Pachyderms, paper and pirouettes

An early start, rising while it was still dark and creeping around the bedroom trying not to wake the Ginger Broad. For while she was going to enjoy a lie-in, I was off for an encounter with some elephants. Laos still has some elephants living wild in its jungles and others are domesticated to work alongside their human masters as beasts of burden. But when they grow too old or tired to be profitable elephants are often abandoned or killed. Elephant Village, a project run by a German resident in Laos with the support of the government, rescues these abandoned creatures and cares for them until their death. These elephants have also become a popular tourist attraction and the village offers the chance to see them up close and have a ride. As the rides for that day were actually fully booked, Sam (our guide) managed to swing getting us in before the village was officially opened. So myself and four others from the group had the village and the elephants to ourselves. Although we were a bit worried the pachyderms might resent our early arrival as we did seem to be interrupting their breakfast.

We had to climb a wooden tower so we'd be at the right height to climb onto the double seats on the elephant's back and once in, a wooden bar was put in front of us, much like a rollercoaster but in large grey mammalian form. And then off we went on our pachyderm taxi, rocking side to side with our driver's walking motion. We each had a mahout (elephant driver/keeper) sitting on his charge's shoulders who shouted encouragement and delivered an occasional gentle tap behind the ear to stop our ride snacking on the way. Heading down a steep path towards the nearby river Nicola and I almost slid off our seats as we stepped into the water up to our elephant's knees, luckily not our own. Moving through the water was a strange experience - we couldn't see the elephant's legs moving but we could see the land passing us by - the result was almost sea sickness so we were quite glad when we were back on dry land. By now our mahout, Mr Mee, had given control of our elephant to Nicola who was sitting on his neck, scratching his head enthusiastically and clearly loving every second of it (well, she is a vet). I took a quick ride on his neck as well but was a little happier to return to my seat.

Another quick dip in the river and we were heading back to the village through the narrow streets of a local village. Clearly a common sight there, the elephants were treated to some snacks from the local people and a song from there mahouts which was quite ethereal in the misty morning air. Then things took a bit of a turn for the worst when a clutch of runaway wild horses start to barrel towards us alongside a dumper truck tipping its noisy load of stones into the street. None of this was appreciated by the elephants who started to back away and began trumpeting loudly. While Mr Mee managed to keep our ride under control, the ones behind us also began smacking their trunks onto the ground creating a huge cracking sound. Mr Mee enthusiastically told us 'happy elephants, happy elephants' but that clearly wasn't true and being stuck on the back of an angry stampeding elephant hadn't been included on my itinerary. After a while the elephants calmed down and we took them back to the camp to feed them some bananas. Feeding them meant getting quite up close and personal to the business end of the beast and after a few nervous false starts we all managed to feed them happily, their trunks weaving around us as they tried to smell out the next snack. This has been the highlight of my trip so far - I've always had a soft spot for Dumbo and his ilk so the chance to spend some quality time with them was priceless.

After experiencing such a great 'once in a lifetime' moment it was time to give something back. One of the group had heard about LP's local library looking for help so we sought it out in town to see if there was anything we could do to help. We discovered the library ran a literacy programme for children in some of the remoter villages. For the same price as a frappucino back home we could buy three books and some pencils or crayons that would then be sent out in 'book bags' to help the children learn to read. Not a difficult thing to do and one that left you with a little glow of good deeds achieved.

To round off our busy, but final, day in LP some of us headed to the town's royal palace, the home of it's Royal Ballet. Every evening the ballet trainees perform hour long excerpts from ???, the Lao equivalent of the Mahabarata. We saw episode 4 or 'The Princess is offered the ring'. Putting aside all smutty thoughts of what this could mean, we actually saw a very stylised form of dance which mixes the precise small hand gestures of the women with the large, OTT posturing of the masked men playing the animal princes of the story. Luckily a handout in English explained the story otherwise we might have been a bit lost. It seems the Princess had been imprisoned by an evil overlord who wanted to assault her virtue. She resisted his advances as best she could but soon thought that suicide might be the only option. Just as she was tying a noose in a nearby tree, preparing to hang herself, Hanaman, a monkey god who loved her from afar intervened to save her. He offered her his ring (no sniggering at the back) and, happily, she accepted. The same story has been told a million different ways the world over. Some things in life are universal. Appreciation of ballet isn't however and although I enjoyed seeing a new facet of Lao culture the philistine in me was quite relieved when the hour was up.

Sadly it was time to say goodbye to Luang Prabang, the most atmospheric and appealing city we've visited so far. Although there are many tourists in its streets it still has the feel of the genuine Laos about it. Let's just hope that the expansion of its small airport later this year won't destroy that forever. I'll certainly be back if it doesn't. Goodbye Luang Parabang. Hello Vang Vieng.

Photos below: Feeding the elephants; Laos Royal Ballet