Laos Elephant Festival

NOTE: As with any festival or activity that involves animals, it’s always important to research the organizations running the event, and to make sure the animals are treated with respect and not being exploited (which is a fine line, as many people will say any animal in captivity is being exploited).

As luck would have it, we were in Laos during one the country’s biggest events…The Elephant Festival. Eles are the symbol of Laos but their population and role in society are dwindling with the country’s modernization. To bring awareness to the elephant’s plight and simultaneously celebrate this cultural icon, the non-profit ElefantAsia started this festival in 2006. It happens each year at the end of February in the Sayaboury province so with our serendipitous timing we decided to rent a motorbike and attend what turned out to be one of the greatest events of the HoneyTrek.

Can you take a motorcycle from Luang Prabang Laos

We heard the roads from Luang Prabang to Sayaboury were super rough with a couple river crossings in between so we stepped it up from our normal 50cc Yamaha moto rental to the Harley of China: The Zongshen 300. We strapped down our packs, put on our windbreakers and wrapped our faces in scarves for one long and dusty two-hour ride.

Rice paddies of Laos

Despite the bumps in the road, the trip through this section of eastern Laos was gorgeous with lush green rice paddies, charming villages, jagged mountains and rushing rivers (one of which we ferried across on a barge).

ElephantAsia Festival Laos

We arrived to Sayaboury and the town was buzzing. Food carts lined the streets, families were picnicking in the grass, and elephants were bathing in the river. We were jonesing to join in the excitement but first needed to find a place to sleep. We pulled into the Elephant Festival Center hoping to get any lodging recommendations and amazingly enough they had a whole system set up to pair visitors with host families! We stayed with an adorable family of three, just walking distance from the fair grounds.

Anne Howard, Debbie Gersten, Scott D Spethman, Ali Zaazou and Mike Howard at Xayaburi

Adding to the fun, our buddy Deb came to the festival with her lovely friends Ali and Scott. We assumed there would be a bunch of tourists attending but we were thrilled to see the crowd was overwhelming Laotian coming from all parts of the country to celebrate and represent their tribes in the festivities.

Time for an Elephant Bath in Laos

Part of the reason of setting up ElefantAsia was to make sure the health of the country’s working elephants are up to snuff. All the elephants in attendance get a check-up and their mahouts get counseling and tips on how to better care for their pachyderms.

Mike washing an Elephant in Laos

Between checkups and rides, the mahouts would take the elephants in the river to cool down and clean up. When Mike saw the right opportunity, he asked if he could help. The mahout nodded yes and Mike stripped down to his skivvies and scrambled up the elephant’s back. He did his best to hold on and scrub down nature’s largest land animal as it dunked in the river and wielded its trunk like a squirt gun. It was one of those magical seize-the-moment experiences–wet underwear be damned.

River Children of Laos

Now that Mike was already soaking wet, he figured he’d jump in with the dozens of children playing in the river. The local past-time is to do flips off the bamboo bridge and try not to get swept under.

Ladies of Laos Elephant

The festival was pretty mellow on the first day but by night it was in full swing. We cruised the fair grounds, playing carnival games, eating local treats, and watching the series of events on stage. This was a national beauty pageant—how gorgeous are these ladies?!

Lantern Festival Laos

The evening closed with a breath-taking lantern ceremony. They called people up from the audience to light the wick beneath these white paper shades and watch the heat send them soaring. Hundreds of lanterns took to the sky, glowing like stars while those on the ground looked up with delight. We’ll admit, we’d actually seen this lantern-liftoff done in other parts of Southeast Asia and never wanted to condone the liter it creates but for this cultural event, we made the exception.

Laos Elephant Festival

The next morning we got up bright and early to watch the parade get underway. Literally thousand’s upon thousand’s of performers from around the country, dressed in the traditional costumes from their tribe or region, were lined up in front of us. Almost better than the actual procession was watching them practice their dance moves and chitchat with us as they waited to enter the main stage.

Laos The Elephant Festival Sayaboury

The parade began and it was like a flood of color, pattern, rhythm, and dance rushing towards us. Some performers had dance routines with flags, scarves, or sticks and others just marched to showoff their spectacular costumes. WATCH THIS VIDEO to catch a glimpse at the parade in action and Mike bathing the ele.

Laos Elephant Festival

The parade continued with performances and competitions in front of dignitaries, but to us the main event was all about hanging out with the locals. From helping a mahout bathe an elephant to taking selfies with Hmong dancers, we felt so lucky to hang with Laotians at one of the country’s greatest festivals.

The Laos Elephant Festival Slideshow

**Click any image to open slideshow. Keyboard arrows (← →) to change photo. Esc key to end slideshow**

17 Comments

  1. World Journeys says:

    Now THAT’S what I call a festival! Thanks for sharing the photos are stunning as always! great post

    1. thanks for the love on the photos @worldjourneys:disqus , glad you liked them. The festival was amazing….so much local color and great people.

  2. Debbie Gersten says:

    Serendipitous timing, for sure!! LOVED this festival and being there with you both!! Good times and amazing creatures.

  3. That is so very cool. Makes you think that in the world, somewhere, at all times, there is something amazing going on. The goal is to be there and you were. I have spent some time in Laos and absolutely love the country.

    1. @TimocFTSB:disqus , you are so right….we think that exact same thought all the time….and we add in the fact that “in the world, at all times, somewhere there are amazing acts of kindness”….and SO many more than the few horrible acts the news media shares with us in order to sell more advertising against our fears.

  4. Carol & Bob says:

    Laos Elephant Festival just Fantastic Michael, just awsome Anne. Thank you for
    allowing us to tarvel along with you two on your beautiful journey!
    Hugs from The Stolfi Family (all 14 of Us)

  5. Corinne Vail says:

    Mike, This looks absolutely amazing. To think that the festival was started to help the elephants…I love it. As always, your photos are amazing and make me want to buy a ticket right now!

    1. Buy that ticket, Corinne! Laos was great and catching this festival made it that much more festival. It’s every February if you’d like to go! So glad you enjoyed the post!

  6. What an amazing experience! I love that Mike was actually able to wash an elephant. That’s pretty awesome. When I traveled there last year, I found the people in Laos to be some of the warmest and friendliest people. It sounds like you had a great experience!!

    1. So true about the people of Laos–they couldn’t be nicer! The festival was amazing and the elephant bath totally made his day (or year). This wasn’t a tourist thing where you line up and do it, Mike just asked, dropped his shorts, and hopped on up. I’m still kicking myself I didn’t get in…you always have to go for it!

  7. wonderful..when you get time please come to kerala,india.

  8. It’s very disappointing to see such an archaic, cruel event such as this one still receiving support. Most people are aware in this day and age that is completely wrong to be using wild animals for entertainment purposes. For anyone tempted to attend this event, or any event that promotes elephant rides, I highly recommend doing some research into how these beautiful animals are treated and what exactly you will be supporting by attending.

    The following text is taken from a petition to stop this cruel elephant festival.

    “During the event elephants’ are forced to parade in costumes, give rides (some using a howdah), paint, dance, perform tricks including poses such as the ‘sit’ and ‘headstand’ poses which are known to be physically damaging to elephants! So fearful are the elephants that many defecate or urinate through fear whilst carrying out these stunts!

    Very young elephant calves are also present at the event and are intensely and brutally trained to perform, their distress is heartbreakingly apparent.

    All mahouts at the festival carry bullhooks which they are free and easy with, other concealed weapons are also widely carried, such as nails to violently force the elephants into compliance.

    Such is the open brutality towards the elephants here that come the closing days of the festival all the calves bear numerous injuries and wounds as do many of the adult elephants too.”

    Please do not support this cruelty. Instead, visit these beautiful beings in a conservation centre, sanctuary or national park. Ethical experiences will often have a no-touch, observation only basis. These are wild animals after all. They absolutely should NOT be forced to parade in costumes, give rides, paint, dance and perform tricks.

    1. Jasmine, thank you SO much for your comment, and your passion to protect these beautiful creatures. We attended this festival back in 2012, and are not even sure it’s still in operation. That said, over the years we have learned a lot about animal cruelty in tourism, and our opinions have drastically changed. We have put a disclaimer at the top of our article, and a link to the Change.org Petition.

      1. Jasmine Olivia says:

        Thank you Mike & Anne! This is fantastic. I’m glad your opinions have changed as you’ve learnt more about the cruelty involved in these kind of events. I sincerely hope you’re correct and this festival is not in operation any more 🙏 Thank you for your honest response and for adding the disclaimer and petition to the top of this article!

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