Archive for October, 2002
Items from the menu of a Chinese restaurant in Luang Nam Tha (no joke!):
Fry Chicken Inside
Boiled Pig Liver
Fried Pig Bowel
Boiled Pig Bowel
Deep Fry Pig Intestine
Steamed Turtle
Steamed Dog
Fried Dry Deer Meat
Bamboo Insect
Deep Fry Cow Intestine
Pig Liver Soup
Boiled Pig Knuckle
Pig Knuckle Soup
Weed Vegetable Soup
Fry Pig Liver
Roast Eel
Fry Eel
~and I still managed to eat there!! (They had the coldest beer in town.) I ate pumpkin and fried eggplant with garlic.
Back in Luang Nam Tha after 2 days of trekking.. I am showered and just had a beer with Dave, an American guy I met on the trek, so I am feeling GOOD. Yesterday we left for the hills surrounding Luang Nam Tha – it was an’eco-tourisn sensitive trek’ (whatever that means) and quite pricey at $26 but it had been recommended to me by other travellers.
There were 7 in our group – 5 from Holland, 2 Americans (Dave and me), and then our two local guides. A good group of nice people, but the 5 from Holland tended to speak Dutch among themselves (as you would) so truthfully I would have preferred a more diverse group of people. But you take your chances when booking such a trek.
Anyway yesterday we all met at the trekking office in the a.m. and set out by pick-up, 20km out of town, for the start of the trek. Started hiking up, and up from one village into the mountains. It was a very nice forest but a very, very muddy trail. We hiked for a few hours and then stopped for lunch at one of the thatch huts in the hills. Lunch was served on giant banana leaves and consisted of fried chicken, fish, vegetables, and, for the more daring adventurers, fried silk worms. Gross! Actually a few in our group did try them, but not me. I could barely eat the vegetables with the site of a pile of fried grubs sitting right next to them. A real taste of local culture I guess.
Everything was going well after lunch, that is until I mindlessly wiped out on the trail and sprained my knee! Oh, could I express the level of pain in words? NO. It hurt! Somehow I slid, fell, and twisted my knee, and man I was in pain, thinking that I even broke my knee. I layed on the trail waiting for the pain to pass, hoping I’d be able to stand, wondering how the HELL I was going to get out, while everyone stood around and watched me with anticipation. After several minutes I tried to stand (ouch!) and started hobbling down the trail again. David kindly offered to carry my pack, and if you know me at all, you will know that I MUST have been in serious pain if I let someone carry my pack. I was. I couldn’t believe how much it hurt with every step, but THANKFULLY we only had just over 30 minutes before reaching our destination village for the night.
I immediately layed down on the porch of our hut and put my foot up. David kindly (again) offered me pain killers and anti-inflammatories and I gladly popped them all. I spent the entire afternoon laid up like that, still wondering how th hell I was going to be able to walk the next day for seven hours. I mostly passed the time talking with Dave, who, at 42 years old (from Connecticut), has managed to maintain a travelling lifestyle through his adult life and of course I was fascinated to know how he’s been able to do it (mostly computer consulting). He’s travelled much more than most Americans I know for sure.
Dinner in the village was with the village chief, who’s been the chief of the village since he was 18 years old (he’s now 40). We found out that there are 150 people living in the village and that only one week ago a woman died in childbirth from a breached birth. There is no doctor in the village and Luang Nam Tha is a 7-hour walk away. A different world. No electricity in the village, although the’tourists’ house has solar-powered light. Can’t help but feel the so-called’eco-sensitive’ tourism is more like full-on exploitation of these people. The only thing’sensitive’ about it is that the villagers have been told not to beg so they don’t. Anyway we were in bed at 8pm.
Woke up the next day at 6am, had breakfast, and started hiking out by 9am. My knee felt stiff and sore in the morning. I was worried big time about getting out. I popped a bunch more pain killers and hoped for the best. It turned out to be ok once I strated moving and warmed up the muscles. I managed to get through the day with only minor discomfort which is much better than I had hoped for.
The walk was nice, first flat in the forest along a river, then up a mountain with great views of the valley below, and finally down into Luang Nam Tha. The temperature wasn’t bad either; thankfully a lot of clouds were protecting us from the heat of the sun so we weren’t sweating too bad.
David so kindly offered to carry my pack again for the day but this time I refused, determined to walk out on my own with my own bag. And I made it, with no permanent damage I hope.
Back in civilization (at least their version of it in Luang Nam Tha), I had a hot shower, put on clean clothes and then had some cold beers with Dave. That brings me up to date, back at the beginning of the story.
Tomorrow heading north to Muang Sing.
The start of the trek from Luang Nam Tha
The start of the trek from Luang Nam Tha
A modern bridge in Lao
Ah, the views
October 24th, 2002
Second night here in this town in northern Laos. Spent all day yesterday getting here in the back of pick-ups…left Nong Khiaw at 9am and arrived Pak Mong 10am, waited 2 hours for the pick-up to fill up, took a 2.5-hour ride to Udomxai, then a 4.5-hour pick-up here, finally arriving in the dark at 7:30pm. Luckily there was an Australian guy, Tony, who was going the same way as me and we shared the last leg together, just the 2 of us in the back of the pick-up. The ride was absolutely beautiful and for sure made up for the discomfort of the windy roads, potholes, gravel, dirt, and general pick-up journey. We passed by many, many villages in the mountains, and saw the same scenes of children playing, cows eating grass, baby pigs following their mom, men and women walking past, thatch huts, banana trees, and gorgeous forest, and it got better and better as the sun set and the full moon rose over the mountains as we continued north.
Pulled into town and Tony and I managed to find a decent guesthouse for the night, even though the electricity was out and everyone was sitting out with candles. Had a cold shower, beer and some grub before bed.
The mosquitos woke me up in the middle of the night and I had trouble sleeping after that . This morning I was looking for a new place to stay. Before that though I booked a 2-day trek for tomorrow at the UNESCO office in town. Tony also wanted to move, so he checked out some places as well, and we settled for a nice place I found with a balcony, hot water, electricity from 6-9pm, and private room for $2 each, the same we payed the night before for no electricity, no hot water, and mosquitos.
I walked around town a bit today but mostly everything was closed because there were boat races going on 7km north of town as part of the October full moon festival/end of rainy season. I should have gone to check it out but after 10+ hours on pick-ups yesterday I was too exhausted to deal with any more transport.
Tomorrow Tony is off to Thailand and I’m heaing out for the trekking. I’ve got 2 days of walking ahead of me which made me feel less guilty about doing nothing today.
This town is only a 2-hour ride from the Lao/China border by the way. Lots of tourists here are coming in fresh from China. It’s interesting to talk with them about China for sure. They are all so happy to be here, where the food is recognizable and the people speak English. It’s all relative I suppose.
October 22nd, 2002
Yesterday a group of us (Inge from Holland, Laurent from France, Ester and Raoul from Holland, Winston, and me) decided to go up to Muang Ngoi for the day. It’s one hour north upriver by boat, only accesible by boat. We got dropped off at Muang Ngoi and then trekked through the rice fields and forest to a cave/stream. Beautiful walk – mountains and rice fields everywhere. The stream itself was actually flowing out of the cave. We took turns venturing upstream into the darkness of the cave – in our group was Winston, Inge and me. We went back into the darkness for about 10 minutes, then decided to turn around because we only had one torch (with old batteries) between the three of us.
It was another hour by boat back to Nong Khiaw. We stopped at another village on the way back, but only for a few minutes, then we continued home.
The evening was spent sitting round the table over Beer Laos, vegetable curry soup, spring rolls, and chips (French fries). Good time.
Today was a chill day. We hung out at the guesthouse reading, eating, chatting, and enjoying the view. Had another night visit to the bridge. With one day before the full moon the night sky was so bright, beautiful beyond words. Winston is leaving tomorrrow; he’s heading south to Luang Prabang. Me, I’m heading north, to Luang Nam Tha.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: Hi everyone! Sorry this entry is boring, nothing I can do about it after the fact. Good news is that I’ve added all the pictures from Lao, so there are new photos now from 9.19.02 to the present entry. To view, click on the journal link above and then scroll back. I hope you like the new additions to the site, most notably the clickable slide show on the main index page. Also added is a date of last update which you can see in the top right corner on the main page (it reads UPDATED: 11.05.02), so now you can immediately tell if the journal has been updated without having to read any further. I’ve got plenty more ideas for the site so you may be seeing more updates in the future. Thanks for reading along, hope you are enjoying the site.
Most old B-52 bomb shells are used as flower pots in Lao nowadays
Trekkings anyone?
The sights of Muang Ngoi
October 20th, 2002
11pm, in bed, under the protective mosquito netting, listening to the sounds of crickets and geckos. The electricity in these parts only runs from about 6pm – 9pm every day; after that it’s candles and torches (I’m writing by torchlight at the moment).
Woke up early today, spent the morning sitting on the veranda overlooking the river. After lunchtime I finally decided to move and take a walk to a cave 3 km up the road. Wound up going with some others from the guesthouse – Laurent (France), Inge (Holland), and Raoul and Ester (Holland). Good company. The walk was hot in the afternoon sun. The cave itself was an interesting place – it was formerly used as a operations center during the Indochine War. The only evidence that remains now are some bamboo sticks that used to be parts of furniture.
The evening was spent hanging out at the guesthouse with a combo of guesthouse folks and other backpackers in town. I think we had a crowd of about 20 which basically consisted of all of the foreigners in town. I took a late evening walk out to the bridge with an English girl named Mary to check out the river, valley, mountains and moonlight from the bridge. Can’t explain the magic of the village at night with no electricity and nearly a full moon. The locals actually apologise to us for not having electricity, but I’m sure that once it comes to this village the place will never be the same. The people here have no idea how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful place.
Not a bad view for an operations center (looking out from the cave)
The river, the mountains…this is Northern Lao
Sunset at Nong Khiaw
October 18th, 2002
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