Day 18 - Luang Prabang "All that horse knowledge actually is useful!"

Very early start (6am) to watch the Buddhist monks receiving alms from the villages ... as it turned out it appeared to us that most of the "villagers" were actually tour groups trying to capture that authentic Buddhist experience as part of their holiday! The monks did look impressive though walking down the street in single file in their saffron robes.
Back to the hotel for brekky, then a quick climb up Phu Si, a hill in the centre of town with a number of wats and lovely views from the top.
We were then picked up for our elephant riding trip, we were driven about 10km out of town to the elephant ranch. We rode an elephant together through the forest for about 30min, then we went to a small lake where we got to "bath" the elephants. This involved riding on an elephant as it walked into the water. Once it sat down (getting quite wet in the process), we scooped water on it and scrubbed its head/neck area. Kathryn thought it was heaps of fun, Mike was just trying not to fall off!!
After lunch we took a 15 minute boat trip to the village of Ban Chan, renowned for it's pottery (yep, Mike's worst holiday nightmare has just become a reality!). A quick lap of the village watching some quite skilled (and speedy) craftsmanship, with quite large pots thrown with manually operated wheels in just a few minutes!
Back to town, a quick walk over the bamboo bridge the other side of the Nam Khan river, and the days adventures were done!