ECO-FRIENDLY ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS IN LAOS

Pull on your hiking boots and go for a trek through the jungle with an unusual tour guide. Two pachyderms will lead you through the teak and bamboo-filled forest to a secret waterfall. They will slowly and steadily make their way through the jungle. But you will need to help them carb load with a bucket of bananas first.

Gourmet food addicts should visit the Buffalo Dairy Farm in Luang Prabang. This sustainable farm uses the milk from its herd of buffalos to create buffalo mozzarella and ice cream. They will even let you try your hand at milking a buffalo too.

Set sail on the Mekong to discover some of Laos’ most endangered creatures – the Irrawaddy dolphins. As opposed to the more well-known bottle nosed and spinner dolphins, the Irrawaddy dolphins come with a short beak. There are just a handful of pods left in the river. While the Lao people consider them to be sacred, gill fishing nets along the river have proved to be the dolphins downfall.

Go trekking through the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area to spy some of the country’s most beautiful and endangered creatures. Spy gibbons, tigers and even clouded leopards. Any money raised from the treks goes back to conservation work at the reserve.