Laos- 3 maaassive days!

I've been weighing up whether to write on here or in my diary for the last couple of days (because they both take so much time when we've been doing so much!!), but because I know there are actually people reading this now and because my fingers are sore from today, the blog has won.. enjoy!
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Phew! Where to begin? The last time I wrote we had only just arrived in Luang Prabang.. it seems so long ago now! Our last three days have been incredible- tiring, inspiring, surprising, HECTIC.
Thursday- was a rather lazy day. We wandered the town a little and sussed out what we would like to do with our time. A friendly Canadian couple who were staying in our guesthouse suggested that we should 'cross the bridge' and get some fondue on the other side of the river.
Excited about the idea of dipping things into cheesey goodness, we found a bamboo bridge that was a little bit rickety and climbed a nasty hill to find a beautiful secluded restaurant. We had a big deck with table and cushions to sit on all to ourselves, with a beautiful view of the Nam Khan river. It was quite amusing to find that we were very wrong about what a 'fondue' is in Laos. We were presented firstly with rice and a huge basket of raw vegetables and dry noodles and two plates of raw thinly sliced meat. Our waiters then proceeded to pull the middle tile out of our table, replacing it with a funny shaped pan/cauldron/thing with a fire under it (I wish I could draw it, that would make this description so much easier!). It seems that a Lao fondue is nothing like a fondue, but more like a steamboat-cross-BBQ. The meat is fried on the top bit over the fire, and the vegies and noodles cook around the outside in hot water (like a moat to the BBQ?) to make a rather amazing soup. It took a while to cook but it was definitely worth it for the flavour! This was pretty impressive and we were so glad to have 'crossed the bridge' to try something new.
Friday- (Happy Birthday Ross!)
I'm not sure how mentally prepared we were for today! Taking Mick's advice that it was definitely worth it, we set off on Friday morning for a 35km bike ride to the Kuang Si waterfall outside of Luang Prabang. To be fair, he didn't tell us it was going to be easy, but we're not the fittest bunch around! The ride was tough, up some pretty huge hills and long stretches of walking, but it was definitely worth it. Kuang Si itself is not the biggest or loudest of waterfalls, but its defining feature is this most spectacular aqua-blue water that seems to glow when you look at it. The water was freezing but after the long slog of the day's ride we jumped in (off a small cliff might I add- a big feat for me who is a bit afraid of falling off things since that damn horse in Zimbabwe!). We may have been laughed at by other tourists who passed us from their tuk-tuks on the way there, but they could not have appreciated that cool blue water like we did. Awesome. For dinner I had the best meal I have had yet while away.. the boys and I went down a small side street to the 'food market' which has tables on both sides of rice, noodles, vegies and BBQs with delicious smells wafting from all directions! Most stalls sell chicken and fish on a stick so that's what we had.. SOOOOO GOOOOD!!! Both were just being cooked as we approached the stall so were fresh as can be and just tasted amazing. KFC pales in comparison to the crispy chicken we ate there. And the fish, falling off the bone.. SCRUMPTIOUS.
Saturday- (Happy Birthday to Dave's Mum!)
I woke up at 6am this morning to see the daily procession of monks that passes right outside our guesthouse. It was rather on the cold side, sitting outside in the dark while the others were still all snuggled up in bed, but it was pretty cool. Around 300 monks all dressed in their bright orange threads walk in single file along the street to the temple not far from where we are staying. The oldest are at the beginning and they get continually younger as they go along, the youngest who look about only 10 years old- I'm not really sure what the custom is. They each carry a big pot thing over their shoulder and take [what seems to be] offerings of rice from the local women (who might I add must have got up at like 5am to make the bloody rice as well! No wonder everyone goes to sleep so early in this town!). Just one pinch of rice for every monk, who take the offering with a bow and continue on their merry ways in silence up the street. Fascinating and also worth the effort :)
A few hours later the others were up and we were ready for our big adventure- an exciting combination tour of trekking, elephant riding and bathing, homestay in a village, elephant feeding and kayaking. We met our guide Suk ("Sook") at our guesthouse and were driven by tuk-tuk to a small Lao village out of town (via the Chinese market where we picked up a massive satellite, TV and set top box- not sure where our money is going now, bit dodgy maybe?). We crossed another rickety bamboo bridge, which Suk explained has to be built again every year after the rainy season because the river rises so much. For half the year the locals use the bridge to cross and the other half they have to take big longboats to and fro. To make 12kms of hiking brief- we passed through a few villages, stopped to eat some raw palm sugar (bit too sweet sucked straight out of the stick), said 'Sa Bai Dee' to the cutest little children and got pretty pooped climbing steep steep hills. After the day before's ride we were pretty buggered. Finally we hit the river again (we'd done a bit of a loop) and were taken across on a longboat to the village where we were going to stay the night. Lunch was interesting.. soup, rice and buffalo skin (a common local jerky). To steal from Dave- "did it go tweet tweet, or neigh, or mooo, I think it went ruff ruff." Unknown meat- curiouser and curiouser...
Here was where we met our elephants. While they are beautiful creatures and a joy to be around, I still am really unsure as to how ethical their treatment is. Tied to a chain in the forest at night, our two ellies spend almost dawn to dusk carrying tourists like us around a same-same track through shallow water and trees.
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Because I'm only updating this now (Wednesday) I'll be quick.. but the rest of our tour goes as follows....
Elephant riding- our first go we sat on seats on their backs, Mick sat on the neck and then the next time we rode bareback.. which was really fun but slow and hurt like nothing else.. elephants have a very uncomfortable spine!
Elephant bathing- what I thought would be us just squirting the ellies with a hose turned out to be a highlight! We rode them bareback straight into the river where the trainers had them squirting US with their trunks and tipping Dee and mick right over into the water (while Ez held on tight!). Highly entertaining!
Homestay- we slept in a modern Lao home with a family who cooked us a delicious but very spicy dinner and a brilliant rice noodle soup breakfast. Sleeping on the floor may not have been a highlight for some of the others in the group but I loved the chance to step out of my comfort zone and use a 10cm hard mattress on the floor in the open-air second storey with the grandma. It wasn't the worst sleep I've had and is exactly how the rest of the family was sleeping too. When in Rome...
Ceremony- although still unsure why this was done or if it is done for all the tour groups who pass through, we were ceremonially wished 'Good Luck, Good Health and Good Travels" by the locals. This was done with a lot of chanting by some men, the tying of bits of cotton to our wrists and the drinking of Lao Lao (rice whiskey which is particularly potent!).
Elephant feeding- having banana leaves snatched out of our hands by the beautiful big animals was pretty cool.. the way they eat is amazing!!
Kayaking- 15km down the Nam Khan back to Luang Prabang was good fun. I was in a kayak with Dave, Ez and Mick went together and Dee had a nice lazy time sharing the kayak with Suk. It was an easy trip cos the river is strong and there was some fun little rapids as well.
An awesome tour and a great way to end a fabulous stay in Luang Prabang!