Amy and Steven's Endless Summer.: Trek in the Jungle.

Written 28^th November 2012

Presently we are driving along a rough road in Cambodia. The bus must constantly change from side to side of the road to avoid the worst places. Outside the window we pass by shacks, people harvesting their rice paddies and varios crops, livestock (including water buffalo, cows, and the occasional goat) and worn out dogs. But when I last wrote an entry we had just crossed the boarder in the north of Laos and Cambodia is in the south. So I must go back several weeks and catch up on our adventures. Remember when you read Laos don't say the “s” on the end.

So, we had to sleep the night in that dive at the bus station in Namtha. When we woke in the morning after an edgy sleep in which we constantly feared being feasted upon by bed bugs. We next tried to get a tuk-tuk into town but the tuk-tuk drivers were fast asleep and when woken demanded an outrageous fee. Being fresh in Laos we were still a bit unsure of the currency conversion but we knew this bloke was trying to fleece us big time. Eventually another guy turned up and took us for a bit more that the actual fee but not too much, so we payed him and set off. The road was being worked on and although it was straight, it still took a while to get there. When we arrived in the town itself we wandered around in the hot trying to find a guest house. When we finally found one we set out for lunch/breakfast. We were looking for Forest Retreat Laos (a cafe run by two kiwis we had read about on trip advisor) but had forgotten what it was called so settled for the first place we came to because we were famished. After lunch and a rest we did find Forest Retreat (a forest green colour on the main road) in time for dinner. Yum they have good food!!! We even tried a slice of pizza with silk worms on it that a French guy ordered and shared with us. They looked aweful but tasted okay! They are a traditional Laos food but are not normally eaten on pizza! We met Karen and Drae that night who run the place and are both super lovely. They had some interesting insights and stories to share about the locals and about living in Laos.

The next day after a yummy breakfast

and organising a two day trek and kayak for the next day, Drae gave us some tips of places in the local area to go to and we hired a scooter. First stop was the local market.

There was a huge array of produce for sale, from little bundles of herbs, to fruit and vegtables, to meat (which the flies were kept away from with swaying plastic bags ties to sticks and smoke), there were live fish in shallow tanks, and silk worms which a local girl gobbled down to show me they were edible.

These are the silk worms.

Chillies.

Dragon fruit.

We were gong to go to the petrol station first but went about 50 metres the wrong way (where we saw the market and stopped). We headed back to the main road to get some petrol and promptly ran out of petrol! The scooter hire guy drained it so low it would hardly start when we got it! So Steve had to push the bike 200 metres to the petrol station!!!

Now we had some gas, next stop was a waterfall. We drove out of town and through a little village to get there. The villages in Laos really don't seem like they have changed much in 100's of years. There are little thatched huts, dirt paths, chickens, pigs and puppies roaming everywhere, and villagers processing rice etc. The children all yell out “Si-ba-dee!” (Hello!) and if they are fast enough will run out for a hi-5. Many villages now have power and a dirt road leading to them. The waterfall was nice. We saw locals picnicking there and cooking fish over a fire.

Then we went for a walk and looked at the recently harvested rice paddies. The view was lovely.

This was our map.

Next stop was a little village by the river where we stopped to eat some manderins and a dragon fruit we bought from the market (we are pretty sure for a much inflated price!). While we were there we saw a guy drive his truck into the river and dump some trees and stuff into it. Then we saw a guy washing his scooter. Some others were digging on the far side. Some children came down to check out the white people and say hello as well.

Next we went to get a cold drink and admire the view of the rice paddies.

Then we continued on our round trip and came back around to the other side of town where we climbed up to a temple. There is an old one up there that was bombed during the Vietnam War and they had built a new one in front of the old one.

We went to one more temple on the way back that had a nice view over the town.

The next day we skyped Rachael and found out that Malcolm had had a bad accident when riding the quad bike the day before and had broken several ribs as well as vertebrae when he went tumbling down the hill. We were very worried about him but were assured he would be okay.

As it turned out we were to do the kayaking part first. So we headed off back to the local markets with our guide Air who bought the food we would need for the next two days. I think it was really cool how this was included as part of the trek, it made it very interesting. Then we headed off to the river where we loaded into the kayaks (Air in one with the food and Steve and I in the other).

We paddled along admiring the view. When we first started out we could see some machines up high on the side of the river improving the road. But we soon left all trace of them behind. After a while we stopped at a village for a while to have a look around. At that village they shave off the eyebrows of the women who are married. After a quick look around we got back on the river and continued to enjoy the view of the jungle which was getting denser and denser.

There was also some rubber plantations but these became less as we continued on as we came into national park land. We stopped at one point to have lunch on the river bank. We ate off a banana leaf and the meal consisted of sticky rice and a kind of stew made of pumpkin, ginger and other vegetables, it was yummy!

At the end of the kayaking we stopped at another village which I liked better as it was more remote. There was a dirt road running through it and they had power but it was very rudimentary. There were heaps of cute puppies and baby chicks and baskets of chillies drying on roofs. We explored among the huts and it was so peaceful. We said hi to some villagers too.

One lady showed us how she was de-husking the rice by tossing in it in a large, round, shallow basket.

We continued on, crossing the river and hiking up a very steep hill to a ridge, which we walked along a bit until we came to the jungle camp.

This was the hut.

Air went to collect water, put the sticky rice in a bowl to soak and we then all collected some firewood. Air got a fire started and cut up the meat and vegetables on a bit of wood and set them aside on a banana leaf and continued to make dinner. He had two fires, one to cook the sticky rice which was put in a woven bowl thing which was set on top of a boiling pot of water. The other things took turns being cooked in a pan over the other fire. When dinner was ready Air gave some of each dish to the spirits as he used to be a monk.

Over the yummy food he told us about how he had become a monk when he was 10-12 (I've forgotten exactly) because his family was too poor too feed him. He told us of the conditions of being a monk and about how he was able to study. He was a very interesting guy. After dinner we sat and chatted for a bit and shared out our packet of Oreos we had bought along.

It had become dark by then and we sat around the camp fire for a while yarning and watching fireflies which I had never seen before until we were tired enough to go to bed (7pm). We had a great night sleep in the jungle, even thought the beds were just thin mattresses on the floor with a blanket we slept like babies for 12 hours!

The next morning Air was up cooking breakfast and lunch (using the left over cooked rice and the vegetables he hadn't already cooked.) We set off after we had eaten, walking through the towering trees draped in jungle vines.

As we walked we asked Air about local matters and he told us all about how local people used the jungle. We learnt about different plants which he shoewed us along the way and he let us taste some edible ones including tasting some medicinal ones. His grandmother was his village's medicine woman. We asked about how common malaria was and he told us about how in 1999 his younger bother and sister died or malaria because when they were taken to the hospital their family didn't have enough money to pay for the medicine. Eventually when enough people had died the government said to give the medicine for free but it was too late for his brother and sister. He now has three other younger brothers and sisters which have been born since. We asked about if he played alone in the jungle as a child and he told us about the war games (America versus Laos) that him and his friends played as children. He told us about how his Granddad lost his leg to a land mine. We asked about tigers and he told us of a village nearby that had to kill a tiger a few years ago as it was a threat to the people. Which was sad as they are endangered.

We continued the steep hike up, along, up, along until we came to the top of a rise where we could see a nice view of the national reserve.

I had a stick to help me out for the hiking to prevent my knee that I injured in Australia playing up again. I also wore my leg brace. On the trip down I had two sicks in the tricky places. It was an enjoyable but challenging trek and we completed it in just under 4 hours. At that time we came to another river that joined at that spot into the one we had been kayaking on. We crossed in by wading through and then had lunch on a banana leaf at the river camp.

After lunch Steve and I had a nice swim and I admired all the pretty butterflies that were playing around the river bank.

Then we waded through the big river and got picked up by a mini van. We drove a little way further along the track to drop off Air so he could walk back to his village and then we drove, bumping back to town which took quite a while. It was a really great trek which we both really enjoyed.