Posted on Thursday 10 July 2008
We spent only two days in the small village of Tadlo, Southern Laos, but had a really amazing time there. We stayed at Tim’s Guesthouse, run by a very friendly Laos family. The dad runs a local computer school from the profit of the satellite internet service they offer and was voted Laos citizen of the year! We also met a friendly Englishman and his wife who were living next to us and helped make our stay there really nice - it’s amazing how much the people you meet affect your perspective of a new place.
While there we explored the local waterfalls which were pretty amazing, had a swim in the bottom, jumped off the top, and had a rather sore shower underneath them! We also went on an elephant trek which was amazing. Although not the comfiest form of transport, definitely one of the coolest!
There are two elephants there, 60 and 65 year old sisters. They appear to be very well looked after, and get on well with their handlers who treat them with respect. They’re not tied up, the handlers don’t use whips or sticks to control them, they’re bathed every night in the river and they don’t have to work too hard. Click the photo above to see some other photos of them.