Laos: Days seven through ten
DAY SEVEN: A day spent with the mahouts -- riding, feeding, bathing and learning all about the Lao elephants, visiting and feeding the special baby elephant and her momma, lunch in a thatch hut overlooking the Nam Khan river, a long-boat ride to Tad Sae waterfall, rope swinging into the waterfall pool and an awesome French dinner at L' Elephant in downtown Luang Prabang. Tomorrow, we head to Vang Vieng; we sure will miss this place.
P.S. The Lao people really love Ryder.
DAY EIGHT: Last breakfast at our amazing hotel (Le Sen) in Luang Prabang, an educational visit to the UXO Visitor Center, a walk through the Pa Phonphao Wat where we saw our first female monk, a five-hour drive to Vang Vieng, witnessed a Chinese woman crash her dune buggy into a concrete slab as she took it for a test drive (thankfully and amazingly, she was okay after a huge piece of concrete fell over and landed on top of her head), visited the Blue Lagoon, went spelunking in the Tham Phu Kham cave in flip-flops (we had no idea about the awesome depth and climbing in this cave and Sky ended up trekking out with no flip-flops because they got stuck in the mud).
DAY NINE: Trekked around and swam in the Tham Chang Cave, drove three hours back to Vientiane, stopped at a roadside market that was selling all kinds of illegal animals (porcupines, bats, birds, gophers, antelopes, etc.), finished the evening eating an awesome Thanksgiving chicken wing dinner with new friends.
DAY TEN: A visit to COPE (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) Visitor Centre, a very sweaty walk around the Pha That Luang (the great sacred stupa) area and lunch at Ban Gai, (our favorite Mexican restaurant).
I have no doubt that we will be back in Laos for another visit -- or who knows, maybe to live.
