Laos (Day 26) BATHING Elephants!

WE GAVE OUR ELEPHANTS A BATH!! We are still processing that this really happened. 

After the best sleep of our trip, we awoke early and embraced our beautiful surroundings. 

Minecrafting in Laos Across from Elephants *insert eye roll* *sigh*

The GOOD Life!

Spot my kids!

From across the river, we could see the mahouts bringing our elephants out of their forest retreats. Ahhh, we enjoyed our wonderful breakfast. But, we were super excited to get to our elephants!

Dressed to get wet and wearing water shoes, we made our way to the dock and took a boat across to say good morning to the elephants as they came out of the forest to the riverbank. It's still just our family (and a whole lot of staff) making this a very special experience. 

We each took our own elephant into the water for bathing. Or, was it the other way around. How did they get so dirty in the forest?! Mine needed extra attention behind her ears. Squeaky clean (elephants and humans). Seriously. This experience. Be still my ❤️ heart. We can go home now.

Why do the elephants need to be bathed? Elephants are highly dependant on water, not only for drinking but also for their skin and general hygiene. During their evolution, they were probably fully amphibious, and the present Asian elephants are reported to have swam a good distance in the ocean. Elephants enjoy a daily bath and apart from the hygienic benefit, it's also important for their mental well-being.

With hearts soaring, we returned camp side and went to get cleaned up before lunch. We wandered the grounds a bit while waiting for each other. 

Now, it was time to learn more in-depth about the care of our rescued elephants and the good work of this sanctuary with a tour of the camp museum and elephant hospital. 

There is a full-time elephant vet on staff. The doctor examines each elephant every morning - weighing it, treating wounds, providing vitamins, and making sure it is getting plenty of food and water. We got more familiar with the 12 elephants from their medical charts, which identified them by pic, age, weight and mahout. There is a daily-check written noting their current condition and treatments. They carry heavy scars from 💔 experiences, but may they now live the rest of their days in comfort here at the sanctuary.  Molly, who has wanted to be a vet since pre-school, has found her mothership here in Laos. She hasn't stopped talking about returning and bringing all her friends. 

Medicine for the Elephants

The museum is well done and we learned many new things taking our time at each signage and display.

We got a lot of dung paper to bring back home! FYI - there is no aroma to it.

This sign cracked us up!

Oh right, I almost forgot to mention the logistics of booking our Elephant Village experience. Now, there are 2 sides to this operation. And, if you want to do the stay that we did then you will need to make sure that you are booking the Shangri-Lao (2 Day Expedition with Camping).  

There is a less costly option to stay overnight in their Elephant Lodge. From what I can tell, it is a substantial cost savings per person ($154 vs $406 per person at the rate when we booked). I have no idea what the accommodations and surrounding grounds are like, but do know that you would not have access to the Shangri-Lao Treehouse Restaurant and THAT pool. For us, this was a once in a lifetime experience and we came away completely satisfied PLUS.

We booked directly online and paid in full at the time of booking. There are only 3 tents and I knew that we would need 2 of them.  No way was I leaving it to chance with availability. We booked about 15 months in advance! I had to shift our dates by a day when I finally booked our flights due to flight schedules, but it was not a problem. I don't know what their cancellation policy is as I didn't ask. I just assumed it was non-refundable. Here is the web address: http://www.elephantvillage-laos.com/tours/shangri-lao-package/

Yes, I was freaked out at the number of pre-paid non-refundable expenses that we were accumulating prior to actual travel. It honestly boggles my mind that everything went off without a single hitch. 

Too soon, our time with the elephants ended. I might have shed a tear at departure. Instead of going back to Mekong Riverview, I had arranged that we be dropped off at My Dream Boutique.  We checked into this small garden boutique hotel which is located back near the heritage town of Luang Prabang. Conveniently, they called Mekong Riverview to have our cleaned laundry and excess luggage sent over. Like everything else we've experienced so far in Laos, it's so Zen here.

We enjoyed the rest of our day around the garden and pool. 

We have a huge interconnecting family room (2 identical rooms with full bath each and one HUGE balcony). After pool time, the kids fairly quickly disappeared into their room with their electronics to chill until dinner.

We were keen to go back to the Night Market for dinner, so we had a tuk-tuk called to take us. There are bikes available and we did see people use them to get into town, but we are lazy and no way did I trust Rob's "5 minutes tops" estimation. 

These two. Partners working out their bargaining strategy for little sister's desired item (the backpack that she is wearing). They did so much better than Rob. Turns out, Caitlin is a pro. It got to the point that we would just tell her what we wanted and then walk away as she completed the purchase. 

We had told our tuk-tuk driver that we would meet him for the return ride. But, we just couldn't find him and I'm not sure we were even at the right end of the market where we said we would meet. We felt bad because we hadn't paid our one-way fare. To balance our karma, Rob paid our return ride extra. Sneak preview - we find our original tuk-tuk driver!

Up Next: Living Luang Prabang

Laos (Day 25) ELEPHANTS

ELEPHANTS is why we came to Laos! This sanctuary was created in 2001 to rescue elephants from the abusive logging industry. We were overjoyed to meet them up close. There are 12 elephants, including 2 babies (one was rescued, and one was born here at the camp).

We arrived after a short drive and mentally prepared ourselves for the "roughing it" next 2 days at the Elephant Village. We exited the vehicle and walked past the "Elephant Village" entrance and up a muddy hill led by our guide carrying our backpacks.

Wait. Full stop. This is a resort!! With elephants roaming!! OH MY GAWD I want to LIVE here!! 

Pretty sure our hotel lobby takes 1st prize. We rolled up to check-in at our 2-day camp and there were 3 elephants roaming. ✔️Bucket List 💯 my dreams have come true in Laos. Elephants have sanctuary here. 

Each elephant is so gentle and we couldn't believe that we were walking amongst these majestic beasts. They are all really well cared for and each mahout (person who works with and tends an elephant) took care of his elephant. 

We spent some time with the 3 elephants and got a lesson about the camp and the elephants. We even got to feed them bananas!

We followed our guide on a path through a perfectly manicured yard and then across a bridge straight into Utopia.  We set our belongings in our two "tents" ⛺️ GLAMPING tents (Rob and I exclaimed to each other that this would make a dream honeymoon destination pre-kids).

We booted the kids from our tent and sent them uphill to theirs. They are identical and I'm not sure how we picked which one would be ours and which theirs. 

Rob is so nervous that they are staying alone up there. But enough about them, check out this interior!!!!

After a million squeals of delight fully exploring both bungalows (because seriously - why are we calling them tents, hahahaha), we regrouped with our guide back at the restaurant treehouse to begin our adventure of a lifetime. 

The oldest elephant is 45 and she was rescued from logging where she suffered the loss of part of her foot after stepping on a UXO (unexploded ordinance). It's uplifting to know that these elephants will never log again and will live the rest of their lives protected here. Their backstories are so heartbreaking. 

The water in the river is too high for the elephants to cross it at this time. The three that we already met are "stuck" on our side of the river.  To see the rest, we took a quick boat across. 

When we met the 2 babies, our hearts 💕 burst!! Warms our hearts to know that they are in a sanctuary. The boy in front is Maxi and he was born at the camp after his pregnant mother was rescued (we met her and there is not a gentler giant). The girl next to him is Mae Khamphet and she was rescued. Sadly, her mother suffers from the abuse of logging, but Mae will never know these horrors. May their spirits never be broken. 

💙Oh my, oh my. These two baby elephants! Talk about cuteness overload. Such big personalities. These babies are both about 4 years old. They have to wear bells so the mahout can find them as they wander the forest. 

Was that a lot of elephant pics? Hahahaha, I took 5,947,897,487 more, so you've actually been spared. 

The Elephant Village has 100 acres of forest land and the elephants are allowed to roam. At night, they do chain the elephants in the forest, but this is for their protection so they do not wander into the nearby villages and gardens upsetting the Lao neighbors. 

After meeting all the elephants and feeding the ❤️ babies, we returned back across the river and had a tasty lunch in the treehouse restaurant.

After lunch, we had time for a quick break at our tents to change into swimsuits and gather some gear. This place only has 3 tents and we had 2 of them so we had the ENTIRE place to ourselves for the duration of our stay!!!! A true highlight of my entire life. THE top destination. I would live here forever if I could. 

We enjoyed our afternoon with a traditional Lao boat ride up to see the Tad Sae Waterfalls. The water was really brown from the recent rainfall so we weren't really inclined to swim in it. Plus, we had a our pristine 💙 pool back at the camp. 

Our boat trying to drop us off here was somewhat entertaining. I'm pretty sure if I had to maneuver one of these long boats, I would not find myself making many friends amongst the other boats. Hahahaha. 

We did have a fun time hiking around the falls. I always worry about the kids on the slippery rocks, but we avoided any injuries and didn't use a single band-aid.

Afterwards, our boat picked us up to take us back to the camp. It is so beautiful on the river and the scenic landscape is very calming. 

Back at camp. Lovely Laos. Roughing it with this infinity pool view overlooking the Nam Khan River where rescued elephants are chilling. So yeah, Laos is #winning.

So, remember how we were the only ones here? They sent a staff member to open the bar for us. Just us. This taste of the good life. Wow, could get used to this. We made sure to order plenty of drinks!

After swimming, we went to have dinner at the treehouse restaurant and simply relaxed while enjoying the sunset over our stunning mountain range views. It reminded me of Costa Rica.

Up Next: Bathing, yes BATHING, elephants!