It has been a busy few days since our last update but our time has been spent doing some of the most exciting things we have ever experienced.

After we left Bangkok following our two day stay in the Thai capital we went by train to the north to the town of Chiang Mai.

Far less touristy than the south of the country, Chiang Mai is packed with lots of local culture and beautiful landscape.

During our two stay we visited an eloquent temple that was coated in gold leaf-like material and our piece deresistance, a full day trip to the Elephant National Park Sanctuary.

The park stretches over 40 acres of land and is home to 34 elephants, including four babies, that have all been rescued from the big cities where they are tortured in order to work the streets for the main purpose of being ridden by tourists.

During our visit we were able to feed the elephants their diet of papaya, watermelon, pineapple and banana whilst we had the opportunity to take them down to the river and wash them in the water. One baby elephant even showed of its trick of guessing all the tourists with its trunk.

A truly fulfilling and enjoyable day where words can not truly express our satisfaction, but hopefully the photos will do it some justice, at least.

We our now in Laos for a quick three day visit.  Our journey here was, let me say, different to say the least.

This involved a rather cramped four journey by mini-bus to the Thai-Laos border, a 4 a.m. check in to a very basic looking hotel, a 7 a.m. wake-up call in order to make our way through the border at 8 a.m., then a canoe style boat which was powered by a car-like size engine enabling us to travel down the Mekong Delta at over 30 miles per hour. Different, not so comfortable but entirely rewarding, somehow, at the same time.

We are currently in Luang Prabang, to the north of Laos. It is very chilled here, full of lots of local culture and some really friendly, warm people.  We have also experienced a very sudden drop in temperature where we the use of a jumper and coat at night whilst sitting around a warm fire is essential. It may not be quite as cold as England but going from 30 degree heat to 10-15 degrees, let me tell you, we have noticed the difference.

As I write, we are currently waiting for a lady to return to let us know our options so we can decide whether to head south of Laos to Vangvieng and/or Ventienne or remain here before travelling to Bangkok in order to catch our  flight to Singapore on December 4 for a two night stay before leaving for Australia.

This job is very hectic at the moment, I must re-iterate.

From a busy office somewhere in Luang Prabang, Laos, it’s back to work. 

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 7:17 am and is filed under On the move, SE Asia, Laos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.