Thoughts From Laura's Kitchen and beyond: Elephants, Waterfalls and Buddha oh my

Some of the mud we got stuck in

Driving along the Mekong

Riding the Elephants

We have finally had a break in the heat here and the rain has started. The daytime highs are finally below 100 and we can walk outside without melting. We had the weekend off so we took full advantage of our time off. On Sunday we went to go see the elephant sanctuary and it provided quite an adventure. Overnight we had received some impressive rain and the dirt roads made for some difficulty getting to the sanctuary. The van we were in got stuck more then once in the mud to the point we had to have another truck pull out out of the mud. On one side of the road was a steep drop off straight into the Mekong River so we opted to get out of the van and walk. However, this was not without adventure either. We stepped out into the mud and I lost a shoe into the mud and Anna was covered in mud from walking in flip-flops. We made it out and have a funny GoPro video to go with the event.

Boat ride to Pak Ou Cave

We finally made it to the sanctuary where we had our own private tour. We each had an elephant to ride with a Mahout to lead it. We rode along the riverbank for about an hour with some spectacular scenery in the background. It was an amazing experience! After riding the elephants we took them down to the river to have some fun. The elephants would drop into the water and roll over to try and buck us off. It was a lot of fun and we ended taking quite a few swims. The elephants were amazing animals and so gentle.

Having fun

After lunch on the riverbanks we took a boat across the Mekong river and went to Pak Ou cave. Its a cave on the river with hundreds of Buddha statues inside. There were two different caves at the top of the stairs. It was beautiful looking out at the cave at the Mekong river. After walking up several flights of stairs, we got back on the boat to head to Tad Sae Waterfall.

Feeding the elephant

Because its the end of dry season the waterfall was not no impressive but the hiking around the waterfall was amazing. Our tour guide took us to the top of the waterfall and to the caves near the waterfall. It was an adventure to say the least. Both Anna and I took a little tumble hiking but no one was injured. After a long day day of adventure we made it back with only a few bruises and a lot of great memories. We have a ton of pictures and are slowly making out way through them. Here are a few from the days adventure.