COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Nursing
WRITTEN BY: Edith Cowan
After a long week in the villages, the volunteer group were all excited to head back to Luang Prabang. Our drive back was a long one as we were held up for an hour and a half by road works. Nevertheless, the volunteers arrived at our home away from home in good spirits and covered in layers of dust. We all had our much needed showers and scrubbed up nicely for dinner in town. Some of us put to use the laundry service at the hotel . . . I opted for hand washing the entire contents of my backpack in the hotel sink and used various items in our room as a washing line. At dinner we all found that we were craving much needed pizza or burgers. We enjoyed the break from rice and wandered through the night markets. We were all excited for the next day as we were going elephant riding!
We got picked up from our hotel and made our way to the elephants! We took a boat over to the natural swimming pool which was absolutely gorgeous. The international volunteers enjoyed a swim and relaxed a little. Some of the braver ones opted for the zip line experience. This involves flying across the forest at terrifying heights and abseiling down the trees. We then had to trek about 45 minutes to the elephants.
Let’s just say there was a lot of sweat, puffing and complaining. Our group of volunteers finally made it up to the beautiful elephants and it was all worth it. After a quick lunch of rice (yes, rice again) we hopped onto our elephants for the beautiful trek back down. Maddy found her calling as the elephant whisperer. It was definitely the best choice to spend our free day at the elephant village, we all loved it.
The next day we prepared ourselves for the journey back to Sop Chaek. Surprisingly, this was one without any delays. As we arrived we found out that we were to swap houses with the other volunteers, so we could have a different experience. I was surprised to find that my new home stay was very different and I actually felt safe walking across the room without the floor breaking.
Volunteering in the clinic was great and so rewarding. All of the volunteer group enjoyed them thoroughly. Halfway through the week we moved from the village to the lodge and stayed in groups of 5 and 6. We had our first night of silence and slept very well. It was our second night when we woke up with a fright as Jenny had been stung by a scorpion.
Our savior Chipseng came to our assistance at 2 in the morning and reassured us that she would be ok. That was a very restless night for all of us. The next night all the creepy crawlies decided to come out and we all were glad that the next day we would be heading back to Luang Prabang.
For our departure the village had a Basi ceremony which is a traditional Lao ceremony of well wishing and involves tying white cotton strings around the wrists of participants. It was so beautiful and touching. The volunteer group are all so thankful that the village has accepted us into their homes and so grateful that we survived this adventure. After our good bye we headed towards Luang Prabang.
We stopped for lunch at a floating restaurant and took a boat to Pak Ou caves. We climbed a whopping 200 stairs to the caves and even though we were dripping in sweat and puffing it was all worth it. A beautiful boat ride took us to the paper and lantern village where our whole group brought out the entire contents of the shop. We headed to New Daraphet Villa which was our accommodation for the last night in Luang Prabang. We all scrubbed up and headed out for our last dinner as a group.
The next morning we packed up and checked out and had our last group lunch together. Goodbyes were exchanged and we all reflected on the highs and lows of our adventure. This has been the most amazing journey and I’ve come out of it with 10 beautiful friends and experiences that will last a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment