by working alongside the people of Laos to educate them, incorporate elephants into tourism in a responsible way and implement breeding programs. Currently, they have 14 rescued elephants and 2 babies.
The mahout, or elephant keeper, is usually from a family line of mahouts that have amassed knowledge about these animals over the centuries. Mahouts possess the skills to control elephants and the knowledge of how to care for them on a daily basis. Our mahouts arrived, helped us climb aboard the howdah (elephant seat) and then we headed off for an incredible 3 km ride down the steep path and across the river! What an experience!
We then took a long boat across the river to the baby elephants area to feed them.
A short ride up the river in the long boats brought us to the Tad Sea Waterfalls. As this is the end of the dry season, the falls where not running but the landscape was interesting.
Some much needed time by the pool to cool off perked everyone up and then the girls suggested we head back into town to climb the 100m hill in the centre of town called Mount Phou Si. The hill is a local religious site and houses dozens of Buddhist shrines.
The staircase consists of 355 steps that zigzag up to the summit and at the top is the golden Wat Chomsi, which was built in 1804. The 360 degree view of the city is stunning.
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Comments

mom
2015-06-06

more spectacular views! and that elephant ride must have been amazing ...although i experienced the thrill of these intelligent animals in Kenya , they were the wild ones on the Mara and the rescued babies in the David Selnick reserve in Nairobi ...so no riding ! however , i did get " kissed " by a giraffe ! bleh !
anxious to hear about the ride in the long boats !
mom
xx

2025-02-17

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