Laos begins!

Back home.  Well not really, but in Laos I feel more at home than I did in Vietnam. The language is more familiar (the dialect spoken in my village is similar to Laos) and the easy smile in response to my wave is definitely more familiar.  

The bus ride through the last bits of Vietnam to the Vietnam / Laos border, left a positive feeling in my heart for Vietnam.  The bus attendant was kind and patient and when we got to the border at 5am, sleepy and confused, he got us onto a bus to take us into Laos.  We thought we'd have to wait until the next day and would have to transfer many times to get where we wanted, but the bus he got us on would take us directly, without us ever telling him where our final destination was.  The new bus attendant was even more pleasant and with an hour until peel away time, we went out for food.  We passed a restaurant with a bunch of men sitting in the front, telling us to come in. The man who owned the restaurant cooked and that alone is rare and special, to see a man in these parts cook.  The food was good and he was a doll.  Marj was filling out post cards from Sapa and he and the patrons all came over to look at the pictures and give us a smile.  When leaving, the cook excitedly shook my hand and gave me a huge, semi-toothless smile.  Across the street, the ladies beckoned me over to buy apples....how'd they know I wanted apples?! They were all so excited to briefly talk with me; all of this warmth left me smiling and feeling good, but sad to leave Vietnam.

Crossing the border into Laos was a breeze, with the exception of every Asian on the bus getting violently car sick.  I thought the mountains were glorious, but I don't think they did!  The sounds of Laos being spoken and passing through villages of big smiles in response to my wave, I felt like I was home in Thailand again.

We arrived in Luang Nam Tha, the far northwestern region, close to Burma, in 10 hours.  On the tuk tuk ride from the bus station to the center of town, Marj and I both commented on the poverty we'd seen thus far.  Every house was a wooden/ bamboo shack, kids running around naked, women, including young girls wearing traditional pasin's (like a sarong wrapped around as a skirt - in Thailand, only grandmas still wore them as anything more than a robe), dirt everywhere and simply a look of poverty, more than any of the countries I'd been to in SE Asia. 

Once in town center, I walked around looking for the cheapest place and what do you know?  The cheapest place was right across from the night food market!  Marj and I, hungry and worn had som-tam (Papaya salad), Laos coffee and a Laos beer called Beerlao, the dark lager, which is delish.  In Laos, there is only one type of beer, Beerlao, dark and light.  Its a good thing the one option here is so tasty!  Feeling refreshed, we went out to learn about trekking for me and kayaking for Marj.  A traveling buddy we met along the way had recommended Green Discovery, we found them quickly and Marj booked a 2 day kayak trip with her and a guide and I was able to jump on a 3-day trek through the Nam Ha National Protected Area that 3 other people had already signed up for.  The more people the cheaper and most importantly, more fun.  Three days of trekking through the jungle provides a lot of time for talking so it's cool to be with new people to get to know.  Marj and I, both excited, went home to pack our bags and get a good night of sleep.

The next morning, Marj and I hugged, parting ways for the next 3 days.  As I shook the hands of my new trekking buddies, Kelly and Matt, a 28 year old couple from Texas and Paul, a 32 year old Englishman who was raised in Malawi, Africa, I knew it'd be a good few days.

And good it was. We began in a small village and we picked up a local guy to help us through day one.  Nobody remembers his name, but I named him Muscle Man or Mr. Laos because his body was one big muscle and he was everything I thought a Laotian man would be.  The guy had to be at least 55 years old and he had a solid rock body.  Any time he lifted his arms a bicep, tricep or something would come out bulging.  That's what a physically laborious life will give you, I guess.  The first leg of our trip was through many streams and rivers; we had to cross via raft in the beginning and Muscle Man had to scoop water out first from all the rain that had come the week prior.  We had been told the path had a few fallen branches because the rain came in with really bad storms.  Well, fallen branches was an understatement.  Muscle Man was chopping through the entire path with his machete all day.  There was fallen bamboo, branches and massively huge trees.  It made for some extra climbing and crawling, which was fun, but Muscle Man did us proud and really cleared the path for us.  We realized early on we were deep in the jungle, unable to see anything but lush trees, bamboo and the backpack in front of you.

Laos food in general is delicious, but the food on this trek being made in the midst of the jungle, was surprisingly amazing, with a capital A.  Lunch the first day was sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, tofu and tomatoes, this spicy chili dish, sauted veggies and liver. The guides had collected banana leaves along the way to use as a placemat for the food.  They laid the leaves out on the ground and dumped the food out on it, which we used our fingers and sticky rice to scoop up.  I felt like I was in Esan :)

That night we stayed at a little campsite with only us and the bees. The place was swarmed with bees and Matt and I both got stung, little bastards.  All of us, except for Paul, had some leeches on our feet/ legs to get rid of.  Once we changed into dry clothes (our clothes were drenched from sweat, it's so damn hot in May) the bees mostly hung out on our clothes rather than us.  There was a 3 sided shelter that our guides set up with mats, mosquito nets and sleeping bags we carried from town.  Our guides worked quite hard as soon as we got to camp, setting up our sleep space and cooking, using various herbs they collected along the hike.  Dinner consisted of sticky rice, this amazing tomatoe sauce/soup thing, a pork or buffalo dish, we never really found out exactly what it was and this unbelievable soup with bamboo shoots and tons of green veggies with the perfect amount of spice.  We couldn't get enough of it.  By this time we learned Matt makes noises/sound effects when reacting to something, and he was making a lot of hmmmm's during this meal before each bite.  

After dinner, Matt and Kelly taught us this awesome card game called Cabo, taught to them by an Israeli they met along their travels.  It was a complex game and we somehow stayed up until 10, despite our exhaustion from the day, because we couldn't stop playing this game.  The only thing we stopped for was sounds we heard from the little stream running through our camp.  It sounded like splashing and we could all swear it was a tiger (that's an exaggeration, we just really wanted to see a tiger) or some kind of animal. Paul went down to look while we supported him from the top, but it was pitch black.  The next day our guide, Ae, told us it was probably a pebble.....I think he thought we were over exaggerating but we were convinced it was some animal. We scoped out the sky full of stars (1,000 star hotel....my kind of hotel!) before bed to rest up for day 2.

Next morning, we had some "coffee" (3-in-1....the instant coffee Thai people love that we call sugar water with a splash of coffee), sticky rice and a delish egg omelet.  Sadly, Muscle Man wasn't carrying on with us but gave each of us strings, while wishing us good and pushing away the bad.  This is like the Thai string ceremony that can be done both formally and informally, and made me just as emotional.  We said our good-byes and on full bellies began the intense incline of day 2.  Without Muscle Man present, our guide Ae spent the morning chopping...more enormous fallen trees. It was impressive. We sat down for lunch in the midst of bamboo.  Banana leaves laid out, we ate out lunch of sticky rice, sauted string beans and eggplant.  All of a sudden, the sky went dark and the winds came in strong.  Creaking bamboo gives off some scary sounds but, after seeing all the huge fallen trees, we knew standing amongst bamboo would be safer than finding shelter elsewhere.  So we wrapped up lunch and waited until the hard rains passed.  It didn't last long which was good, but made for an afternoon of slippery declining terrain. We all had a few good spills. Another afternoon of fending off leeches as well, since those little suckers really know how to leech on (haha).

We walked through a village or two along the river.  We were excited to go for a swim once we got to the village we were staying for the night.  Sadly, by the time we got there, the river looked like mud and I was no longer in the mood for a swim.  Germany had collaborated with many of the villages in this National Protected Area (NPA) we were hiking through and supplied many of the villages with a clean water pump.  So we rinsed under that instead.  We strolled around the village observing the kids and families working and the many farm animals that were like part of the family.  We were expecting rains to come in the night and the shelter we were to sleep in had a bamboo roof.  Ae didn't want us to take the chance so he spoke to one of the only families in the village with a tin roof who graciously allowed us to sleep in their house.  The house being just one giant room on stilts made out of wood with an old married couple in which the old man (grandpa) lived there all his life.

We had dinner at their home with them and the many villagers that came to watch us eat.  One older man went around in a circle pouring out shots of rice wine to 2 people at a time up until the bottle was empty.  He didn't say a word all night, just poured rice wine with a big ass smile on his face.  The family was so sweet and I wanted to take grandpa and rice wine pourer with us, they were so nice.  I was able to speak to them with my little Laos and it was a fun way to experience a very remote Laos village.  After dinner, everybody cleared out for a bonfire.  The women sat around crocheting while their tired children clung to them.  When it was time for bed, the kids climbed on their mom's back like little monkeys, mom would tie the blanket around their body to secure the kids in and get up to go home.  Really cute.

Everybody went to bed but the four of us wanted to play more card games (cabo is addicting!). There were no lights outside of the homes so we played for a bit inside while grandma and grandpa watched us play and we learned a bit more about their family.  We felt as though we were keeping them up so when we got up to continue cards outside with our headlamps, they insisted we stay in.  Genuine hospitality was an understatement, as they let us eat, sleep and feel comfortable in their home, and did it with sincerity.  We ended up leaving for a little walk shortly after because there were enormous roaches everywhere and although Kelly is a tough cookie, she is afraid of them.  Not like I enjoy their presence or anything, but one thing Thailand taught me was how to relax my mind to live amongst the roaches.  Either way, our walk helped mental preparation for a night of sleeping with them.  As usual, I slept like a rock and morning came too early.

I woke at 6:30 to the village already in full swing: people hoeing gardens and feeding the variety of farm animals that lived amongst the people.  We had fun with one particular beautiful, young girl who hung around us.  She was perfect to take pictures of, she had such an aura about her: cautious but curious and sweet.  She loved seeing the pictures of herself afterwards and Paul and Kelly let her take some photos too which she loved.  We had breakfast and as we packed up our stuff, the villagers all came to watch.  I was putting band-aids on my feet to help prevent the usual blisters I get from my hiking boots and grandpa came up to me asking me to bandage him up.  The night before he had told me that he recently fell from his stilted home and hurt himself, one outcome being big cuts on the side of his face and on his foot.  I used peroxide, antibiotic cream and bandaged him up leaving some medicine for him to use which he was grateful for.  As small as this task was, it reiterated my urge to be a nurse.  I periodically felt it in Thailand, particularly when I was doing breast cancer checks for the women in my community, and this only enhanced it....maybe school isn't completely out of the question for me.  I could do doctors without borders as a nurse....hhhhmmmmm, the possibilities.

We carried on with the steepest incline yet and plenty more leeches.  Other than the morning incline, it was a relaxing hike that ended around 2pm.  We hopped in the van to take us back to town, chatting about cold beer and hot showers.  I've previously done longer treks than this one back home but have never been so sweaty and dirty, so much so that I washed my hair twice just to make sure I really got clean.  My clothes stunk to high heaven and so I got some laundry done too.  I met up with my new friends and cold beers we drank.  Marj joined us for a bit and so did this guy Nick from Arizona.  Kelly, Matt and Paul had previously met him and he happened to be walking by while we were out and hung out with us from there.  He was everything you didn't expect.  He was tall, built, tattoos, blond and has this voice that makes you think he isn't sure what's going on, but he is very much the opposite.  He loves to travel, is musically talented and will start med school in Fall - everything about him made me laugh, in a good way.  Anyway, it rained all night but we finally made our way across the street to the night market for food (more som-tam!) and more drinks.  There is a curfew in Laos, as there is in Vietnam, and our guesthouse was locked up when we got back.  We had to wait ten minutes for our knocks to wake them up. Paul and I, still awake with fresh Beerlao's in hand, stayed up too late to hang out causing us to be very tired the next day.

We lounged around too lazy and tired to move in the insane heat.  We had the intention of taking a night bus to our next destination but unable to book in advance, we feared we wouldn't be able to get a seat.  So we took the 2:30 bus instead with Kelly, Matt and Paul which was supposed to get us in to Luang Prabang at 10/11ish.  I figured tack on the typical few hours and expected to be there by midnight.  However, the bus didn't leave at 2:30.  It left at 4:00pm for no particular reason, then add in a flat tire which took an hour and about 10 Laos men to fix, mix in hours driving on rocky dirt roads full of pot holes forcing the bus driver to drive extra slow and careful (thank God - the drivers here are much more careful than Thai bus drivers) which resulted in an arrival time of 4am.....figures!  We haggled with a song-taew driver to take us to the hostel, Spicy Laos to begin our time in Luang Prabang.