I've finally found something with a nose bigger than mine!

Aw, the last 2 days have been amazing. As we couldn't visit the gibbons with zip-lines in NW Laos, Pete promised me elephants and elephants are what I got. Yesterday we packed up our trunks and we headed off to Elephant XL Camp - a home in the Laos countryside near Luang Prabang for elephants that have been rescued from logging. The project supports the local community by providing income and English training to the guides and the elephants get to earn their keep by letting tourists ride them (for not very long at all each day, don't worry, they were happy elephants). I'd never touched an elephant and when they first plodded into camp I had tears in my eyes. They really are amazing. There were four lady elephants and one baby. First off we rode on a chair on the back - alternating between that and the elephant's neck when we got a bit bolder. When we got off we fed them bananas, which I found hilarious. They spy that you've got a bunch and then you see an inquisitive trunk coming your way on a exploring mission. The trunks somehow seem to be animals in their own right, they're so far away from the rest of the elephant's head. After many bananas had been consumed, the chairs came off and we rode them back to their forest home for the night (they only do 2 rides per day + the rides to and from the forest for people like us who'd signed up for the mahout (or elephant handler) experience). Being on the elephant's neck was scary - especially going down-hill! I thought I was going to fall off and be squished by a big foot! But I managed to stay on and manage the hike back to our camp - camp, pah, it was a luxury room in a big lodge and we had a four poster with mosquito net and a big verandah looking out over the river into the teak forest and everything.

It had been an exciting day so we had a siesta and then joined the other couple on the mahout experience for a lovely dinner by candlelight (as the lights were attracting too many moths so they turned them off for us). This morning we got up at the crack of dawn to hike back to where the elephants had stayed the night and we rode on their necks back to the camp. Obviously we weren't riding alone - each elephant has its own mahout and most of them will only cooperate with one mahout. All the commands are by voice - BAI! means Go!... KWA! means Go right! See, I'm fluent in elephant now (but would only be able to drive them round in circles, it seems). Back at camp we fed them some more and had some fun feeding the baby who didn't quite grasp that he should eat one banana before searching out another. He ended up not being able to carry all the bananas with his trunk but still kept asking for more. After the feed came the best bit. We rode the elephants into the river and helped the mahouts give them a wash! I was responsible for lovingly scrubbing the elephant's head. They loved it. After that we said goodbye as it was time for them to work. And for us to work too - we kayaked 5 hours to return to Luang Prabang, a lovely trip but I'm now aching everywhere and am looking forward to my dinner tonight. We're going for Lao food again. Probably have the spicy green papaya salad again. And the pork salad too. And maybe some more river moss - I prefer the fried to the boiled myself but they're both nice.

What a fantastic couple of days. It was such a cool experience, if anyone comes to Laos, which I highly recommend for a holiday, then this trip is a must. I feel so lucky to have washed an elephant!