I spent longer in Luang PraBang than I had originally intended. The plan was to spend a few days there then head over to the Thai border to do 2 days on zip lines in the jungle, but the logistics seemed like too much hard work: 10hrs on a “VIP” bus which no one could tell me for certain if it existed, or 19hrs on an overnight public bus. So in the end I had a very lazy, moochy time in touristy LPB (its a little like a fancy village in Switzerland that’s been plonked in Laos: lots of tourists called Meryl or Chad with their white t-shirts tucked into their beige chinos), overdosing on wats, checking out the night market, and generally having a bit of a rest. I met up with Alicia again, so we spent most of the week together, and saw Jess (from HalongBay) once or twice. I found a guesthouse with a sundeck… well, not a sundeck per se – more like the laundry drying area – but it was sunny and it smelt nice, so I spent a few hours up there.

No remarkably witty stories to divulge, apart from my going into an internet cafe and asking if they had a printer available… only to cause much confusion before being given a panty-liner….??

I did however do a 2-day mahout training course – learning how to drive an elephant – which was really good fun, but I didn’t actually learn much, other than “HOW!” (stop!), which the elephants didn’t listen to anyway, and that when you feel like you’re about to fall off, hanging onto short spiky elephant hair will not help. First I was jostled about on the back of an elephant on a seat, and then moved up to sit on the neck to take a dip in the Mekong for some elephant washing. Its hard work though, trying not to fall off elephants and your biceps really ache after pressing on its head for a couple of hours. I had been in a group of about 8 people, but I was the only one staying for the night (on the floor of a shelter with no walls, under a giant netted cake tin lid). So after I “put the elephants to bed” in the jungle, Ticky(my guide) and I went off to the owner’s house for dinner and then back to the shelter for a few beers around the fire with Nong, a carpenter who had come to join Ticky and I for the night in case “anything-bad-happened-but-it-won’t-don’t-worry”, then under our cake tin lids for possibly the most restful sleep I’ve had in years.

The next morning a new group arrived after I had washed the elephants some more (the cleanest elephants in Laos?) who I got chatting to – they were very interested (horrified) to learn where I had slept. Have I become a scungy traveller? Should I consider dreadlocks and a tattoo? After they had been jostled around on the elephants, we all went off to visit a waterfall and then back to LPB. Met up that evening and the next few days with 2 Aussie girls, Daphne and Louise, really good fun and completely normal… not like the weird taggers-on they kept bringing along when we met up (who we did manage to shake off most evenings)

On my last day in Laos I woke early (5:15am. groan) to watch the monks receive alms. What an awful experience: all the Meryls and Chads get up early too to shove their fancy SLR cameras right in the monks’ faces, blinding them with flashes and blocking the way so they can’t get past. I would imagine it would be quite a beautiful thing to watch, but I went back to bed at 6:30 feeling slightly dirty for also having taken photos. To attempt at making amends I went to Big Brother Mouse, a place where tourists and Laos locals meet to talk so they can practise their English, talking about how old I am and where I come from.