Mountain of Luang Prabang

Righto, I am woefully behind on this blog but... here is my last adventure in Luang Prabang! There is a hill in town and someone decided to climb it... I have to admit, there were great views of some pagodas!

But the stairs... oh the stairs... they are not designed for little bear legs.

Ugh!! Alley-oop!! Whew!!

And it is super hot... and I am super-tuckered out!

But I made it to the top and... met a kitty! Hello kitty!!

She was pretty cute.

There was a great view of the Mekong River from up there. I have seen the Mekong in several cities now... Phnom Penh, Can Tho and now Luang Prabang!

This is a view to the east, over the Nam Khan River...

The mountain has a little pagoda on top with some Buddha statues.

But not much else. Not sure what was in this little house.

I even found an old gun emplacement up there!

That was totally weird... a pagoda with Buddha statues and an old gun from the war...

We were heading down the stairs but then there were some big drops starting to fall! Uh-oh... I think it might be raining!

And big drops they are too!!

Look there's another one!!

And more!!!

Why is Mama not picking me up and tucking me into the backpack???

Because those big drops were the sweat dripping off her face!! This is my most disgusted little bear look!

Down near the bottom, some more Buddha statues... I think they are saying "STOP sweating on  little bears!"

Not just one Buddha either... several have their hands up! But Mama says they were here long before she was, so the hands up don't mean "stop sweating on little bears"... I don't know about that!

Luang Prabang - The Shangri-Lao of the Orient

(Grumble grumble... this post was supposed to come before the Elephants, which are in Laos... sekretarial hic-cups apparently. Oh, and the laptop power cord is getting beary sketchy so there are some grumbly faces all the way around. Keep your paws crossed everything holds up for a while!)

Hullo bears and not-a-bears!! I am slowly getting caught up on my blog postings. We are only a few days behind now. I had a chat with my sekretary and she's doing a bit better!

We had a long night train from Dong Hoi to Hanoi and then a flight to Luang Prabang in Lao! It is known as the Shangri-Lao of the Far East.

Oooohhh... they use a different script, kind of like Cambodia and Thailand. I think this sign says - "Most handsome bear in the world standing here!" Heh-heh...

This sign is fairly easy to figure out!!

And even this sign can be deciphered if you know a bit of French... I think it says Box of Letters...

Oh look, they have tuk-tuks like in Thailand!!! Tuk-tuks are fun to ride in...

I'd like to learn how to drive one too but... I think I am still too young!

I thought at first this was a fishing basket - silly me... I've been on the coast of Vietnam far too much. It's actually a garbage basket - kind of cool...

There are 33 pagodas/temples in Luang Prabang... which is a lot!! You can buy these marigold arrangements (with banana leaves) to bring to the temples.

Hey - they play checkers here!!!

And they use bottle caps as checker pieces - that's very creative.

Whoa!! Beeline??? Are there bees here??? There must be!! I'll have to got on a hut for them... cause where there's bees, there's honey!

Oh my goodness... look at the size of these candles!! That would take an awful lot of beeswax!

It's official... this is not just Shangri-Lao... it is Utopia!! For a little bear who loves honey... now I just have to find it...

Utopia has a beautiful deck overlooking the river... and it is super hot today.

Maybe I should just chill out for a little bit. Hunting honey is hot and hard work you know... Can you see the top of my hat??

There I am!!

Waiter... I would like a ice tall cold glass of fresh lemonade please... with honey!

Oh... that is sooooo good!!! Now I am a bit refreshed and can go on a honey exploration.

Oh wait... what is that?? (Little bears are notoriously easy to distract!)

It's a USSR motorcycle... cool... with a side car. Vroom!!! I think I am too young to drive motorcycles too... but I can pretend! Now, where was I? Oh yes... honey!

This looks like a likely stash... but no... c'est empty!

How about this one?? I see something yellow in there!

Phooie!!! It's just yellow flowers floating on water...

I'll go and ask Big Brother Mouse.

He runs a literacy program here and English-speaking tourists can come and talk with Laos students and help them improve their English. Alas there are no little Laotian bears wanting to learn English! And Big Brother Mouse says he hasn't seen any honey pots lying around town. Ah well... I wonder if he and Beanie Mouse are related?

Oh my goodness... look!!! They have elephant adventures near here!!! Oooohhhh... maybe I can finally ride an elephant... a real elephant mind you!

Sandy Bear: Elephant Mahout

Well, today we went on an interesting adventure. At first I thought we were just going to the Tad Sae Waterfall. It was pretty cool with limestone terraces and a lot of different waterfall spots.

You could even go swimming there... if you wanted to. I am a little bear and this water looked kind of dirty so I decided to just hang out while the humans splashed around.

Then we got on a boat... and drove down the river Nam Khan. That was kind of neat... wheeee!!!! I asked Mama where we were going but she wouldn't tell me...

And then... whoa!!! We went to a place called Elephant Village!!! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!! Are there real elephants here??? It says Sanctuary and Resort...

I even got a sticker which identified me as a Package bear... not sure what that is... Mama says it means I can partake of various activities here.

Well... it certainly looks like a resort...

Oh look, an elephant!!! But it's only a fake one... sigh...

OK, OK, I'll get my picture taken with yet another fake elephant... why does this always happen to me???

Huh??? There is a no-smoking sign here because elephants don't like smoke?? Well, a fake elephant can't smell... so???

Oh my goodness!!! Do you see that??? Do you??

I think that was a real, live elephant!!!

Oh my goodness... it is... there are real elephants here!!

Mama says we are going to take Mahout training. Mahout means elephant trainer/caretaker/driver. What??? Me... a Mahout!!?? First I have to learn some elephant commands in Laotian... so, here goes...

Bai Bai -go forward (sounds like bye-bye)
Dun Dun - go backwards
How How - Stop!! (very important!)
Sai Sai - turn left
Qwa Qwa - turn right
Map Map - lie down (just not in the water!)

OK... so I am going to practice those. This guy is a real elephant mahout... he makes it all look soooo easy!

Our first activity is to ride in a howdah... that is the big chair that sits on the back of an elephant. It was hard to get a picture of us on our elephant chair so we took a picture of a couple of Dutch people behind us. They are from Utrecht. I asked them if they knew Hammie or Sullivan but nooo... I guess Holland is bigger than I thought.

And then... our elephants went in the water!! I sure hope it isn't too deep because I didn't bring my rubber boots!

This is our mahout!!

Giddyup!!! Err.... Bai Bai!!! And no Map Map in the river because I can't swim!

When we got out of the river, Mama got to sit on the neck of the elephant and... I got to join her! Whoa... elephants are verrrrryyyy tall!! Mama held on to me because my balance isn't the greatest at the best of times and there wasn't much to hold onto up there! Sitting on an elephant is sort of like sitting on an earthquake - very bouncy, moving back and forth and up and down.

Elephants do have hair... but it's very prickly and not too long so it wasn't very comfortable to sit on. Little bears have sensitive behinds... even with our plushy fur.

And finally, there they go. We spent two days with the elephants and it was beary cool...

The elephants here are mostly rescued elephants from the logging industry here in Lao. Now all they do is get up at 6 am and work until noon (carrying tourists and little bears)... at which point they go back to the jungle and eat. An elephant needs to eat 200 kg of food a day!!! That's a lot of food... Elephants are also beary smart... I wish I could talk elephant to them, but lots of the time their "language" is below the range of human (and little bear) hearing. Did you know that elephants cry and feel sadness? If you look at the picture you can almost see that...

P.S. Oh yes, and what do elephants loooovvvee to snack on?? Peanuts?? Noooo... bananas!!!