September - October 2019
Laos - Mission Trip Pt3
This album is all about our time spent after finishing the Project in Phonsavan. We explored Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane.
Monday - typically brings a sense of dread and exhaustion as you drag yourself out of bed. But not for the Laos team today! Today was our first day of holidays - no work for us, just play!
Our first stop was the Lee7Farm - our trusty tour guide Jack’s family business. Here we learnt how rice is produced, right from seed germination, through to harvest, threshing the rice, husking and even making rice flour and rice noodles! We all had a go at each stage of the laborious process, and then ate the rice noodles for lunch! We were amazed to learn, that after all the many months of hard work, the rice is sold for $1.50/kg (10,000kip) and fresh rice noodles were $1.25/kg (8,000kip)! Seems ridiculously cheap by Australian standards.
After a morning of working on the farm, it was time for a swim. We headed for the famous Kouang Si Waterfalls for a dip. The water in each of the cascading rock pools is an incredible, inviting blue colour. We spent the afternoon frolicking in the water, jumping where we shouldn’t and climbing up the waterfalls.
Once back in town, we headed up the 300-something steps to the top of Phousi Mountain with what felt like every other tourist in town, to watch the sunset over the Mekong. Another night of shopping up a storm awaits us!
- Mikaela Elbourne
Wow what a day! It started out the usual way, you know getting up, having some much appreciated introvert time. Then off to check out the monks do their thing. Quite honestly the way they all kept in line was kind of impressive and the deep orange colour of their clothes was so vibrant. Might I add this was at 5 in the morning so my memory might have things a little out of order here but next up it was time to order breakfast which lead to some great conversations. The kind that you recognise even in the moment that they’re really special whilst waiting for the rest of the team to emerge from their rooms.
Once the whole team had assembled we headed down to the museum, where (and again my facts are a bit sketchy here) the kings of Laos used to live. Once we got there Jack apologetically informed us that literally none of us were dressed appropriately so back to the hotel we went to get changed. Once we finally managed to get there it was actually not to bad. Museums aren’t really my thing if I’m honest. However it was really cool to see how people used to live and part of the foundation of this amazing country. (Can you tell I really like it here). Next some of the crew went bike riding and others went shopping until lunch time where we all met along the Mekong river again.
All pretty normal stuff right, well after lunch is where it gets really good. Hold onto your socks folks because we’re about to meet some elephants! That’s right actual real live, living, breathing elephants. For those who know me (Leila) well you’d know that other then cows, and certain breads of dog, elephants are right up there on the top of my list of favourite animals. So let me tell you all about it.
We left straight after lunch with Jack leading the way. It was between a 30-40 minute van ride to the place where we’d meet these beautiful creatures and the excitement in the air was think. Once we got there we were meet my the lovely staff from Lung Prabang Elephants Camp (I swear the people here in Laos are just so nice, but this is besides the point.) we were met with iced tea and sat together as they explained the different packages we could choose from. Most of us decided that bathing these magnificent creatures was the way to go. Little did we know that this meant we could also feed them and that to wash them you got to ride them bare back like a giant horse into the Mekong river.
I think the word I’d use to describe this moment would be breathtaking. Just how big yet gentle and gracious these creatures are. They’re quite cheeky too. Each with its own personality. The trainers soon had the elephants ready and we all made our way down to the river. Walking next to an elephant is such a surreal experience, listening to the deep but gentle thud of their feet hitting the ground is something I don’t think I could ever get used to. We got down to the river with some of our crew already on the elephants and others meeting them in the water. Once in the water I very ungraciously climbed on to the back of one of the elephants where Mikaela was already. Let me tell you, they look big from the ground they feel even bigger once you’re on them. Never before have I clung so tightly to something in my life as the trainers kept telling the elephants to try and get us to fall off, you know because we needed a bit of an ab workout having not been to the gym for a while.
The trainers gave us this bark stuff that naturally suds up like soap when you add water to it. We used this to wash the elephants, then we played around with them in the water taking turn riding them and taking lots of photo to remember this incredible time in all out lives. Soon it was time for them to get out we took a group photo together with the elephants and let the trainers take them back to their paddock.
Have you ever noticed that after you wash your dog the first thing they want to do is go and roll in the mud? Well elephants are exactly the same and rubbed up against as many dirt walls as they could all the way back. After the elephants we headed back to the hotel to shower and freshen up then headed out for our last team dinner altogether. All in all another incredible experience to add to the list from this trip. God just continues to bless us more and more and I’m excited for what’s to come.
- Leila Jones
The A-Team
We’re in the adventure capital of Laos - Vang Vieng - and the day stretched out ahead of us. So much to do, so little time and all feeling so tired after all the adventures we’ve had so far! Mark had planned an extensive list that made us tired just looking at it, but we were keen for an adventure. After not much opportunity to swim in this landlocked country, cooling off was top priority.
Our ever faithful driver, Somsay, took us first to Blue Lagoon 1 in the van. There are 5 Blue Lagoons in total, but google told us that the best ones to visit are 1 and 3. On arrival at the lagoon we were greeted with crystal blue waters, trees to jump off and rope swings to swing on, as well as a few bus loads of entertaining Korean and Chinese tourists. The water was cool and refreshing.
After cooling off, jumping in, back flipping and belly-flopping, most of the team headed for a treetop ziplining experience. Safety standards are a little questionable, but we were accompanied by 3 guides for our group of 8. We only lost 1 thong, broke another and had to be rescued from the middle twice the views were worth it and all lives are in tact.
After lunch, we hired 3 ATVs for the afternoon, for a bargain price of around $130AUD (for 3). This time we headed for Blue Lagoon 3, driving ourselves in the buggys. Buggys are a really popular and reasonably cheap way to travel around and explore the area. They are easy to drive on the dirt roads to the lagoons and loads of fun! All 3 buggys went a little too fast through some puddles. White shoes became brown, faces looked more like raccoon eyes and our skin looked like we had done a bad job of self-tanner. Blue Lagoon 3 turned out to be more beautiful than 1, with a flying fox, higher diving board and pontoons and tyres to float on. It’s always worth it for the adventure though! Driving on the right hand side of the road was an adventure for all involved, but we are happy to report no fatalities or near misses. This adventure won’t be forgotten easily.
Only 1 day left in this beautiful country - Friday we begin our journey home. First a night back in the capital, Vientiane, then the long journey home through Kuala Lumpur.
- Mikaela Elbourne
Our Friday, and final day in Vang Vieng, started at 5am for an awesome hot air balloon ride over the city. The views we got up there were stunning! All was good until we started descending, and our pilot started attempting to land. The first attempt failed due to a lake and trees being in the way, and the next attempt, and the next attempt…and then he switched the gas bottle. After about the 7th or 8th attempt, I was convinced we had to jump onto a roof, as we were about 1m away from it and were heading straight for it! Luckily the skilled groundsmen and pilot pulled us into the small backyard behind the house we were about to plough into!
The rest of the morning was spent exploring the sights around the river, on push bike and some of the team went by boat! This time was quickly over though, and we boarded our minibus for our final stop, Vientiane. We had dinner with the ADRA Laos leader Gill, before heading off to the markets. These markets got loud since last time we saw them, apparently because of a festival. We managed to do some last minute shopping and hit the sack, to be ready for a long day of travel.
- Paul Tomczyk
Best sandwiches!
Best Driver!
