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23rd September
I said Farewell to J who was now heading north to Thailand and Chang
Mai. I had arranged a 2 day trek to a remote area in the north with
Phone Travel. We were driven in a Hyundai minivan for an hour to the
start of the walk. One thing that did surprise me was the driver
actually pulled in to the side of the road and stopped to take a
phone call. That would not usually happen in Cambodia!
 The
group of 7 included two Belgians’ Tom and his wife/girlfriend. They
had been on the same route . I met them at first on the Victory
monument in Vientiane and seen them a few other times. Matthias and
Natalie were from Holland on an extended trip. Virgini from France,
was doing some travel before volunteer teaching in Luang Prabang.
Baht our guide introduced himself as Baht Money He must get a of
jokes about his name!
It didn’t take long before I was explaining about Cambodia and
handing out flyers. There was a genuine interest as the Belgians and
Dutch were planning to visit in October. The hour drive soon passed
and we stopped at a roadside where We met Lucas a German student who
was traveling with a friend who was unwell and not able to join the
tour. He had come up in a separate vehicle.
The Trekking team
The Walk started quickly up a track past a thatched house. We were
soon paddling across our first river. Baht told us we would have 4
river crossings; but the first didn’t count as it was only a small
one. Matthias Expressed surprise that I was wearing Trekking
sandals. My trainers were still saturated from my previous trek. I’d
bought some new sandals the evening before; anticipating a few river
crossings. This proved well worthwhile as there were plenty of
places to get ones feet wet.
Half an hour later we were passing idyllic landscape of rice fields
with a backdrop of hazy blue green peaks. The Terrain was moderately
steep and thankfully had dried out. The rivers were easy to cross.
Many had small cascades close by. The scenery was among the best I’d
seen on trek in South East Asia. Constantly varying and ascending
with sweeping views between areas of new teak plantations, light
bamboo forest and steep Rice meadows.
We came to our first hill village of Mok Chong. It was a Kamu Tribal
village of thatched huts around a dusty sloping common area. The
villagers, were reserved and were not that used to tourists. The
kids were a little shy and some of the smaller ones looked a little
in awe as we passed. We moved on to the upper Village which was
similar but inhabited by Hmong of Chinese descent.
 We
assembled at a house; used as a shop where a blue tiled table was
provided. We were to wait for 20 minutes before lunch. So Som the
Local Hmong Guide Led us around the village. Nan and Baht supervised
the cooking. The fish lunch was very good; with drinks on sale from
the shop. Of course with no electric or fridge; the drinks weren’t
exactly cold. The Asian style of ultra sweet Pepsi or Miranda are
not to my taste; water even solar heated my black pack was far more
refreshing.
The Conversation as a mix of Dutch. Belgian. English
and French with a little German thrown in to make the gathering seem
like a European Union Convention. Matthias rightly pointed out that
we had forgotten the Eastern Europeans. My thoughts about EU
regulations were best suppressed in this company!
Ba Nath Hmong Village
After lunch, we walked up to the upper village where Some showed us
the school. It was a basic thatched two roomed hut with simple rough
hewn tables and benches. Some took us to the house of a friend where
he explained about village life here. There were two villages of the
same name. the lower villagers were descended from Khmer, the upper
villages where of Chinese origin .
We had a lot of fun photographing the kids and I promised to get
some prints don for them. It seemed like a busman’s holiday for me,
doing much the same I as I would on tours. Of course steep mountain
walking was not something that is easily done at home. The walking
here was fabulous and certainly the best trekking experience I have
done for quite a few years. The pleasant weather ; not too hot made
it a lot more comfortable.
At times I was reminded of the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas.
Matthias told me that he had just come from Everest Base Camp. That
may have explained his brisk walking pace. Natalie .told me later
that they didn’t trek to Base camp as a road now takes people there.
At 5 pm we arrived ar Na Savvang a Kamou village where we were to
stay the night. The simple thatched bunk house was Alpine style,
with two sleeping platforms. Mattresses and Mosquito nets were
provided. There was some confusion over bathing facilities. I was
expecting a bucket shower. Even though I’d joked earlier about
having an en suite Jacuzzi . There was an earth latrine which I
scored 7 on a smelly scale of 10. It dropped to around 3 later that
evening with nose peg required!
The bathing facilities were either the village pump or a short walk
down to the river. The river looked to be the best option as the
sight of me bathing in the centre of the village might be too much
for some villager to take! The river was cool and refreshing I
certainly needed freshening up after all the exertion of the day. I
returned to the Village for a rest .
I dozed for a while until Baht woke me up calling for David Beckham!
Oh I hate being named after that brainless Football star. Trouble is
out here If you are English and have the name David . the reference
to Beckham is almost inevitable! I forgave Baht for that; as he had
a bottle of Lao Beer waiting for me. Baht (or anyone else for that
matter) can call me Beckham as many times as they like if they will
supply me with a beer. I might even accept Heineken if I’m in a
really good mood!
 We
ate a well cooked meal of chicken and rice. The village children
came over to our table to sing songs for us. Later on Some /asked us
if we wanted to hear a story.
Well the story was about the boy d girl from the willage who went to
school together. The boy de girl fell in love and de boy de girl
were in love and de girl missed de boy who went to Australia. And de
boy missed de girl and wanted to go back to de willage
the whole story as repeated over and over again with
a new line added each time
Twenty minutes later ……………..and de boy de girl a were married
Thirty five minutes later
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
we were all asleep and missed the ending!
Good night!
Kmau Spirit
23rd September
I woke to bloody cockerels again It seems every where I go in
country areas I’m woken up by these stupid birds who think its dawn
at 4am .I only takes one to start and every cock in the area wants
to join in. I was even dreaming about them! Well I thought I was and
then I realised I was awake .
I settled down or a while under the duvet. Yes it as a quite chilly
night at this high mountain village. I was woken up by a rhythmic
thud de thud , thud de thud, thud de thud from the village square If
I I wasn’t in such a need for a pee I’d probably not bother as it
was only 6am.
I reached for my sweater for my brief foray over the obstacle course
of wood to the toilet facilities. By the beds were a number of
planks which crashed together noisily if one was not to careful with
the feet. I gingerly balanced my way along the planks so as not to
disturb my sleeping companions . The inevitable happened and the
planks banged noisily together enough to wake the dead.
 Outside
I looked out to see a lady crushing grain with a huge mortar and
pestle It was about a metre and half high on a wooden pivot; rather
like a see saw with a tree trunk at one end The thud thud de thud
continued as I walked over the various bits of wood and a nose high
electric cable to get to the latrine. The Smelly rating was up to 6
now so almost good enough for a long dump if needed.
I took a walk around the village in the morning light . there was a
lot of activity; with a the lady mortaring the grain and kids
already playing I the village square. After Breakfast three girls
entertained us with a game where tree girls link legs together in
and spin round in a kind of dance they repeated this many times .
In the Living room, a group of men were huddled together round a
grey earthenware pot. It looked like they were smoking from what
looked like a communal Arab hubble bubble pipe. What they were
actually ding as drinking the local spirit or whiskey through
plastic tubing. I was offered a tube to join in . The sprit was not
strong but there must have been 5 to 10 litres in there. At 9:30 am
with a long walk ahead; it was a bit early in the day for a long
session!
Early morning in the village
Two Brothers
We left the village and had an idyllic walk in approximately 40
minutes to a cool waterfall. Bug spotter Baht found a couple of dark
red beetles which he posed with them crawling up his shirt. They
were elephant bugs. A close look explained why; they had a trunk
like proboscis.
Virgini took a dip in the falls; Nan climbed up the Falls posing in
a precarious position before disappearing behind the torrent of
water. After that brief rest. we continued upwards through rough
bamboo forest where Baht played with a tethered goat.
 We
found a camp in the forest which was temporarily abandoned. The
bamboo was dense in places and the low branches caught many times on
my backpack. The trail, was very muddy and rutted in places where
motor bikes and tractors had churned up the sand track.
Out of the forest we passed a house where some chanting was going
on. Inside a fortune teller (witch doctor) was removing bad sprit
which had made one of the family unwell. W man was banging a gone
and the black hooded fortune teller was in what appeared to be a
trance and was standing on a bench, leaping off it and crouching on
the floor . He had been repeating this action for some time as a way
of removing the bad spirits.
Nan Taking a shower
We left the house and after crossing a river or two; continued to
another Hmong Village. Ban Hayuaka; where we were to have lunch.
Some took us to the simple thatched school; where I became a human
bell clanger, after hitting my head on an old car ‘wheel used as the
school gong. As usual Some warned me to be careful. He did that
every time I tripped or became entangled in a vine or overhanging
branch!
 
There as a lot of activity here including a
blacksmith tempering a curved blade with water pouring over the red
hot metal to cool and harden it. There were a lot of kids around and
we watched some kids pulling a boy on a sled made from a plastic
container. Its funny that in the 21st century with all the
technology and expensive playthings for rich kids; all the children
need here are a few sticks . old flip flops and a few bits of
plastic.
Back on the trail after lunch Bug spotter Baht found
yet another creepy crawly; a bright green praying mantis. He played
with it on a stick. It was a female with egg sac clearly visible. He
set it down on a tree and we continued our walk in what had now
become hot and humid conditions.
The scenery here never ceased to enthral us with almost every turn
in the path gave yet another wonderful landscape view. Tom noted to
me that he felt the trek had become a photo tour! Well in a sense
almost very place can have photographic content and I was happy to
be a catalyst .
At 3 pm we passed through one of the many Teak tree
plantations. The Lao Government were doing a lot to redress the
damage done my decades of de-forestation. The teak trees will grew
for about 50 years then will be cut down for timber. After this
length of time the trees can become hollow and eventually rot from
the inside.
At the end of the walk we arrived at the main road t the village of
B Ladthare. We only had a few minutes to go. In that time I saw a
man at a water pipe washing an animal . On closer view it was his
pet dog, all soapy and soggy. As I pointed my camera at him; he
grinned and dunked his dog in the water again for me. I promise him
I’d send him a photo, which I did with many others that I took on
the trip.
All text and Images © Dave Perkes 2007
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