Caring for elephants in Laos - by Joey aged 8
My Mum and Dad woke me up really early in the morning and we left the hotel in a van with our guide from the sanctuary. When we got there we looked at the banana trees and we had some time to relax at the restaurant and the guide told us what we were going to do. We then had to take our shoes and socks off and put some special boots on to protect our feet from the jungle. We then walked down to the river and got on a boat which took us across the river to the elephant sanctuary. The guide explained what we were going to feed the elephants and how to. Then the elephants arrived with the guys who looked after them who are called mahouts. There was two adults and one baby that we fed. We fed them bananas and sugar cane, I think sugar cane was their favourite food.
The baby was a boy called Mr Kip who was one year and two months old, and he was very naughty. We then led the elephants into the river and we washed them with buckets which they really loved, and we got a bit wet too!
Then we did a walk with the elephants through some fields and into the jungle.
Mr Kip tried to run off when we got to the jungle and was told off by the mahout. The elephants went into a river in the jungle and we walked alongside, and they stopped at a bank and we fed them more bananas and stroked them.
I fed two elephants at the same time and they were tickling me with their trunks. We walked back through the jungle and then said goodbye to the elephants, then the guide led us into a corn field that went back to the boat. We crossed the river to the restaurant and had some Lao food for lunch which was quite nice. We had some soup, pate, rice, spicy vegetables and eggplant nuggets. Mum brought me a coca cola for being such a good walker. I really loved the whole trip, especially feeding the elephants and seeing them in the jungle.
The MandaLao Elephant Sanctuary is located a short distance outside of Luang Prabang, and can be added to any of our tours of Laos.