Holiday time!

Greetings from rainy Hongsa. I’m now officially enjoying my summer vacation roaming the hilly forests of Hongsa.

With the rainy season well and truly settled in Laos, I don’t have any visitors to take on trekking tours. Also my mahout Mr Pheng needs to help plant rice fields back in his home village. So Mr Pheng has cut me loose and given me free access to the mountainous regions of Laos that I love the most.  Here is a picture of Mr Pheng and some of his friends saying goodbye to me before I head off own my own elephant adventure.

It’s quite common for domesticated elephants in Sayaboury to be set free in the wet season. Mahouts are busy planting crops and tourism and logging both slow down because of the rainy weather. It’s a good thing that when we are working we are tethered in the forests at night so we know exactly what forest fruits and plants to eat and which ones to stay away from. Sometimes we even meet wild elephants to make friends with during our break.

Mr Pheng will come to find me very soon. I know it sounds strange, but Mr Pheng will have no problems knowing where I am. It may take him a few days of searching the hills and valleys to find me, but he will. He knows I’ll be hanging out somewhere not far from a stream or river, somewhere close to a nice big patch of tasty bamboo. If that doesn’t work he can always just follow my jumbo footsteps! Also, I’m wearing a pretty bamboo bell around my neck. Despite my size, us elephants are actually extremely quite when we walk and we could sneak up on you quite easily if we wanted to!

Well, my holidays are coming to an end. Soon it will be the tourist season and I’ll be bathing in attention from more international visitors excited for me to take them on treks through Hongsa.

Until then if you look hard enough, you may very well find me roaming around the country side!

Bye bye,

Mae Dok the elephant