Shooting off to the Elephant festival

Decorated Nelly (2007 Elephant Festival, Laos)
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

I’ve now been writing this blog for a couple of hours and a pizza is calling my name. Food is thankfully my strongest motivator to pull me away from the computer… This is my favourite part of the trip so far but in the name of pizza I will try and keep this post concise!

Right, where were we….Friends, tubes and swings. Right, on the last day of my Vang Vieng adventure I heard of some shootings in the area between some rebel Hmong rebels and the local police. This kind of stuff rarely happens but with rumours of 5 deaths I was glad I was scooting out the next morning. Next comes Luang Prabang with photos and more sunsets and then a boat trip to Hongsa to meet the French organizers of the elephant festival Gilles and Sebastien.

I had already swapped a few mails with the Elefantasia guys and I was keen to see if this was a genuine conservation effort or a money making tourist attraction which would glamorize the working elephants. After lengthy beer fuelled discussion my mind was more at ease and we were discussing how I could be used in the coming week. A deal was struck and I was to read up on the project as much as I could and act as the press liaison during the event as well as help out the tourist information guys giving further information about the conservation issues of the festival. Whilst doing this I was thankfully given free access to the event and was able to get some pics which could well be added to my exhibition when I get back. This was great as not only did I have a staff ID badge I was dolling out the press passes and also involved in some crowd control at times – a handy situation to be in when you want to get to the front of 20 other photographers all vying for that same location.

I also had the pleasure of being introduced to Paul Wager a semi retired photojournalist from Australia now living in Laos. He was a really top bloke who was kind enough to let me follow him around the event and together we worked to get images for Elefantasia to use. I have to admit after seeing his images in his gallery in Luang Prabang I would have loved to have spent some more time with him picking his brains… he probably would feel differently thought after being stuck with me for a full week! Anyway check out his images on http://www.elefantasia.org/docs/festival/FLASH_GALLERY/index.html they’re great.
Some of mine are up on the Flickr account but many more need a bit of a tweak before going up.

I have to say the event and the experiences I had during the week at Hongsa were perhaps the highlight of this trip to date. I have taken some nice pics, experienced Laos village culture at its finest and have made some great new friends. Thanks Gilles and Sebastien for putting up with me!!

Monk-y business

A 'Counter Strike' Playing Monk
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

No need to panic, this is not another epic about my Buddhist explorations but more a quick observation about the religion in daily life. Now as explained earlier a Buddhist monk is supposed to lead a very simple life without luxuries or intoxicants. It’s about time someone reminded them of that having been witness to:

• Eating hidden crisps at the back of the bus (no food after midday)
• Chain smoking
• Playing counterstrike in internet cafes
• Shouting across the street and inviting western girls back to their dorms

Fair play I guess, you can hide a lot of stuff under those robes!

Vang vieng – tubing, rope swing, shooting

Reflections - Laos, Mekong River
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

In south east Asia there are quite a few places which have cashed into the backpacking scene becoming a den of cheapo drinks, crappy accommodation and late nights. None have done this so randomly as Vang Vieng in Central Laos which, in the middle of nowhere and set against a backdrop of limestone cast formations is a small riverside town which has become the backpacking centre of Laos.

I bumped into this spot on my way to the elephants.

In this crazy little town culture and traditional Laos life are taboo subjects and temporarily suspended for the tourists. There are row after row of cafes full of cushions and travellers sitting back to eat ‘happy’ pizzas and watching endless episodes of Friends and The Simpsons as if when away from home for a couple of months we all need to jack up on American sitcoms before moving to the next tourist trap.

Time stands still in this town and the only thing to scrap these vegetables off of the couches is the craze of ‘Tubing’. For a very small fee you can rent an over inflated tractor inner tube and get dumped on the river a couple of hours drift up stream. Here you float lazily down with your cronies until you hit the first of a bunch of riverside bars and get pulled to shore by the barman with a 20 foot long piece of bamboo. The bar is a simple bamboo with a ton of cushions, a volleyball net and a big bloody rope swing reaching rustically over the river. After a bit of Dutch courage the rope swing seems like a good idea. You climb up to a very unsafe looking platform about 20 feet above the water get passed a trapeze style handle and launch yourself off into the middle of the water ready to let go and plunge into the water when you pluck up the courage. The only problem is that if let go before you get far enough over the river there are a bunch of rocks only a few feet below the water – another reason why beer Lao is both a bad idea in terms of coordination and a good one as it numbs pain!

After a few swings it’s off onto the tube and drift down to the next bar oh, and then some more friend!

What an odd place. I lasted a kayak trip, a couple of arse clenching swings and a few Beer Lao’s before heading off up to the Elephant festival.

Dash to the elephants

Laos - Tad Lo
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Cutting this bit short and just to keep my log complete the 20 hour bus ride was to take me south in Laos for a spot of tourist action before heading off to the Elephant festival for some good honest sweaty volunteer action. It was here in Vientiane I met Ahmet with a ‘T’ (a private and pissed joke), this git was another bloody photographer who I met in Vientiane only to later find he was seated next to me on a bus heading further south. I call him a git as it was he who put the idea in my head that I needed to upgrade my camera. He did this simply by having a much better camera than mine and my competitive streak did the rest!

Well we spent a couple of very geeky days snapping away near Pakse in southern Laos before I started my mad dash up to help with Nelly and her cronies at the Elephant Festival.

A 20 hour bus ride …. Bags of fun!

Laos - Tad Lo
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

Laos is 95% mountainous terrain which means about the same percentage of bus journeys you take have you bumping and bouncing out of your seats. Well I had to do about 20 hours on the bus in these conditions and it was horrible!

Another set of stats for you – 100% of the passengers were given sick bags and within 2 hours 40% of the bags had been used with most of them being chucked straight out of the window regardless of what village life was going on outside! Oh and at 4am a baby up the back of the bus without nappy shat everywhere, the bus stopped, we all ran off and the baby and bus was scrapped clean!

I love buses, especially when they’re designed for 5 footers! Honest!

An unfair advantage and wedded blisth

Reflections - 1
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

So here I was in Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos without a trek and wanting to explore. Here I bumped into a photographer (whose name I cannot bloody remember) and his Chinese friend. We decided to head out with the camera on a bit of a 24km bike trail taking in some of the local villages on our way. As the photographer’s friend couldn’t ride a bike they hired a moped whilst I, feeling in need of exercise, hired a bicycle. What a stupid plan… mopeds are faster than bikes! I was knackered all the way around as I peddled hard to catch up with the dots on the horizon.

One small mercy was that on the way round we stopped for lunch and we stumbled into a wedding taking part right by the street side stalls. Some pissed Laos guy practically dragged us inside and not being one to turn down a drink I willingly agreed. As soon as we went in we were greeted by lots of drunken cheers and pulled onto the dance floor for a Laos version of the conga! After that ordeal was over we were ushered to a table and being the only ‘Falang’ (westerners) there we were centre of attention. This extra attention meant that everyone was rushing at us with a bottle of what we found out was called ‘Lao Lao’. Before we knew it a shared shot glass was topped up and thrust under our noses. Lao Lao is supposed to be a particularly strong rice wine but it tasted more like a mix of camel piss and pond water, a definite possibility as I hadn’t seen a single camel in Laos and there were plenty of dried out ponds!

Dry season my arse!

Well after having 2 shots each it was decided that because I was the youngest and as I was on a bicycle instead of a moped then I would fend of cultural embarrassment by having the resulting shots that the other 2 turned down. It didn’t dawn on me at that point that I was shortly going to be riding my bike for another 15km and the moped had a passenger who should have taken it for the team. After 6 of these shots we decided it was time to leave and cycle home. Dehydration, midday sun and lao lao don’t mix, I got on the bike, hit a bump and stacked the bike within minutes.

Don’t drink and ride boys and girls, even if it is a dusty muddy track with nothing more dangerous in your path than a randy water buffalo

The Funky Gibbon

I sadly didn’t have time to visit this treat but for anyone who may be reading this before visiting Laos then I thoroughly recommend visiting a place called “The Gibbon Experience”. It is a conservation project with a difference. Your accommodation is a series of tree houses connected by aerial zip lines which you can ride from one tree house to another. Trekking, waterfalls and nature walks are there for the taking for anyone interested.

Don’t be put off by the $100 price tag though, everyone I have spoken to has raved about their experience and the monies raised go to expanding the project and local villages and more importantly acting to conserve the area.

Check out “The Gibbon Experience” at www.gibbonx.org

A missing guide and a french liaison....

I headed off on a 8 hour bus journey to a place called Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos. I had heard that the whole area was involved in a community supported eco-tourism project with some stunning national park treks and the chance to visit lots of local villages. We sped off at a snail's pace in a bus which suffered from broken seats, a puncture, people seated on plastic stools in the aisle and a route which was unpaved for all but the last part. It was all good fun!

So there I was in Luang Nam Tha ready for my trek and a soft cushion. As I rolled up to the Green Discovery office for the treks I noticed a sign on the door about a missing person. It would shortly transpire that the manager of the branch had just been kidnapped the week before and the office was shut as all the other tour leaders were out searching for him. Bad timing for me but also bad luck for the guy who is still missing to this day.

There was no trekking in Laos but I did meet a retired photographer whose name I can't bloody remember and a French NGO worker named Nathalie. Nathalie was kind enough to introduce us to the finer points of Laos life (very strong coffee with her hubby) and let me know about the Elephant festival at the end of that month. She was the one who suggested I contact them and see if I can volunteer my services... Good plan.

Writers block!

I realise that as my second month on the road draws to an end my trip is really flying by. I'm also finding this hair brained idea of mine is harder to achieve than first imagined. Combine the two and too much of my time is being spent planning the next stage of the trip and emailing various organisations.

I left a cold northern Thailand behind am now in my 2nd country for the trip, Laos. I'm heading up to a large elephant conservation event in a couple of weeks time and also have made some good contacts with WWF and some other people working in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Even better news is that Julia is coming out to visit me at the end of the month in Cambodia - I can't wait! What's great is that I know at least 2 weeks of my trip will actually be organised and in great company! Now if only she could plan my other 30 weeks!

So my apologies for not many posts on here... I will try harder and you can rest assured they wont all be on the same tree hugging theme!