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10th September |
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Mick was at
the Bus Station to see me off; that was really nice of him. Said
our farewells to Mick and Khean and was soon on my way to
Mukthahan just over the Mekong River from Laos. The journey
wasn’t much on interest; just one dull Thai town after another.
I dozed for much of the journey; waking up in yet another dreary
looking town at 12:15. There was no indication of where we were.
A few people got off and more got onboard.
Just as it
was about to leave, an attendant called that it was Mukthahan. I
suddenly woke up and joined a couple of Irish guys (father an
son it looked like) going to the ticket office. It was 50b over
the bridge to Savannakhet. The bus as leaving at 12:30; so it
was a 30 second dash to the waiting bus. It was a short drive to
the Thai Immigration before the bridge. A speedy passport check
and the bus was crossing the wide expanse of the Mekong River on
the new bridge.
At the
impressive Lao checkpoint I had to fill out the obligatory Visa
application. It took about 10 mins then through with another
form to the waiting bus. There was no customs check; our baggage
was left in the bus. The short drive to Savannakhet passed by
small farms and neat Thai style villas to the bus station on the
edge of town. I took a Jumbo; a bit like a large tuk tuk witj 2
long bench seats at the rear. My is choice of guest house The
Sayansouk was full; so tried the old Colonial Xayamounkhoung
Guest House It was not a name to roll easily off the tongue. In
fact I could find nothing memorable in that disconnected jumble
of letters to even remember the first syllable.
The place is
full of character and very much like a few old style Khmer
Hotels I’d stayed at before. I looked at a few drab windowless
rooms before finding one with a small window overlooking a
courtyard. It wasn’t the Ritz but for $8 for an aircon room with
TV It was OK and full of the kind of old world character which
is fast disappearing. No wi-fi or internet here; but there were
some in town. The lobby was pleasant and staff laid back and
welcoming. I picked up a town map and looked at brochures for
eco trekking tours. I took a wander about the neat streets with
the faded colonial buildings. |
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I had a snack at the Lao
Paris restaurant which was an old ans decrepit shop
house of such character that I want to take it back with
me. It was nice having my omelet and chips with
views of the Mekong River. I didn't look much at
the outside when I entered; but the outside certainly
had character!
The tourist office was a
wonderfully example to the Thais or anyone else, with
knowledgeable staff lots of well written information and
a really professional set up. Thongsavath the Manager
was very keen to give info on the short trekking
options; He suggested that if I went tomorrow Tuesday I’
would be able to experience a village celebration of the
full moon as well as a home stay in one of the
ethnic villages. |
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The Lao Paris
Restaurant |
I signed up so will save my tour
of the town for another day. Back at the guest house I heard
some pretty neat guitar playing from the next room to the
balcony where I was watching the rain. I introduced myself to
Ben from somewhere north of London. He was in is 20s had been
cycling round SE Asia; and has been in Savannakhet since March
doing occasional teaching; mainly in Thailand. |
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11th September
I woke early at 6:30 and tried to
find some breakfast. The sleepy town was dead quiet and only
local places were open for breakfast. After a circuit of the
town and down to the river where I knew the Paris Lao Café
served breakfast t western style . I am not a great fan of Asian
breakfasts. Noodles rice and garlic are a last resort. I walked
round the block to the Xayamounkhoung Guest house
I was collected at 8am on a tuk
tuk for the drive to the trek. Met the Guide Sinakhone; she was
very sweet and very well informed. She was explaining everything
along the route; but I could not hear much over the engine roar.
We did pass the impressive new stadium; the largest in the
country.
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Gifts of money for Sprit
Festival |
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Khampa our local guide was
a few minutes late, so it was an ideal opportunity to see the
festivities within That Ing Hang the most sacred site in
the area. Built I in 16th century; the Ancient prasat
or tower is now part of a large complex. Surrounded by a wall
with hundred of new Buddha images. |
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A friend of the guide asked me to
take her photo I was happy to oblige |
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The full moon festival was in
full swing with hundreds making offerings within the large wat.
The intoxicating smell
of burning incense smoke (maybe I should say the choking smell
of incense) Sinakhone was suffering, so guided me to the open
prayer hall with monks and their offerings of Kip the local
currency. It was a very interesting start to the day. We were
planning to visit this Wat again later, so were soon on the new
main road to Vietnam.
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We turned off down a good
gravel road through forest; where we stopped by a gate
at the beginning the days 18km walk. The route was on a
good sand track where soon Khampha stopped to show us
the extraction of oil from trees. The bark of the tree
is removed and a hole cut where the oil dripped down
into the cup shaped depression in the tree. A little
further on a rustling high above us. drew us into the
bush where the sounds of large monkeys were heard. The
trees were moving but I only just caught a glimpse of
the dark shape of a langur.
Various bugs including a
black (harmless) scorpion and exotic spiders were
pointed out to me. The most interesting find was a
tarantula in its hole. We could see the black arachnid
deep in the hole. Khampa tried to encourage it out with
a stick; but it just moved further in. Khampha
showed me how water is taken from a woody water vine. By
cutting it the water flowed out and tasted pretty good
too. |
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The Bug spot
Kampha
was good at finding bugs!
The
harmless Black Scorpion was around 7cm long
We tried
to get the Tarantula out of its hole with a stick; but
ii just moved further inside
The
exotic bug left had antenna which are as wide as its
length of 10cms.
The
white moth's wings shimmer in the sunlight
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we continued to the small Nom Lom Lake. Sinakhone explained the
complex legend of the lake; which is too long to include here.
There were a few locals fishing and others passed on motorbikes
on the way back from the That Ing Hang Pagoda.
We walked through the forest with
some rain; becoming heavier so it was head down for a while; the
rain eased off a little as the path became narrow and more
jungle like. Khampha was ahead showing the way and deftly
lifting the curtains of spiders webs as we passed. One doesn’t
really want a mouthful of web and a 5inch spider in the face!
They do look colourful; but they can sting a bit.
We came out of the forest into
partially cleared land with abandoned rice fields with a brief
stop there before a few kms across fairly dry rice fields to a
small farmstead for lunch. We had sticky rice; dried beef,
vegetables and various dips some with wicked chilli. I took a
few photos of the the family of Yai and his wife Van and their
kids. I promised to get prints for them at Savannakhet.
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The walk beyond here was a little
tricky as we had to walk on top of the narrow banks between rice
fields. I was about 9 inches wide; slippery and choked with
vegetation. After a few minutes the inevitable happened. While
correcting a right foot slip my left foot slid into the muddy
morass. Khampha tried to help but knocked my glasses off.
Thankfully I retrieved my glasses cleaned up my camera and moved
on.
A few minutes later a flooded
sluice gate blocked our way. The dam was quite deep but
passable; Sinakhone was a little short in leg for this; so waded
beyond her waist in the muddy water. The walk from there was
fairly easy. With mixed forest and open rice fields .
We had a brief rest at a farm
before the easy walk to the Village. With a name like “Ban
Phonesim” it doesn’t seem that mobile phones are welcome
here. Well there was a network in the sizable farming village of
quite smart wooden houses.
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looking up to
mother
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 Accommodation
for that night was in the house of Kheo and his wife
Thongsamoulkd .Their house was a two storey affair with a
concrete lower floor and a wooden upper floor. The ground floor
was a single tiled room around 10 metres on each side with a
kitchen out the back and loo a bucket shower outside.
We were entertained outside with
drinks of Lan Bong Ya a rice whisky with plant roots in the
bottle and a bit of a kick in the glass. We had a while to rest
here’ it was warm but not too hot as the clouds were thickening.
The plan to go to the pagoda was not apparently going ahead as
the celebration was going to be in a neighbouring village.
Sinakhone did apologise for this. The meal at the house will go
ahead as planned.
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The traditional welcome involved
all the family wearing sashes and placing of white string on my
right arm. I did the same to all the eight family members. I
then made offerings to the small altar which was the centre
piece of the room. The food was traditional sticky rice and
noodles with soup and pork.
The odd thing about the
proceedings was the TV was on the whole time. The TV was still
on when I bedded down on a mattress with mosquito net on the
floor in the corner of the only downstairs room
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