Elefunts!

We woke this morning to another well prepared meal - omlettes, tea, coffee and warmed rolls. That reminds me - at our hotel in Siem Reap (Cambodia) you could line up and have the cooks make either soup or omlettes with any ingredients you liked added in on a little portable stove.

So back to Laos. After breakfast we got ready to go. Some of the less delicate info I haven't shared about our lodgings on the top of a mountain in The Mong village of Poutao - the toilet was our first pit toilet that we needed to use. Paper was kept (i.e. not flushed by a pot of water) and was collected in a plastic bag outside. Our bathing was done using water out of a large drum/bin assigned as washing water which was really cold but it felt so good to clean up a bit.

As we head off, we look down over the Mong Village - it's so quiet and has such an incredible view. The path is not too bad (no where near as steep as coming down through the Thai Jungle which killed all of our knees) to start with but as I said many times throughout the trip - my head was leaking! The humidity even though we are going downhill has me soaked. Note to self - do more sauna/steam room time before heading back to Asia given Canberra is such a dry city.

We have a nice little break/"comfort stop" before heading to a slidey loose soil section that proves fun for some and damaging for others. Greg fell and copped a sharp stick into his hand. Kyle in his haste to get the first aid kit from the trek guide slipped also and hurt his ankle - later turned out he had damaged his achillies. After Greg is patched up, we head off again and about 5 mins in I roll my ankle. Thankfully my boots are great which stops it being too bad, but it really bloody hurts. Onwards ho and we come down to a river where there is an elephant drinking/bathing. This is one of the logging elephants and still quite wild. We're warned not to go near it as it isn't used to humans and might bolt.

We take a quick drink of water ourselves then climb up to a dirt road which is the latest section of road being built by the government to help the villagers with the logging. As you fly into Laos as well, you see loads of strangely bare land on the mountains. It looks like a patch stripped off the land leaving tan dirt behind and was quite concerning. We're told though that this is land the government has cleared for the mountain tribes to make rice paddies out of and that it is a good thing.

Walking along and talking to the guide, I didn't even notice the elephant in front of me. It's not like they are little or anything! We're instructed to move into single file and stay on the far left of the path so as not to startle the elephant. It swings it's trunk towards me as I go past to have a sniff (I was 2nd or 3rd to go past) and returns to eating. Guess we don't smell too good!

We finally trek through some lower ground and into the villiage where we are having lunch. If you can imagine a really dusty village of wooden buildings most on stilts (to let the air pass underneath) and one pagoda set up with two tables and chairs with table cloth, runner and cloth napkins, cutlery, plates and cold bottles of water. It was such a stark contrast and yet felt like a bit of an oasis in the desert. Lunch again was incredible. We've been thoroughly spoiled with most meals being multiple courses with amazing flavours.

Thankfully the truck from Buffalo Tours is there and we ditch our backpacks allowing us to do the last of the hike for the day without the extra weight of our day/overnight packs. Having said that, it's now really really hot and really really humid. I suddenly drop from the front of the group to the back finding it hard to get the thick air in and having my ankle bang away with fury after having had a rest at lunch. This uphill section straight out of the village is almost like a desert at first - barren gravelly hot and somewhat volcanic looking with tan colouring.

The next section was like low jungle - no cover but thick green vines and plants all around us. This is where is started to get really steamy and we were still going up. Once we reached the top it was a nice walk down (with another small barren patch) which included a river crossing needing us to take our shoes off. Any other day I'd probably even sit in the river but today the last thing I want to do is take my boot off. Greg gives me support to balance both getting the boot off and getting across the river. It ached to get the boot off, but putting it in the cold water killed.

On the other side we cleaned off our feet, pulled our socks and shoes on and set off for the last section. We walked through some rice paddies and down to the river bank where we climbed onto a long boat with deep comfy chairs. It was hard to stay awake as we floated back down the Mekong River to Luang Praban. We get out and clumb a big set of stairs. Really? Who needs more stairs at this point!! Ha ha. We were two blocks or so from our hotel and so happy to get back there. Kyle very kindly organised for some ice to be collected from the cafe on the corner to put on my ankle. Cynthia my room mate suggests we get some washing on which we do followed by some more shopping. Aside from dinner we have no commitments for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Finally we get some rest time!