On The Way To Tad Lo
This was the last real segment of our "Spirit of Laos" trip with Explore, and it was New Year's Eve which would be spent in Tad Lo, at the Tad Lo Resort. The area around Tad Lo (as well as Muang Khong) is quite close to the Thailand border and many Thai groups come for the day or weekend. This area is also known as The Bolovan Plateau, very fertile - coffee beans and tea are the most important products grown here - and also a center for several Mon-Khmer ethnic groups.
Today's plan was to ferry across the river and bus for two hours for an elephant ride around Khiang Nkong Village. There were 13 Asian Elephants, smaller than African Elephants, formerly used for logging. Now they live the life of leisure, just taking tourists on elephant rides. There are perhaps only 100 wild elephants left, primarily, by the Cambodian border.
The two-hour ride would take us up a hill overlooking the Bolovan Plateau to the remains of Phou Asa archaeological site and back down again. Along came our trusty elephants with mahouts... Sue distributed $1 to everyone in the group to tip the Mahout after your ride. The ride was included in our tour but the cost would be $12 for one or two persons for those not on a tour.
It is a project getting on the elephant from the platform, not easy positioning yourself just so...View image... but at last, ex-Marine and I were situated, semi-comfortably (I'm not going to lie to you...elephant riding is uncomfortable), waited for everyone else to get on their elephants....
...and off we went, lurching from side-to-side, upwards to the temple remains....
Some other elephant facts... Sue suggested wearing old clothes because elephants cool themselves off by blowing mucus (snot) out of their trunks and guess where that mucus was going to go...also, elephants sleep about three hours and eat the rest of the time. I enjoy riding elephants but a two-hour ride is about one-hour too long. Off the elephants, it was time to buy some sugar cane stalks (about 50 cents for two stalks) to feed your elephant as a reward.
Lunch was at the beautiful Kingfisher Ecolodge, owned by an Italian man married to a Lao with excellent food. (Read more about it through their link.) There was actually a Kingfisher outside the veranda restaurant...one of the only birds we saw throughout Laos.
Next stop was a blacksmith village to buy knives for our last village stop tomorrow. That village was extremely poor and knives, used like a scythe to cut wheat and rice, are considered a luxury. The knives only cost about $1.80 but that is a fortune to these people. The group happily started buying knives to be presented to the village.
Finally, the last stop before Tad Lo, Huay Houne, a weaving/coffee village...View image...
By this time, I was completely "villaged" and "scarfed" out. ex-Marine was busy shouting..."what are you going to do with another scarf"....but I felt compelled to help out these poor people who weren't begging, just trying to subsist on selling handmade scarves...so...I bought another one.
Another extremely busy day almost over, the group arrived at Tad Lo Resort and walked out to see the famous waterfalls. Can you believe how many sights were packed into each day? I'm not complaining though...
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