LUANG PRABANG: Elephants and cockerels

If its at all possible to call any part of Laos 'leafy' or 'refined', then it's probably Luang Prabang. This was once the royal capital in a 'Million Elephant kingdom'. It largely escaped the bombing endured by the rest of the country in the 20th century, due to the king cutting a deal with the French. The monarchy has since been sent into exile (or killed, depending who you believe...) but their palace still stands, surrounded by dozens of beautiful temples, all flanked by two rivers. And of course, there are the elephants..

We were initially very wary of going to an elephant camp - worried that they would be poorly treated in captivity. After asking around, we found one which operates as a sanctuary for former working elephants from the logging trade, with its own vet and education programme. Our consciences somewhat appeased, we took a bumpy tuk-tuk ride into the hills to meet Mae Khan - a beautiful, gregarious 45 year old with long eye lashes, who weighs in at around three tonnes. We were able to ride on her back through the woods and across the river - learning from her handler that she eats more than our combined body weight every day. She had a particular liking for bamboo and bananas...

We've had lots of good experiences like this in Laos, but its strange how quickly things which used to seem quite exotic now feel normal. In every town we've been woken early by the sound of cockerels - a far more common site than any other pet. We no longer bother getting photos of every orange-robed monk we see. Bumping along roads made of soil and stone has become entirely normal, as has eating buffalo skin and river moss for supper. In fact, the biggest novelty of the last few weeks was spotting a Tesco air freshener in one of our hotels. We can't work out how it got there - there are no supermarkets. If you want to buy food, or anything else for that matter, you go to the stalls that fill every street from 5am.

By now we've crossed the border and have just arrived in Thailand - opting to take an hour flight instead of the three day boat and bus journey we'd originally planned. We also made another video - perhaps we're missing work more than we thought...