The Land of a Million Elephants

The Kingdom of Lan Xang, which translates to the land of a million elephants is today called Laos.

Laos is a landlocked country in South East Asia. Covered by forests and mountains it is one of the poorest nations on earth and one of the few remaining one-party communist states.

At one time there were a million elephants in Laos, but today mostly due to human incursion that has been reduced to less than one thousand.

While there, we visited an elephant sanctuary where we were allowed to ride the elephants, feed them and bathe them. My elephant was named Betty, and Betty was a hungry gal. The mahout gave me bananas and sugar cane to feed her as I rode on her back. She would leave her trunk up insisting on more, until she felt she had enough.

We were able to ride through the jungle for over an hour until we reached the Mekong river where we bathed the elephants.

Ridding bareback on the elephant was an incredible experience. I could feel the muscles of this magnificent animal move under me as we rode through the jungle.

In 2019 Marie and I spent one month in Laos visiting the southern area known as the 4000 islands, the capital, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang in the north. Vientiane is possibly the most laid-back capital city in the world. There is not much traffic and you can ride a bicycle to most any part of the city.

The Buddhist temple in the photo above sits in the middle of Vientiane and is covered in gold leaf.

At one time Laos was a part of French Indo-China and still retains some of its French flavor. There are some excellent French restaurants and you can find croissants in all the bakeries. Many of the expats in Vientiane are French too. In the middle of the main street is an arch inspired by the Arch de Triumph in Paris.

Vientiane is a pleasant city. I even interviewed for a job as an English teacher at the premier English language school in the country. I could see myself living in Laos. It is inexpensive to live in or visit and a fascinating country. Unfortunately, there were no opportunities available since the teachers there never leave or resign. It’s that good of a job.

My next post will be about Luang Prabang and the trip on the Mekong river from Laos to Thailand.

For more stories about Laos see these two other posts.