December 8 to 10, 2019
After a little more than 3 weeks in Laos, it was time for us to leave for Thailand. Monic, Coralie’s best friend and her friend Dominic, would join us in Bangkok on December 18th and we wanted to spend some time in North Thailand in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai before we met them.
There are multiple options to travel between Luang Prabang and North Thailand. It can be done by taking a 1h30 flight, a 20h bus travel or a 2 day-trip in a slow boat on the Mekong River.
We were not in hurry and to be honest not yet ready to leave Laos, a country and its people that we liked so much, so we chose the slow boat option.
The travel is done in 2 days. First day is a 9h trip between Luang Prabang and Pak Beng, second day of 7h trip between Pak Beng and Huay Xai at the border with Thailand.
We decided that we would stay 2 nights in Pak Beng to be able to visit the next day the Elephant sanctuary as our friends Aline and Rémy (that we met in Vientiane) recommended.
Although it was freezing in the morning, the travel was very enjoyable. Landscapes along the Mekong River are amazing and it was great to see all those small villages. Travelling by boat was a great experience. Unlike a bus, we were not stuck in our seats and the kids were able to play or read.
We met a French family (Loïc, Mélanie and Axel) that was going to Pak Beng. They were at the end of their one year round the world trip and would be heading back to France just before Christmas. We had a nice chat with them, talking about travel or life in France and North America, while the girls played with their nice 2 year-old boy. We would spend some time with them at the Elephant sanctuary in Pak Beng too.
We didn’t have any booking in Pak Beng. When we landed, it was also time for us to find a guesthouse. Luckily, the town is very small and has many choices. On the shore, we were showered with offers from guesthouses reps. After a few visits, we chose one that seemed decent (although it was actually freezing cold in the rooms).
The next day, we went to the Mekong Elephant park. This sanctuary is an eco-tourism project which aims at protecting elephants and save them from captivity in China and South East Asia where they are used by the wood industry (to tear down teck and rosewood trees) and tourism industry (amusement parks, malls, casinos, etc). Unlike many touristic attractions, the sanctuary does not exploit the elephants by making them doing tricks or use them for rides. Here, they can live at their own pace, the visitors simply observe and accompany them during the day.
We asked Naema to write a little report about this visit.😃
There are 600 elephants in Laos: 300 free and 300 in captivity. Elephants in captivity are often used to break trees like teck and rosewood. Elephants used to be sent to China and Vietnam not too long ago to get people to malls, casinos, and night dance clubs for exhibitions and all that Laos could do was making sending elephants to other countries illegal. Poor elephants!!!
After crossing the Mekong river by boat, we arrived at the sanctuary where we were greeted by the friendly elephants and their mahouts.
A mahout is the only person the elephant listens to.
At the sanctuary, there are 4 elephants: 3 females, 1 male.
The male, Kham Khoun, was too agressive so we only saw the females.
The male is 29 years old while Mae Ping is 19, Mae Boun Ma is 28, Mae Kham is 50 or 60 (we don’t know for sure).
We talked with a mahout about elephants and the sanctuary, then went for a walk with the elephants until we arrived to picnic tables and had to stop while the elephants went to the mountains to eat some food such as bamboo.
Here are some facts about elephants that we learned:
Elephants have 125,000 muscles in their trunk and can put 10 L of water in it before putting the water in their mouth. They drink 60 to 100 L of water a day. A trunk is a lot like a hand for an elephant. An elephant’s mouth is folded on both sides making it triangle-shaped. Elephants’ favorite food is bamboo and bananas, and they like salty food. An elephant weighs about 3 tons and eats 10% of their weight a day. They see to the side so if you go in front of them they will not see you. Their eyes have 2 eye lids so they can open their eyes under water. Elephants are very gentle animals and in the wild, females are in a group while males go by themselves. A baby girl elephant takes 22 months to be born while a boy takes 24 months to be born. A mother elephant is weakened for 5 years after her baby was born.
After a nice rest, playing and drinking coffee, we headed to the vitamin ball factory.
A vitamin ball is made of 10 ingredients: sugar cane, elephant apple, hot (sour) plum bark, orchid, sticky rice, deer horn (a tree) leaf, pineapple leaf, bitter, and salt. A vitamin ball takes 2-3 days to dry. To crush and mix the ingredients, they use a foot-powered hammer hanging out from a long wooden beam. The ingredients are placed in a hole where the hammer hits, and a person pushes the beam up and down with their foot to crush the ingredients (it’s very heavy).
After we made the balls, we went out to see the elephants arrive from the mountains. When they came, we saw Mae Ping getting checked up and eating bananas to distract her. After the check up, we gave the elephants the dry vitamin balls and bananas to eat.
Then, we all headed down to the Mekong where we saw Mae Ping and Mae Boun Ma bathe because the oldest did not like water. After they bathed, it was time for us to go back to the other side of the Mekong. We hadn’t thought it would be such an amazing day.
Naema
While we were in the sanctuary, we met Julie, a French young doctor, who was working at the village dispensary for 2 weeks as a volunteer. She was kind enough to show us the facilities. For all the doctors reading that post (and I know there are a few 😉), please visit their website if you are interested in giving some of your time or material to help Lao people. Donations can also be made on their website.
After the visit, we all went to have a drink at the nice hotel on the river, facing the elephant park.
Sunset on Pak Beng
The next day, we were off on the boat again, this time to really leave Laos. The travel went smoothly, but took a little longer than expected. We met a young French couple, Amel and Mehdi, in their early 20s, who took a break of their studies and are travelling for a year. They worked like crazy the past few years to save money for that trip. Very inspiring !
On the last kilometers, it was nice to see Laos on the east bank and Thailand on the west bank.
Friendship bridge between Laos and Thailand
As soon as we landed, everything went fast forward. With a few others people (including Amel and Mehdi), we took a Tuk Tuk to the Friendship bridge which links Laos and Thailand. We went through Laos departure control, took a bus and went through Thailand immigration. As soon as we got our stamps (no visa needed there, we get a 30 days exemption of visa), we were in Chiang Khong, Thailand.
We then realized we didn't even have time to properly say "Goodbye" to Laos...
Laos departure control
Thailand Immigration Office
We took a Tuk Tuk and headed downtown to find a guesthouse for the night. Amel and Mehdi were very nice waiting for us through all the emigration and immigration steps. We ended up in the same guesthouse and had our 1st pad Thai together.
After another freezing cold night, we took a local bus to Chiang Rai for a last 2.5 hours trip the next morning, while Amel and Mehdi had already left for Chiang Mai.
This 2 day-trip from Laos to Thailand was a great experience. We appreciated taking the time to travel, slow down the pace a little and really experience the quote : "life is a journey, not a destination".
Salah and Naema
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