Jungle Trek
Luang Namtha, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
April 04, 2009
A thunder storm rolled through last night. We thought our trek would be canceled, but the rain stopped around 7 am.
Bill had the fried eggs and Colorado hash today (he had breakfast envy). I had rice crispies with sesame, peanuts and bananas. I was given a very small amount of condensed milk. I like that they bring us a pot of tea!
We had to walk to the airport entrance before we could find a tuk tuk today. We are going to be late for our trek!
Turns out that we are the last to show up, but we are not ready to go yet. The tour company still has to go to the market to buy some lunch. So, Bill and I went to a nearby spot, Manychan, and ordered a fruit shake and used the toilet.
Shortly thereafter we loaded into a tuk tuk with our guides Bien and Nook. Our group is: Anna (part English, part Korean) from London, Simone from Minnesota, Neil from Scotland, a guy from France and a guy from Korea. Since the size of our group has increased, the cost has decreased for us. We were refunded 200,000 kip.
We arrived at Tong Dee village and started our trek. The village is home to people from the ethnic group: Black Tai. The other guide was not going to join us, as all of the men had gone to work today, but after a short time, Kong Tong joined us. At the edge of the village there was a high school that is used by this village and 10 other neighbouring villages. Bien explained that kids only have to pay for their books, but the education for Laos children is free. It sounds like Laos people go to high school until the age of 20. Apparently, Laos children are not on break now like in Thailand and Myanmar.
Once outside the village, we walked straight up into the thick jungle. We brushed by thick, tall grass, trees, vines and shrubs. Good thing we have long pants on today. Our 2 male guides have had to hack our way through in some spots. By the time we reached the top everyone was drenched in sweat. Even Bien was complaining about the heat, although he admits to drinking too much Lao Lao at a wedding yesterday.
After our first big climb, we were under the cover of the trees and it was not as hot. The terrain was quite hilly though and it was not an easy climb, especially with wet ground and many dead leaves, branches and tree roots along the narrow path. At some points along the path if we had slipped, we would have slid a ways down a hill. Thankfully, that did not happen.
We were shown some cardamom, galanga, tumerin sour fruit, crazy eggplant and another poisonous fruit (looks like avocado on the outside, is red, yellow or white on the inside), rattan used for roofs, wood for stomach aches and 1/2 dozen mushrooms. During most of the trek we could hear music. Bien thinks it is from a wedding.
It costs around 30 - 40 million kip for a Laos wedding. The groom must give the bride's family a buffalo that cost 7 million kip and a cow that costs 3 million kip. People get married typically around 18 years old, but as young as 14 years old (Annie, you could get married next year in Laos!).
We stopped at noon for a gourmet lunch that was spread on the ground on leaves. We had sticky rice, BBQ fish, minced chicken with noodles, pieces of chicken, eggplant, collard greens, 2 dipping sauces, bamboo shoots and tangerines. It was so good! Lunch alone was worth the price of the trek. We squatted down by the food and used the sticky rice to pick up the other food and popped it in our mouths. Yum! Before lunch, the guy from France had set up near a swarm of ants, they almost carried him off! There are a ton of bugs today and not all of them are stopped by deet. I have been constantly swatting away real and imaginary bugs off of my arms and neck.
It was very slippery on the way down. I was the first one to lose my balance, but I made a good recovery and did not fall. Good thing we have bamboo walking sticks that Kong Tong made for us or it would have been way more difficult. A while later there was a really slippery slope. Bien, Bill, Anna and I made it down OK. Simone and Neal started to slide and went down, but clung to a tree. The guy from France started to fall and took the other two down again with him. No one was hurt, so it was pretty funny. The French guy is having a bad day!
Bien had a few riddles for us. He showed us how to make two cows out of one by moving two sticks. I will post the other riddles here and the answers at the bottom so you can try for yourselves.
A. The person who buys it, does not need it. The person who makes it, does not want it. The person who uses it, does not see it.
B. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it and gray when you throw it away?
We had a short break on an area of the hills that was opposite of the town. There were parts of the hills where trees had been removed. Bien explained that village people strip the trees to make rice fields. It sounded like he did not approve of this.
After doing the 10 Km trek today, I think that I have decided it would be easier to run a 10 Km race!
At the end of the tour we walked through Nam Dee village, they are a Len Tan ethnic group and the women are dress in black with a bright pink belt. We rode by this village yesterday as they are located at the waterfall entrance, once again there are lots of naked children! The ladies here pick cotton (we saw some growing on the hill) and make clothing. As we walked through the village there must have been a wake/funeral. A few women were standing beside a building with one arm on the wall and their heads leaning against their arm as they wailed.
We stopped at the waterfall from yesterday. We spent more time there than we had wanted, since it was nothing special and had already seen it, but Bien need to bathe in the waterfall. No one else from our group wander into the water.
We took a tuk tuk back and were "back to Luang Nam tha town suddenly" (direct quote from their brochure). I think I should start offering to correct the English in menus, sign-age and brochures in exchange for free meals and tours!
We bought some bags of ice (luxury), black iced tea and soda water from a store in town and stopped at a restaurant and bought a BeerLao. We found a tuk tuk for 20,000 kip to take us to the Guest House. We, with the help of the hotel staff, have arranged for him to pick us up in the morning for our departure. We enjoyed our ice cold refreshing beverages on our private deck facing the river, Nam Tha while reading our books, Winston Churchill and Marrying Buddha by Wei Hui until 7:30. How lovely!
We ordered pork pot roast again for dinner along with Muang Sing - chicken sloppy joes with fermented soy beans, tomatoes and sliced cucumbers. It was very good, although not a lot of meat. The pot roast was good, but had been better the last time. Bill enjoyed the lemon and mint fruit shake. It is not my thing. We wanted to try the herbal infusion rice spirit, but they were out. We sweetened up after dinner with some tofu chips instead.
Answers:
A. A coffin
B. Charcoal