Travelling with chickens: Elephant Festival

Imagine this. You have been in a new country for 3 weeks and get asked if you would be interested in going to an Elephant Festival.

You ask, "Whats an elephant festival?" A 3 day festival celebrating the contribution of these beautiful animals to Laos. A festival involving 65-70 elephants from around the country all displayed in the same place.

Then you ask "Where is it?" Well, its a 7-8 hour mini van ride away.

Gulp. That's a looong time in a van with a 2 year old. But this 2 year old loooves elephants.

We ummed and argued but in the end decided we are only here once and we should go for it. And I'm so glad we did!

To summarise the few days there were 2 long mini van rides, both surprisingly easy because Bea has the knack now for long distance travel. (with a little help our travel friend Mr iPad) There were only 2 mini melt downs, one involving a squat toilet, the other that the only food on the menu was noodle soup.

The festival was held in the town of Sayaboury. It's not a tourist town. You can't get fresh milk, there are no western conveniences. And we only found one western toilet. We were staying in the house owned by a colleague because all the guest houses were full. So it was hot, and not at all like a hotel, but it was fun. Her family were wonderful to us, and loved Bea. In fact everyone in the town loved Bea and everywhere we went we were followed by a chorus of "Falang Noi" (little foreigner).

As for the festival, it was pretty spectacular. There were 65 elephants and they were all dressed up in hats and had decorated tails and trunks. There were elephants rides and Mahout demonstrations and then on the second day there was a big parade. The elephant parade was amazing, but there was also people from all the provinces dressed in traditional clothing. At the end of the parade there was a Baci ceremony, blessing the elephants.

Bea loved it. we loved it. And despite the creature comforts, long bus ride, and the fact that we had only been here in Laos for 3 weeks, we were so pleased that we had had the adventure.

Here are some of the highlights: