September 15th - 19th
After an 8 hour bus journey from Vang Vieng, it was delightful to arrive in pretty Luang Probang: a town built at the confluence of the Mekong River and the Nam Khan, where French colonial buldings stand next to tin-roofed wooden shacks, where monks in orange robes sit next to travellers in internet cafes, where there are probably more temples than televisions(according to the Lonely Planet there are 32 temples) and where there are elephants on the doorstep. We were going to check it out for a couple of days and ended up staying four nights.
As the room we had stank terribly and I woke up one morning with about 20 bites on my leg (albeit they may have come from an evening stroll alongside the Mekong), we had more than enough motivation to spend as little time as possible in our accommodation. I loved just roaming around the backstreets, popping in and out of temples and soaking up the daily life. The night market was particularly enchanting with colourful displays of silk, silver jewellery, paper umbrellas, bags and paintings. The best part about it was its food section where you can sit with locals and test how courageous you are. Most items come on sticks - fish-on-a-stick, pork-on-a-stick, fried-grasshopppers-on-a stick, buffalo-on-a-stick - and at 5000 kip (£0.36 at the current exchange rate) a piece along with some spring rolls for the same amount or sticky rice at 2000 kip (£0.14), we had a few cheap and tasty evening meals there.
It was in Luang Probang that we also decided to sign up for an hour and a half elephant ride. I was in two minds about the excursion. I knew I would love to be so close to the elephants and get a sense of their size and movement but I was also concerned about how the elephants might be treated and whether I would be encouraging their abuse by paying to go. In the end, the selfish reasons overwon the moral ones and the experience of sitting high up on such a great animal, feeling its thick and hairy skin on my legs (I wasn't aware elephants had little black hairs!), and allowing my whole body to shift from side to side with the elephant's slow plodding was, of course, wonderful and memorable. We stamped through jungle with leaves from the trees brushing our hair and bobbed our heads now and again to avoid huge spider webs which extended from one tree to another. We laughed at the lack of control over our bodies as we alternated between being flung towards the bamboo stick which kept us from falling off our seat and sliding backwards, depending on the terrain we were on. Our elephant's seven month old baby accompanied us the whole ride and it was a joy to watch the young one leap into bushes and splash in streams with an energy its parents had to keep trying to control. After the ride, we stayed with the elephants for a while and watched them eating. Unfortunately they were chained on one leg at this point and that is when my conscience set in. I enquired whether the elephants are ever allowed to roam freely and our guide replied "Oh yes, at night time elephants go where want. Chains are very long." It wasn't the answer I was hoping for but then I couldn't criticise; the protest would have been not riding on the elephants at all. On the other hand, some argue that the elephants are family- orientated so like being around the tourists and are in any case only alive because of refuges like these as they are hunted for ivory. It's hard to figure out the moral ground but my gut feeling says that keeping them captive isn't right.
When I look back on Luang Probang I will also remember serene waterfalls, delicious fruit shakes (one traveller told me that he hadn't felt up to doing much one day so just pottered around and ended up drinking 7 fruit shakes - they really are that good!), the night market when there was a powercut (making it easier to eat the unidentifiable food) and getting up at 5:15 to watch the monks receive their alms (almost more interesting was observing the other tired-looking tourists snapping away at them with the odd one joining in the spirit by offering a bunch of bananas). All in all, Lunag Probang is a beautiful and fascinating place to rest for a few days. In fact, after being in such a relaxing town, it was difficult to get the energy to pack up and move on again. But that's when visas and limited travel days spur you onto the next bus.
