Laos: Xayaboury

We found a flyer for the Elephant Conservation Center while in Luang Prabang and contacted them to see if we could talk about working together for the project Sam and I are launching. The coordinator, Emilie, was very receptive to meeting with us and we made plans to visit the site to learn more about what they do. We took another local bus a few hours southwest of Luang Prabang and landed at the bus station in Xayaboury. A tuk-tuk with the ECC logo picked us up and we drove through the town to a recently dammed river where a boat was waiting for us. We drove along the still lake and around a bend to see the bungalows of the ECC.

What used to be a river is now a lake.

Buildings (mostly bamboo huts) at the ECC.

We explored the premises and spoke with Emilie for a long while. She has been living there for a year and said of course she loves it, but it is very isolated. We had a great time and she introduced us to some of the elephants. I realized I had never been so close to these creatures and was giddy to be able to pet them and feel their weirdly squishy, moist trunks as they sniffed my hands and feet. They had recently taken in an orphan (they think it’s about one year old) and it was just the cutest thing to watch the little guy kicking around his favorite orange toy as if he were playing soccer.

Baby elephant.

The other three we met were standing around waiting for their bath. The staff offered us some sugar cane to suck the juice out of and give the rest to the elephants. First off, the sugar juice is not as sweet as I had assumed, but rather oddly refreshing. Secondly, it was so fun to feed the rest into the elephant’s trunk and watch it curl up into their mouths.

The matriarch of the group - 60 years old.

The "40-year-old virgin" - male uninterested in mating.

As we were getting ready to leave, the elephants were heading to the lake to take their baths. We stayed to watch them play around (and fart) in the water and it was so cool to just observe them. I have a newfound love of elephants after being able to interact with them so closely and I really want to do something like that again.

Bath time.