"OUR LIVES ARE MADE IN THESE SMALL HOURS"

ELEPHANT CAMP NEAR LUANG PRABANG, LAOS

Temperature: 27 Degrees Celsius

Track of the Day: Little wonders, Rob Thomas

We highly recommend listening to this song either before or after reading this blog. Click here to see the video.

"Do you hear that?" I ask Alecs listening to the steady beating of drums in the distance. The drums signify the giving of alms (food) to the monks, which happens every morning at dawn. "They sure do know how to make an entrance," Alecs says pulling the blankets closer and shivering in the chilly morning air. When we finally decide to drag ourselves out of bed we set off with high hopes of climbing Phu Si Mountain. Our plans however are soon interrupted by the slow way of things. Rather than climbing temples or mountains we consent to lazing abo

ut on the streets, nodding at locals and soaking in the rich culture. "We're just pre-resting," Alecs says while we sit on the boat pier looking out at the Mekong, "for tomorrow'

s elephant trip,"he adds with a grin. "Sure, that sounds like a good excuse," I say feeling guilty about having no agenda. After a strenuous day spent doing nothing we crash back at the guesthouse after packing for tomorrow's adventure. Alecs and I wake up to the sound of two resident cats in a fight on our balcony, the second fight they've had since we arrived. At checkout, the hotel staff allow us to leave our luggage at the front desk until tomorrow and for the first time we are traveling ultra-light. "This is nice," Alecs says as we examine our exciting lack of luggage. A van pulls up to the gates of the guesthouse and we bid the friendly staff goodbye and depart for the elephant camp, small backpack in hand. The van pulls up to the Nam Khan River after travelling for about 20 minutes through the Lao forest. The dr

iver honks his horn and a small wooden boat with a propeller on the back, motors its way to our side of the river.  Careful not to rock the boat, all eight travellers carefully board in

 single file to cross the river. On the other side we are met by two young (and rather handsome if I do say so myself) smiling Lao men. "My name is Et," says one of them "and I will be your guide for the next two days". Et shows us to our riverside bungalows, each with private balconies and an open air shower out back. Two sets of white-washed denim uniforms sit on the beds and we are instructed to change into them and meet at the restaurant. "Oh-la-la, d

on't you look fancy," I say to Alecs,who comes out

 of the washroom in denim Capri's and a denim shirt. "It's your turn next," he says tossing me 

my uniform, smirking.  After taking some photos of each other in our snazzy new clothes, we make our way to the meeting place and start getting to know the other people. There are two Argentinian parents, a mother daughter pair and a British couple who make up a great group of people. We all click and start swapping travel stories and information about our home countries. Et guides us back across the river and we walk through a small village to the elephant sanctuary. "Listen to the children," I say to Alecs as we walk past a small school, where dozens of children sit inside reciting lines from a book. Alecs smiles and dodges a large rooster and a pile of elephant poop. As we climb up the somewhat steep dirt hill to the sanctuary I notice small sheets of what look like cobwebs covering the forest floor and wonder aloud what they might be. My own question is answered when I see a large hairy spider scurry down a hole in the centre of its web. I curl my toes in

 my shoes, move closer to Alecs and watch every slight movement on the ground. After a few more minutes of paranoid walking we arrive in the centre of the sanctuary surrounded on all sides by Asian elephants and I completely forget about the spiders. The elephants are magnificent in their size and commanding presence and although we are scared their gentle nature soon makes us feel at ease. We each grab a bunch of plantain bananas and feed the gentle giants, Alecs going first. A 25-year old female named Mai Song reaches out her trunk to Alecs who places the banana near the end for her to put in her mouth. Mai-Song feels for more bananas and Alecs happily obliges, breaking them off for her, a huge smile spreading across his face. "I want to feed the bull," I say to Alecs, heading to the largest and only male Elephant of the group who is slightly segregated from the rest. Mel-Yon, who is 35 years old watches me approach him with his human-like eyes. I stroke his giant trunk, that is nearly 1.5 times larger than the other elephants and place a single banana near his nostrils. He quickly puts it in

 his mouth and waits for me to stroke him for another one.  Et calls us up to a tower where we can board a bench on the elephants back for a ride through the forest. Alecs and I sit on the bench together and hold on for dear life as the elephant begins to move. "We are certainly at his mercy," Alecs says as our elephant heads down a steep cliff. "Now we will ride the elephants on the neck," Et says to us after our scary ride through the forest, safely strapped onto his back. Alecs is the first (of the two of us) to ride the elephant with no restraints through the forest to the river. Carefully climbing onto the animals neck he straddles it's massive body leaning into her head so as not to fall off. I sit abo

ve him on the bench as the group of elephants and their new mahouts guide them to the river. "Pai-Sai, Pai Sai, Pai Sai (go left go left go left)" Alecs instructs his elephant who h

as decided she wants some plants at the bottom of a hill. As he holds onto her neck for dear life she thrashes her head back and forth, tearing the plant from the ground. When she has finally decided she's had enough, the elephant joins the

 rest of the group who have also learned that you cannot control these animals, the elephant is the one who controls you. "You okay?" I ask Alecs as we approach the river, noticing the sweat forming on his temples. "Ya, it's scary for the first few minutes, but it's actually less threatening than being where you are," he says tapping the side of the elephant to move her to the right.  We cross the river back to the camp where the benches are taken off the elephants backs and let loose to graze on the lush forest.  When the elephants, who were rescued from the logging industry have had enough to eat we each climb back onto their necks to bathe them in the river. "Do you want to ride him," one of the mahouts asks me, pointing to the giant male, Mel-Yon. Mel-Yon is a gentle giant and riding him is much more comfortable than the other elephants due to his massive size. I tower over the rest of the group, who watch Mel-Yon walk into the river and lay down in the water. I pull out a brush and holding onto his neck I wash his giant body. I look over at Alecs who is on top of his elephants back scrubbing her and I give him a thumbs up. Mel-Yon sprays me with water and reaches his giant trunk up and touches my face. I feel a bond between the two of us and when we are finished bathing the elephants I climb off and spend a while stroking his massive head. When I start heading back to the camp, my elephant reaches out for me with his trunk and I r

eturn looking into his eyes. After a little longer bonding with the elephants, we head back to the camp where we change to go tubing and Alecs and I are both buzzing about our respective experiences. "That was amazing," I say, almost skipping back to the bungalow, "how was your elephant?" I ask. Alecs tells me all about how his elephant wouldn't get out of the water until every last spot was washed including where 

Alecs was sitting. When we are all good and ready to get back into the river, Et takes us 30 minutes upstream where we plop onto some inner tubes and lazily float down the river. "I feel so relaxed," Alecs says spinning in his tube, watching the scenery go by. An old man casts a fishing net into the water while a younger boy waters a garden beside the river. We both lean back enjoying every moment spent in this secluded paradise and wish we could stay forever. I continue to notice every dog in the villages we pass, all of whom are happy and well fed. It makes me so happy to know the Lao and Thai treat their animals with such respect - it certainly makes me respect them more in return. I ask Et about this at dinner that night and he explains that monks are not allowed to kill anything, not even mosquito's, and since the way of a monks life is revered, the people also like to follow is as much as possible. "I was a monk for eight years," Et, who is still very young, tells us. "I only wanted to be a monk for 16 days, but when I asked the eldest monk to sign my release papers he always said he was too busy." Eight years later the monk signed Et's papers and he can now think about finding a wife and starting a family. "Being a monk is a great experience, but I want to see my children," he says. Monks in Laos and Thailand do not have to be vegetarians but they are forbidden to eat snake, cow, cat or dog, obviously making me think even higher of them, if it were possible. A small cat comes to the table when we finish eating and wraps around our feet purring and looking for some attention. The British mother and daughter, who have 6 cats back at home spend quite some time petting the orange tabby cat. The group shares stories over a few BeerLao and we end up laughing and talking well into the night. "We will meet here tomorrow morning at 7AM," Et tells us, and with that we are all off to bed. 

The next morning Alecs and I rise early, excited about spending more time with our elephants. The group climbs through the villages to the camp where our elephants are already waiting, eating massive amounts of bamboo brought in several times a day by the mahouts. I walk over to the male elephant while Alecs spends his time over near Mai-Song. "Mat Long (lie down)," we instruct the elephants and Alecs and I both climb on the giant Mel-Yon, him in front and me holding on behind. I reach down to strok

e his side and we set off towering over the other elephants. "He really is more comfortable," Alecs says soon after departing. "I told you so," I tell him, still amazed that we are here. We cross the river and our elephant soaks us with his trunk several times before returning to the other side. "This concludes our mahout training," Et tells us after we climb down from the elephants. I stand beside Mel-Yong and say goodbye stroking his trunk and he wraps it around my shoulder pulling me closer. This gesture would have scared me at the beginning of our trip, but knowing his gentle nature, I now let him pull me in and sadly say goodbye. Next we are driven to Tad Sai waterfall where we relax in the cold pool that forms at the base of each tier. From the waterfalls, Alecs and I, the Argentinian couple and Et spend the next two hours kayaking back to the camp. "This is harder than I thought it would be," Alecs says as we start falling behind the Argentinians who are professional kayakers. The scenery is beautiful and we pass huge mountains and several villages that thrive off the river.  Children bathe in the river, buffalo graze and 

dogs play. Several bamboo fishing traps line the shore and wom

en sift through the rocks for gravel for building things. Alecs starts humming the tune to a song we both know, Little Wonders by Rob Thomas, and soon we are both singing the rather fitting lyrics. "Our lives are made in these small hours," I sing, thinking that there couldn't be a better song for this moment. When we arrive back at camp we are both donning blisters on our hands and I have my first sign of a tan! We bid farewell to the camp and the guides and already feel a pit in our stomachs about leaving. Back at our hotel in Luang Prabang, we both agree this was the single greatest thing we have ever done and we would do it again in a heartbeat. "I will never forget that," I say to Alecs, who nods, deep in thought. "That's one thing on our bucket list that we can check-off," he adds grinning for the first time since we left the elephant camp.

We have fallen in love with Luang Prabang so much that we have decided to spend and extra two nights here and skip Vang Vieng (backpacker party central) entirely. Tomorrow should be another exciting day in the city, that is more like a town.

Meg and Alecs in Luang Prabang

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