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Riding on an elephant is something you don’t do every day. But when you’re in Laos, and you’re staying at Lao Spirit – a nice jungle lodge out in the middle of nowhere – riding an elephant is recommended, in fact, welcomed anytime. Our great guide, Joy, escorted us on a walk to Elephant Village where we waited for a little bit and got on to our elephant. I rode with my mom and dad rode behind us. He looked like a king the way he sat there on the saddle. It was pretty scary as the elephant slowly bumped his way down a steep hill into the shallow water. His big feet dragged along the Nam Khan River and made it’s way to a section that was just rocks. I was excited when the driver hopped off the elephant and invited me to ride the elephant’s neck. I struggled out of the saddle and slipped onto the elephant’s neck. The driver snapped lot’s of pictures. The elephant’s hair was spiky under my hands, and the skin was very tough with lots of wrinkles. After awhile, I was back up with my mom and the driver looped around back up to land and we came back to the same spot where Joy met us. Thanking the driver, Joy then led us down to the Nam Khan River and we putted on a long boat down to the other side of the river. Our driver of the boat was planning to meet us when we were done with our adventure for the day. While we walked up and down small hills, Joy introduced us to many facts about Lao history. We learned how they harvest the sap from the rubber trees. We trekked along a dirt path for a little over an hour and we reached a village where we were greeted with little boys. They were playing with a toy they had created out of a plastic water bottle that they pushed around with improvised wheels attached. I was amazed on how creative they could get!  This village was pretty similar to all the other villages we saw on our trip. We sat down to have a snack and take a breather. Joy brought out some fresh local bananas from the village. They were tasty! Before we continued on, my mom brought out a hacky sack in the design of the world. Three cute little girls were cuddled up together and laughing. My mom and the girls began to toss it back and fourth.  We left them with the toy and they walked off giggling.

Then we continued walking on the trail heading towards what Joy described as a nice waterfall with a swimming hole. Hot sun beat down on us but as we got closer to the waterfall I felt a little cooler. As we neared it, we saw lots of tropical bushes and heard the faint noise of the booming waterfall. Our feet padded carefully down steep steps and onto a wooden bridge which overlooked the waterfall. When I first looked at the waterfall my jaw dropped! “Whoa!” It was all I could say. The sun shinned brightly through the  trees revealing the beautiful emerald green water. I thought that this would be the perfect place to swim at, but Joy said that the other swimming area was a little bit farther. I was sure glad he said something, because this place was amazing. As we walked farther along on the bridge, we entered a bright opening.  There were several layered small waterfalls that dipped down creating smooth shinny water which eventually turned into another waterfall. A bridge stretched along a flat surface of still water which led to a wooden changing room. There was a low floor area with chairs and umbrellas. Past that was another dock with a railing and more tables and chairs. It was less crowded and we ate our yummy noodle lunch there. As we were eating, a group of college students were jumping off a wooden ledge into a swimming hole next to a waterfall. It looked fun! When I was done with lunch I decided to jump off. When I actually got to the spot, it was a lot more intimidating than I had expected. But after a debate with myself, I jumped letting out a shrilling scream that cut off when I splashed violently into the water after what seemed forever. I rose up from the water and gasped helplessly for air almost out of breath, and swam to a shallower end of the water. I did it again, but this time without a scream and my dad captured my jump on video. I got out and dried off. We watched some couples in the lower part of the swimming area that were riding on elephants in the water. It was funny because occasionally the people would fall off into the mucky water. I think Joy had a good time too, because he got to talk to his buddies who were also guiding other visitors. We called it a day and our long boat took us down river back to our bungalow at Lao Spirit. I’ll say that was one of the best days in Laos!

 

Note: I am sorry there are no pictures for this post. We are staying at Sa Pa, a city in Vietnam. We did not bring the laptop and that holds our pictures. We will certainly show you them in future posts. Check out our  travelers point map. Hope you enjoyed your New Year.

Best,

Jenna

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