Doesn't time fly?

It certainly did at ECC. We had a program set up for the morning, it was very grey and mystical when we got up for breakfast…

First we headed up to the breeding area, it is an enclosed space that they use for, ermmm, yes, breeding!  But it is also where the baby wild elephant gets to hang out with his step mom. This is the rather rickety looking observation tower…

Mom and baby seemed very happy together, you often hear stories of elephants creating amazing bonds, you could see it happening with these two.

After observing mama and baby for a while we headed bad to the village. We took a tour of the hospital and they explained about all the work that the vets do. We also went to the museum and Ken talked us through the various areas there, it was very interesting and the museum is open all the time so you can just swing by when you have free time to read or check things out.

 

Then it was time for our final lesson. Yasutoki isn't really trying to ride backwards! He was trying out one of the three was to get on an elephant!



And he's off…

And I am so cool, I have ride single handedly!

Ebi-kun's last ride on 'his' elephant, she will be sorely missed.

Time for a family sot, except we were next to Mae Kham Ohn, who is the one who doesn't like kids so the mahout was trying to keep a distance from her and us!

Ebi-kun was sad to say goodbye to these kids, they were in a different group but we saw them at meal times and down time. They got on really well, idolized Ebi-kun and followed him everywhere, it was really cute. 

Kids playing boules as we waited for the final lunch. The little blond boy is 3 years old and in true three year old style, when he wasn't winning,  he was pouting and demanding it "wasn't fair" in such an over dramatic way, he had us all in stitches.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and got picked up by the boat, then a tuktuk back to the station and finally the extremely dusty bus back to Luang Prabang. We were filthy by the time we got there, The dust was on the inside and outside of my glasses, I couldn't see through them!

We then took another tuktuk, for about 30 minutes up to the hills of Luang Prabang to stay….

Find out tomorrow!