Two days with elephants

We drove about 2 hours south from Luang Prabang to visit the Elephant Conservation Center in Sayaboury for two days. Two unforgettable days!

After the car ride, we enjoyed a short boat trip across the river, which is now a reservoir, to reach the center. We stayed in a simple bungalow with an amazing view and went directly to the Elephant Nursery with our guide. Currently, a mother and her calf live there. The center can observe their birth and early years and provide support if necessary. The goal is to increase the number of elephants in the country. Laos is known as the 'Land of a million elephants,' but there are currently only around 800, half of which are living freely.

After lunch, we visited the small Elephant Hospital. It is the only facility of its kind in the country, and the two doctors (a physician and her assistant) collaborate with institutions in Thailand. They care for the elephants that usually come here after years of captivity as working animals for families or the government, and they also continuously monitor the healthy elephants.

Some of the elephants then came down to the river with their mahouts (elephant handlers - a long-standing tradition passed down in families that own elephants) for a bath. We were able to get very close to the elephants and even touch them. It felt strange at first to touch such a giant animal with its leathery and bristly (and dirty :-) ) skin, but it was an amazing experience. These animals seem to live in slow motion somehow. After the bath, we took a short walk back to the forest. Since the center does not yet have a large enough forest and cannot fence the entire area, the elephants are tethered with a 40-meter chain at a different location each night as part of a rotational system. This becomes their sleeping and feeding area for the night.

We then visited the center's own farm/plantation, where they grow food for the staff and elephants. The elephants are only partially fed with supplementary food (about 10% of their daily diet). Tourists do not feed the elephants here! There are also no elephant rides - only the mahouts sit on the elephants, without any iron structures or anything like that. In fact, this was the reason why we visited this center. There are others that follow a different concept.

After an eventful day, we had the chance to ask a biologist, who has been working there for 7 years, various questions about the center, the concept, etc. After dinner, we chatted and played cards with the volunteers (you can also participate in week-long work assignments to support the center).

On the second day, right after breakfast, we went into the forest and fetched an elephant. After a short search, we found him and released him from the chain. We walked with him down to the river, where he enjoyed drinking and bathing with some of the other elephants. We sat right at the bank, watching the elephants splash around. It was quite impressive and a bit intimidating when an elephant emerged from the water just a meter in front of us. They are already huge when you stand next to them, but even more so when you are sitting on the ground.

The elephants were then taken to the socialization area, where they spent the day. This area is fenced off, and the mahouts stay outside so that the elephants can interact with each other without supervision. The area only houses female elephants, as males are solitary and do not form groups. We observed this area from various observation platforms for a while.

And then, after the second lunch, it was already time to leave. We look back on two very informative days and had the opportunity to get up close to the magnificent elephants, which was wonderful. I appreciate the concept of the center. This is the only way to allow these elephants, which were captive and used for work for many years, to finally live as elephants. Unfortunately, they have no idea what an elephant eats, how they interact with others, or how they reproduce. They have to learn these things somewhere in order for the population to increase again. The ultimate goal of the center is to have the elephants live without mahouts and in a huge enclosure, but that cannot be achieved overnight.

I would recommend a visit to this place to any traveler in Laos!