Pick up at your hotel, we head for Elephant Camp, located 15km out of Luang Prabang on the bank of Nam Khan river. We drive through the beautiful but bumpy Laos countryside for about one hour until we reach the village
Arrival at the Elephant Village Camp: Welcome greeting by our camp manager and participate in a short briefing about elephants. Laos was known as the Land of a Million Elephants (Lane Xang) but the elephant in Laos is now a profoundly endangered species. Some 1600 remain, of which an estimated 560 work in the forest industry harvesting timber. But harvesting timber in Laos is diminishing and it’s just a matter of time before this becomes obsolete. This translates into hundreds of jobless elephants. Keeping an elephant is very costly and labor-intensive, above all because elephants need tremendous amounts of food. Elephant Village employs a full time veterinarian who works not just with the elephants but trains the mahouts and local people how to care for their elephants in an internationally recognized way
After the briefing, enjoy the elephant ride through real jungle (3km) and walk along beautiful Nam Khan river. Don’t forget to bring your camera as you can take nice shots in misty mornings. Being a “mahout” requires some skills of the Laotian language. “Pai sue sue” for example means “Go straight”. “Pai sai” (Left) or “Pai Kwaa” (Right) are some useful phrases to give directions to your animal porter.
When coming back to the village, feed your elephants, a great photo opportunity and say thank you to your elephants.
Around 11h00, Continue your trip to Ban Xieng Loum “Village” We then take a long tail boat to Tad Sea Waterfall. The Tad Sae Waterfall is a naturally formed wonder where water flows over flat slabs of limestone, and creates pools of still water at the base, perfect for swimming (Note : Tad Sae has only water in the first months after the rainy season and is dried out by the end of February.)
Arrive at Tad Sae, enjoy Lao-style Lunch. Swimming at the Tad Sae and enjoy jumping.
Around 14h00, we take a long-tail boat to come back to Ban Xieng Loum village for a transfer back to Luang Prabang