This new year was certainly a little different to previous ones for me, mostly due to the number of elephants and kayaks involved. As a Christmas present from Ellen we went on another mini-adventure to the countryside, this time to a conservation program called Elephant Park Project, whose principal aim is to use tourist revenue to free elephants from brutal logging practices and to educate the public about the plight of the Asian elephant, once the very symbol of majesty and grandeur and now due to become extinct within 50 years following a life of brutality at the hands of an illegal logging industry.
We chose to do the 2 day mahout training activity (mahout: elephant handler) and it was a really special experience. On the down side we had not a huge amount of time with the elephants, and our guide was not able to educate us very much about them, but on the plus side we got to spend time with elephants! I cannot tell you how awesome these animals are, each with very distinctive and usually pretty cheeky personalities and with a delicacy and tenderness that is in no way hinted at by their massive bulk. They have these huge soft feet and graceful poise, and if they wanted to pass unseen along a trail though even quite dense forest they would certainly be able to. Amusingly they don't really care too much for subtlety except when they are trying to sneak some off-limits shrubbery when they think their mahout isn't looking, and instead choose to leave a trail of destruction through seemingly indestructible bamboo stands just for the hell of it.
I had reservations about riding them: it did feel exploitative in a way and is not the kind of thing I would normally feel comfortable with but as part of an underfunded conservation project this is probably the easiest and most comfortable way for the elephants to earn their keep. Generally they were well-fed, healthy and seemed really happy although one elephant did show fresh cuts on each temple suggesting that at least one mahout likes to use his hook enthusiastically. We spent the first part of the program riding on seats high up on the back of the elephants while we got used to the gentle swinging motion, but by the end of the session Ellen had moved up to the top of the neck without any kind of seat. We eventually left them in the forest so they could eat for an improbably long amount of time, and trekked back to base: a bamboo hut on stilts near to the plush lodge that we could've stayed in had we not been born awkward.
The next morning we woke at dawn and walked back to collect the elephants, this time having one each and both of us riding 'bareback' on the neck. This is so much better a way to ride because you get to fully feel the graceful power of them, and the view is something else. After a while we arrived at the river and it was wash time; the elephants went in up to their necks and we scrubbed them clean, all the while getting pretty soaked ourselves. Fortunately the water was nice despite it being 7 a.m. at midwinter and the elephants didn't decide to go for total submersion, and for me this was the highlight, it really did feel like an honour to wash my elephant and I wonder how many generations after me will be afforded the same privilege?
Retuning to the centre after feeding the elephants a ridiculous number of bananas and shoots (however wonderful they are, elephants must have the most horrifyingly ugly mouth of any mammal I have met so far) we ate and were ready for our return to town, a 15 km kayak journey along a mostly calm river though the beautiful valleys west of Luang Prabang. I have been wittering on about canoeing for weeks, remembering it as great fun from my childhood, so it was time to give it a go again. From the first stroke it all came back to me and from that point until I fell out some 4 hours later at the end point I was completely blissed out. Can there be a better way to travel under one's own steam than to slice through clear waters meandering their way lazily through lush tropical forested hills, with the sun beaming down through the gentlest of breezes? It was a truly amazing day and as I said to Ellen the only thing better than riding an elephant is riding an elephant followed by kayaking on a fine day.
By early evening we had arrived at our guest house, which we had found through yet more good luck (this is certainly a blessed trip): we had met a Japanese lady called Sachiko some days earlier, and upon explaining that our accommodation ran out on 29th December but that we wanted to stay on in Luang Prabang she exclaimed that such a thing was impossible, that the whole town was booked out (this is true: there were literally no spaces left during new year as this is the busiest time by far here). Seeing the slightly worried look on our faces she just chuckled and said that as luck would have it she was leaving for Thailand on 29th for 10 days and of course we were welcome to use her flat. Hurrah for having the luck of the devil, who saw fit to throw a wonderful sunny balcony into the equation complete with stunning palm-fringed views.
Well, arriving back from the rather too strenuous activities of the day it was time to hit the town. After a few wrong turns involving trashy ex-pat western brashness and rather heady Mai Tais we ended up happily ensconced in a wine bar that was able to keep me supplied with rather good gin and tonic all evening. We met some interesting characters as usual, broke curfew by several hours and finally wobbled home to bed; it goes without saying that I woke late in the morning pretty much unable to move due to all the kayaking, and fairly unable to either keep anything down or see anything in even vaguely bright light due to the prodigious number of drinks still swashing about in my system for pretty much the whole day, enabling me to reflect that on the whole this has been a thoroughly well celebrated, albeit very strange, new year indeed. Long may the silliness continue.
