Jungle Trek

  Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, November 4, 2007

Well, here we are in Viang Veng after surviving our jungle trek into the Loatian mountains. We decided that it would be a great idea to visit the local tribes and see a bit of the culture. We had visited our local tourist shop (the one where we booked the elephant ride, waterfall and kayaking - why didn't we remember that the kayak ride itself was so hard!!) Anyway, the agents described to us a tour that would take in two villages and two different tribes, along with a 6 hour walk on the first day and a two to three hour hike to the waterfall on the second where we could swim and relax before the bus ride home. The original waterfall they had planned we had already seen so we were assured that the tour could still go ahead and we could see another bigger and better waterfall. Sounded OK - even though the first day's walk seemed quite long we felt reasonably confident so we paid our $140. We were assured that this included English speaking guides, all food and accommodation as well as pick up and return to the hotel. A couple of days later, we set off in the usual minibus. Chatting to some fellow travellers we soon learned that we were the only ones going on this trek. The others were spending a pleasant morning riding the elephants and seeing the waterfall. As we dropped off the other tourists we continued with the driver and our two trusty guides. After stopping for some supplies we were dropped off at a small village. From here we began the trek loaded with our backpacks to our first village.

Jungle Trek - The beginning

We walked for three hours along a winding track uphill most of the way. It seemed OK at this stage even though one of the guides was complaining about being tired. It was pretty hot  and muggy but the scenery was beautiful especially the mist covered mountains in the distance.

Jungle Trek - Jungle view

We enthusiastically snapped photographs along the way - some because of the scenery and others so we had an excuse to catch our breath!! It was curious that one of the guides was doing the same - it later transpired that we were the guinea pigs for a new and yet uncharted trek! After several hours of huffing and puffing, drinking plenty of water and using the bushes to relieve ourselves we cam across our first village. Aha - a chance to rest. But no- this was just a distraction along the way. After dodging the various animal deposits, we continued the journey. Feeling reasonably confident still, we gathered our reserves and continued along the increasingly narrow and undulating track. We began to realise that with every down there was an up ....and up....and up. Around lunch time we arrived at our second village. First impressions were how primitive this was. Everything was done by hand. The first woman we saw was crushing rice. She would stand on a lever to lift the crusher and then let it drop into the pot containing the rice, She would then feel the consistency of the rice as, we then realised, she was totally blind.

Jungle Trek - Locals crushing rice

It was nothing like the colourfully dressed hill tribes we had seen in the brochures or on the net. This village was inhabited by some of the poorest people in Laos. The hill tribes of the Hmomg and the Khmu lived here together although there was still some clear demarcation of who live where.

Village Map

The houses,about 80 in all,  were different and the villagers tended to live apart in different parts of the village.

Jungle Trek - Local housing

There was no electricity or sewerage or anything that even resembled a modern convenience. The costumes displayed in the glossy brochures were somehow replaced by people dressed in ill fitting, torn and dirty rags. The children in the community were somewhat wary of us. We later learned that they had never seen westerners before as this village had not been visited for some years.
One local entrepreneur, a man of 51 we discovered, had learned a little English and was keen to sell off some "side tours" for the new visitors. As we had little understanding of what was going on we agreed to go the some local caves accompanied by a young guide. This, apparently was an added extra, that was not in the original deal. Our two guides were probably planning the tour as we went with no apparent organised time frame. One of the guides could speak Hmong and was doing some negotiations and then explaining to the other guide in Lao what was going on. I really wished that I could understand some of what they were saying. Anyway, off we went again to the local caves, climbing and climbing until we reached a hole in the cliff that had not been visited by humans for some time. At this stage it was about 2:00 and we had not eaten and after all the walking we were hungry. However, a promise of lunch on our return was given. We climbed up a bit and peered into absolute blackness. None of the guides had a torch but ever-prepared Craig had one in his backpack (a 4$ hand power unit). However, the torch barely illuminated the gloom and upon the mention of bats I decided not to go any further. Craig was gone with two of the guides for quite some time....and I waited and waited..... peering at the evidence of recent animal occupation of the same space.

Jungle Trek - Craig goes caving

Eventually they returned. Craig was covered from head to toe in dirt as he had to crawl through the tunnel until he could go no further. The guides being somewhat more diminutive and less claustrophobic seem to have less trouble. Craig's tales of rock ledges in the pitch black over gaping holes confirmed my decision to stay behind was the right one.
Off we trekked back to the village - we had eaten our pre-ordered sandwiches (by now a bit soggy but still welcome food). The twenty minute hike had taken about an hour and a half. I noticed that the guides were checking the time on their mobile phones and having animated conversations (again confirming our suspicions that we were the guinea pigs for a new tour).
By the time we reached the village again a crowd had gathered in the main hut eagerly awaiting our return. Apparently they had been waiting for us to enjoy a meal with them. We explained that we had already eaten .. but suggested that the guides were welcome to eat and we would just watch. Well, the best laid plans..........
When we entered the hut, we were greeted very warmly by the people who pulled up little wooden stools for us to sit on to join them around the table. The village huts do not have kitchens - the food is prepared and shared by everyone.

Jungle Trek - Lunch with the Hmong locals

This seemed to be a special occasion and the chief of the village was keen for us to be involved. Many of the men, by this time, were quite drunk on lao-lao - pottery jars of the fermenting rice drink were plentiful. The rumoured strength of this concoction is 100% proof and having had only one shooter of it in Luang Prabang I believe the rumours to be true!! We were handed a spoon and asked to eat. I tried to explain as politely as possible that I had already eaten - by rubbing my stomach and making some pitiful attempts at mime. They were not to be deterred and the guide explained that if the chief handed you a full spoon then you were obliged to eat it. The sticky rice looked safe enough and I tried to follow their lead and dip it into some of the other dishes. My first choice was to try something that looked like fresh tomatoes, chili and coriander. I tasted it and although the flavour was familiar, it didn't taste very tomatoey. My first mistake was to ask what it was. After several attempts at pronouncing the dish - Craig though that it was brood or something - one of the guides explained it to me and spelt it out. I got the buffalo bit, but the brood was in fact b-l-o-o-d. The familiar taste was from when you cut your finger and stick it in your mouth. When the chief offered me another spoonful and I explained that I had already had some - to no avail. Craig saved me from throwing up all over their meal by taking it from me. The other guide may have sensed my discomfort and invited me to another table - I tried another dish just to be polite. It looked like some sort of beef. Why had I not learned? I asked what it was again - this time it was "already fried" buffalo blood.

Jungle Trek - Remnants of the "blood brew"

Although it was obviously a great honour for us, I was not feeling so well by this stage so protested that I was so full I couldn't eat any more.
By this time the chief, or head man, seemed quite enamored with Craig and wanted a photo of the three of us together. When we put his arm around me it caused quite raucous laughter in the hut.

Head Man photo opportunity

He seemed happy (possibly the lao-lao) and we were able to take our leave without offending anyone.
It now seemed that the tenacious entrepreneur had talked the guides into another side-trek. Considering the poverty in the village we could understand their insistence. This time we were to explore the renowned buffalo pond. After being assured that it was only thirty minutes away, off we set again. We set off on a comparatively reasonable track until we got to a point where our young guide signalled to his companion to pass the machete so that he could cut a way through the undergrowth along a little used buffalo track. After bending low and continually getting our backpacks caught and realising that after about 40 minutes this was another case of false advertising we stopped. We had been left behind by our lead guides and could not see or hear them. We took stock of our situation with the remaining guide and decided that the buffalo pond could be left off the agenda and we headed back to the village. By this time we were getting a little worried about the time frame to reach the next village where we had accommodation booked. We were looking forward to our solar heated shower and a bed to sleep in. However this was still at least 2 hours away (Lao time!!) and the prospect of walking up a mountain in the dark meant that we decided to stay in this village. Luckily one of our guides could speak the language and was able to negotiate for us to eat and stay for the night. We were led to a large hut which was padlocked up. We think that it was used for village celebrations and meetings. Waiting outside for the key to arrive we were being watched by the local children who must have thought we were either very funny or possibly dangerous. After a few smiles and gestures they were willing to move a little closer. I began to take some photos and then show them on the digital camera. They were highly amused (I doubt they had ever seen anything like this before). Even pencils and paper were not in evidence anywhere. Gradually children came from everywhere in the village to see their new exhibits. Eventually they were persuaded to wave and smile for the camera and were very excited to see themselves on video. We really wished that we had brought some books or something to give them but we had only packed the bare necessities.

Jungle Trek - Hmong children

It was really interesting to watch these children who had never seen TV before or been exposed to any form of western culture really. The girls were carrying their younger brothers and sisters and the boys were...well. just boys!! At first, after the camera stopped rolling, the boys began to tease the girls by chasing them and pulling their hair. When the girls got sick of this and left the boys began to try other ways to show off. Acrobatics were followed by wrestling, dacking each other and grabbing each others' penises!! Not so very different really.

Village children lose their shyness

When we finally got inside the hut we were pleased to see (only because we had a torch) that there was a form of bedding - a sort of mattress (somewhat damp and we didn't want to inspect it closely at this stage) that was a little short, a quilt of sorts and a couple of little lumpy bags that served as pillows. After the locals provided a chicken to be slaughtered our guides set about making dinner. Once it arrived we sat and ate it in darkness which was probably a blessing. I managed to pretend to try everything but in actual fact ate sticky rice and some vegetables. After that there was no entertainment on offer - the hand cranked video player and TV we discovered was saved for very special occasions (or didn't work) - we went to bed. It would have been about 7 o'clock but after about 7 1/2 hours of trekking we were ready for a rest.

Luxuriating in bed

We slept surprisingly well, occasionally awakening to roosters with no sense of time, crying babies, fighting dogs and heavy rain. I did say to Craig in the morning that it was probably all a ploy - the villagers had lost their last idiot and wanted him to stay!!
We were quite relieved that it was not raining in the morning but did not really realise the effect of that much rain on really clay based soils. We joined our guides around the indoor open fire as they prepared breakfast - chicken and sticky rice. Our guide then confessed that he didn't cook at home. This made us feel a whole lot better about what we were about to receive. As we sat, dogs and cats joined us around the fire.

Breakfast preparation

Locals came by and went about their chores. One guy sat on the edge of a large wooden trough and used a bamboo cane to remove the kernels from the corn. The discarded cobs were then thrown on the floor to be used as fuel for the fire, pot holders and tools to shoo away the dogs. We learnt that the corn was used for pig food and I was hoping that I could join the pigs once I saw the alternative.

Jungle Trek - Our yummy breakfast

It was hard to distinguish which parts of the chicken we were eating but the feet, beak and gizzards were quite distinguishable. Looks like sticky rice again! They even eat the water the rice has been cooked in as soup. Vegemite on toast please!!! Cooking and eating is always an occasion so a planned 7 am start began at 9 am which already made it difficult for our proposed 3 pm rendezvous with the bus.
We set off and any concerns we may have had about the rain and its effect on the trail were soon confirmed. The rain had turned moderately challenging tracks into lethal slip'n'slides. To cut a very very long story short we did not have time to view the scenery as every step of the way we had to concentrate on where we placed our feet so we didn't go arse-up, which we still managed to do on many occasions. We only hoped that when we did fall that we didn't break bones or hurt ourselves too badly which was entirely possible. There was no mobile phone coverage, no vehicular access, no first aid and no contingency plan from the tour company. We both agreed that this was probably the most challenging and dangerous thing we had ever done! This was confirmed by the fact that the experienced guides were also falling and finding it difficult to keep their footing. Guns going off in the jungle nearby, grumpy pigs and buffalo grunting at us from nearby bushes did little to raise our spirits. At one stage the "track" was so narrow that we had to literally put one foot directly in front of the other and it was like walking on a greasy tightrope. Blood (from the cuts), sweat (from the effort and humidity) and yes, I admit, tears (when falling over again and landing on sharp rocks). We have very few photos of this part of the trip as we were more concerned with getting there than documenting this. Anyway, we both agreed, that it is indelibly imprinted on our brains and we can conjure up the images any time we hear "trek".
This made our 2 hour journey about 4 hours by the time we reached the touristy village (so called, because it was rumoured to have electricity). We were at least hoping to stop for a wash and toilet break. Our ablutions so far had consisted off finding appropriate bushes (although after a while just any bush would do!) and using a small pack of baby wipes in the morning to freshen up. However, we couldn't stop for long as we were so far behind schedule that we might miss our pick up.
I ventured to ask if the upcoming track was any easier and was told "same, same" - a favourite saying here that is emblazoned on T-shirts.
So after another 2 1/2 hours of "same same" and desperately hoping that our next fall would miss the giant black buffalo turds littering the way, we finally arrived at the waterfall. Thank God, Buddha, anyone who may have looked after us!!

Jungle Trek - The trek's end

We sat down at a picnic bench for guess what!!!! Chicken and sticky rice (that had been carried all day in the heat and humidity). We pulled off our muddy, bloody shoes to find that another treat awaited. Most of the blood was coming from several fat leeches still attached to our feet and ankles, gorging away happily. Another new experience for us!!
We then hobbled to the bus and as we approached noticed that there were a series of restaurants serving a range of fare including beerlao!! Another 25 km in a bus and we would be back!! When I got in the shower at the hotel room, I said to Craig "Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news? The good news is that this is the best shower we have had and the bad news is that I am not getting out!" True to my word when Craig did get a turn he had a mostly cold shower. Lucky he is the forgiving type!!
Despite this gloomy report there are certainly some distinctive memories that we have witnessed as most tourists would not have seen the authentic version of Lao life. Lessons we have learned:
1. Mud sticks
2. Avoid being guinea pig on new tours
3. Tomatoes and chillis are not the only foods that are bright red
4. Never aspire to be a contestant on "Survivor"
5. The poorest of people seem to have the greatest levels of generosity
6. Boys will be boys!
7. Sometimes it is better to be ignorant when consuming meals in a foreign land
8. Many plants in jungle have thorns and some leaves double as razors
9. Never antagonise a mother pig
10. Every cloud has a silver lining except those that are on the top of mountains

Jungle Trek - Gorillas in the mist