Memorable Moments in Luang Prabang

January 10, 2013 by B + B in Laos, Southeast Asia

Sunrise has become one of our favorite times of day. We arrived in Luang Prabang just as the sun was rising, fresh off a twelve-hour overnight bus from the border. The world was just waking up, but the city itself was already in full swing. The morning market bustled with business, doling out the daily ingredients for the city's restaurants and guesthouses. Monks slowly walked the streets around the temples, accepting offerings of rice, vegetables and money from the dozens of locals lining the sidewalks, men standing, women always sitting. Cafes, thankfully, opened their doors and offered the handful of early-bird, bleary-eyed tourists a hot cup of coffee and a front row seat. Despite the activity, it was quiet. There were no raised voices and no horns. It was almost like they were trying to keep it a secret, working busily in hushed tones to preserve the morning peace before the day interrupted.

I think it was times like this, individual moments, that stood out for us in Luang Prabang. The city itself is nice enough and we had some good times, but neither of us fell in love with it. It's the most popular tourist city in Laos, and we can see why. Luang Prabang is beautiful, with colorful colonial architecture, cobblestone streets and sidewalk cafes nestled between two rivers that make you feel like you're in France instead of one of the poorest countries in Asia. But, it's almost too quaint. Too curated. It doesn't have the grit that we've come to appreciate in this area - one too many cafes and a few too little street stalls (in the end it always comes back to food).

Since it's such a picturesque city, we'll let the photos do the talking. Here are our favorite moments in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Morning Market & Tamarind Cooking Class

Mekong River at Sunset and Pac Ou Caves

Kwang Si Waterfalls

Asian Bear Sanctuary

The Elephant in the Room

January 09, 2013 by B + B in Laos

In SE Asia, elephants are as much a part of the typical "tourist experience" as temples and full-moon parties. But for us animal-loving outsiders, it's a contradictory and confusing industry. In Thailand, we saw a lot of the bad side - over-tourism enabled by unethical operators who care about the almighty dollar (or Baht) more than the elephant's health or happiness. We also got a small glimpse of the good side - tourism, done right(ish), as a way to ensure an elephant's place in a society that has domesticated elephants for industry for centuries.

The stunning Elephant Conservation Center.

Still curious (and conveniently in Laos, the "land of 1,000,000 elephants"), we decided to go spend more time with our favorite gentle giants to get the scoop. Counter to Thailand, we had no problem choosing the "operator" we wanted to visit. The Elephant Conservation Center in Sayabouri Province, in partnership with Elephant Asia, is home to the first elephant hospital, breeding program and nursery in Laos and just opened its doors to tourists in 2012 as a way to monetarily support its efforts. The 180-acre sanctuary is set on some of the most beautiful land we have seen in Asia - and matches up to pretty much everywhere else. And, no one knows about it (yet). They don't advertise through the hundreds of travel agents in Luang Prabang, there is no shuttle that comes to fetch you in the city - it's a fend-for-yourself four-hour local bus ride out to the nearest town, a tuk tuk drive to a ferry dock and a boat ride across a glassy reservoir - and they are buried online behind the more popular elephant camps, ethnic trekking and tour opportunities in Laos. Some of that is on purpose - tourism is a means to an end for them, not a money maker. They want small groups (maximum of twelve, I think) and minimal impact for the elephants. And, some of it is just because they are new at this whole tourism thing.

We were searching for the truth, or at least a little insight, but after three days and two nights, we were still scratching our heads. Not because the ECC didn't give good information - they did - but because the reality is complicated and hard to swallow.

Elephants are bathed in the lake twice per day. Witnessing such beautiful animals play in the water with this as the backdrop is quite the memorable experience.

To start with, there's the staggering reality that Laos, once the land of 1,000,000 elephants is now home to fewer than 1,000, with nearly fifty percent of those domesticated and employed either in tourism or logging. And, the death rate currently exceeds the birth rate two to one. The simple fact is that if something isn't done now, elephants could be completely extinct in Laos in the next few centuries.

Which brings us to hard reality number two. The immediate solutions can't just focus on a better future for elephants in Laos. They have to make sure there is a future at all, which means living with a few things that seem counter to the cause. For example, the breeding program at ECC offers owners of domesticated animals - usually tour operators or loggers - the opportunity to breed their elephants with a male at the center knowing full-well that the baby will also be employed in those industries. They stipulate that the mother and baby stay at the center until they're healthy enough to leave and actually pay the mahout to live on site with their elephants during the late-pregnancy and early months after the birth. This process is groundbreaking in Laos, typically takes two years and drastically improves the chances of a healthy life for both mother and baby. But when the time comes, they are both back to work. It just doesn't seem right. Another example... The ECC provides mobile clinics and mahout training to remote logging villages in Laos, providing health care and best-practices in hopes the elephants' quality of life improves, but without changing its circumstances. Wait.. What?! These facets of the program were absolutely mind-boggling to us. How can ECC support logging? Domestication from birth? Don't they want the elephants to be "free"? Or at least retired from a life of forced labor?

The answer is of course, yes, ideally elephants would be frolicking freely in the wild without a care in the world outside of meals and mating. But, hard realities number three and four show why it's not that easy. First of all, there are people involved. Whole communities of people whose livelihoods depend on elephant labor. Families and children who would be without shelter, food and clothing if not for it. Secondly, there is currently no comparable alternative for the logging communities and the government has been unwilling to help change that fact, despite the hardship of logging on the elephants and the environment. In fact, the government seems to not only ignore, but actually impede progress, going so far as seizing NGO equipment for personal profit, limiting state contracts and funding to the bare minimum, and regulating private donation and grant receipts in the extreme. To complicate matters more, if the government were to wake up tomorrow and do what we're all thinking they should do - enact legislation against logging and provide new industry for the loggers - the elephants would be left behind in the "progress" with no where to go.

Guests at ECC get to ride elephants, but for no longer than an hour. After being taught the different ways to get onto the elephant, you ride the traditional way - bareback.

Which brings us to the fifth and final hard truth. The near-future alternative is tourism. Just like they've experienced in Thailand (where logging is prohibited by the government), land is in short supply, domesticated elephants are without skills to survive in the wild even if land wasn't an issue, and protected areas cost money. A lot of money. Without massive, most likely unrealistic support from both the government and the private sector, these elephants will have to earn their keep. And, as we've already discussed, the tourism industry is also riddled with complication.

Sunset view from our bamboo bungalow at ECC.

The good news is that there are good people trying to do it right. Programs like ECC's focus on education and understanding versus cheap thrills and a quick pay check. And, it seems like travelers are becoming more conscious of how their choices can affect change. With continued efforts from both sides and some massive changes in government outlook and outreach, the future for elephants in SE Asia will not only be ensured, but look a lot brighter. Even without the rose-colored glasses.

Monkeying Around in Laos

December 27, 2012 by B + B in Laos, SE Asia

The border crossing at Chiang Khong / Huay Xia was so easy it almost felt like we did something wrong. Apparently, a lot of people get scammed into hiring people to "help" them across, but we hadn't done enough research to even know that was a possibility, so we just wandered around the dock until we saw something that resembled passport control, got our exit stamps, hung out by the river until a boatman offered us a ride across the Mekong and then stumbled up the Laos side and upon the only official looking counter in site. $30, two photos and a stamp later, we were officially Laos tourists.

Coming into Laos, we didn't really know what to expect. We had heard mixed reviews from other travelers - some loved it, some said we'd be begging to be back in Thailand. Feedback tended to boil down to two simple observations - infrastructure and communication are crap but the land and people are beautiful. Not too bad. Plus, we were up for a little adventure. We decided to keep it simple, stick to a somewhat limited geography and get out in nature as much as possible.

It worked. By our second day in-country, we were trekking through the jungle, flying over the canopy of the tallest trees in Laos and sleeping in a treehouse 90 ft above the ground that you could only get into or out of via zip line. We spent three days in Bokeo Nature Reserve living out our childhood "Swiss Family Robinson" fantasies, left mostly to our own devises in the jungle with harnesses, carabiners and full reign of the zip lines. But it wasn't all play... We had to work for it! The hiking was serious - long, steep, muddy and sweaty. Our guide, Neu, kept taking us off trail, so we were literally bushwhacking through the jungle. It worked out well for us because we got a trek and a zip line experience for the price of one! The only problem was that there were creepy crawlies, mainly leeches that were very attracted to Brendan. Everyone in our group had one or two over the three days, but they seemed to specifically target Brendan - at one point, he had six on his foot at one time.

Neu, our Ninja guide, with a pot of Tea for the treehouse.

We got really lucky and ended up in a treehouse with great people, five Dutch and two other Americans (some of the few we've met along the way). We all agreed to make the most of our days, so we were up at dawn and in at dark or even after, which meant night zip lining! We were a treehouse family for the three days, with Nue, our jungle mama zipping in food and tea three times a day and indulging us in our never ending desire to zip and search for the elusive Gibbon, the reason we were all there in the first place.

The Gibbon is a monkey thought to be extinct in Laos until about 10 years ago, when scientists rediscovered the species in the Bokeo area. Since then, the Gibbon Experience has been using eco-tourism to help protect the natural jungle in Northwest Laos and repopulate the Gibbon. The zip lining and treehouse apartments are supposed to give you the full experience of living in the canopy, just like the Gibbons who often never touch the ground in their lifetime. They live in families and every morning, the male sings to his mate and children to keep the family close.

And, the very last day after hearing the Gibbons whale-like cries every morning, we finally got our first glimpse of a family high in the trees. After learning more about the very human-like Gibbons and spending time in their world, we're glad someone like the Gibbon Experience is around to help them out.