The Laos Trek: Mountains and Kayaking

The guide:

Xou.

The group:

Hazel & Maria, again!
Gaby, a Canadian yoga teacher.

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Day 1

I woke up still drunk from the previous nights excesses, which I'm sure is not the best way to prepare for six hours of trekking up and down mountains. First thing was to drop off my pack at Carolyn's room and then to have some breakfast with the girls. We were picked up at out guesthouse by our guide, Xou, at 9am and driven to the Nom Khan river, about thirty minutes away. A quick trip across the river in a longtail and we were off.

We basically climbed up and down mountains for six hours. It was tiring and sweaty work, but the views were breathtaking. Xou taught us a few phrases in Lao to use on the locals - "Sabaidee" which is hello & "khawp jai" which is thank you - and we were soon using them when we stopped for lunch at a small shack with a woman and two young children.

Xou told us that these people lives, and the others that would see and meet throughout our trek, consists of growing rice on the mountainside for 9-10 months of the year to feed their family and then the men go into the nearby towns and cities for the other two months to work, earning about 30,000 Kip a day to feed their families with. For some perspective, 30,000 Kip is what I spent getting my laundry done, so no more bartering over prices for me after that. To me it's pennies, but to these people it's literally life or death.

After another 4 hours of walking and sweating our way up and down more mountans we arrived at the village were we would be staying for the night. We all took a shower in our swimming clothes under the public water tap - it's weird being the centre of attention. Or maybe they were looking at the girls in their bikinis!?

After a delicious dinner we sat around listening to my iPod and talked about the most random things, the topics of which I'm not going to repeat here incase children - or my mother! - are reading, until bedtime.


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Day 2

The second day started with some yoga, led by Gaby - I'm about as flexible as a snooker cue! It was followed by a much easier two hour walk downhill to the next village, were we would be staying with a family for the night.

When we arrived we got changed into our swimming clothes and walked down to the river for a swim and shampoo. At least that was the plan, until Gaby took out her camera to take a photo and was swarmed by masses of children wanting to have their photo taken. So the shampooing was forgotten and instead we swam in the river for about an hour with scores of naked children jumping into the river all about us. They were like little fish. Or as Gaby put it: "I've never seen so many naked children!"

You would take a photo of them and show it to them and the childrens faces would light up. Then Hazel showed them some video footage of themselves swimming and to watch their faces and hear their squeels of laughter and delight was one the most heart-warming experiences of my life. It was almost enough to make me start thinking about being a father. Well, almost!

Dinner was 'vegetable' soup which was soon dubbed 'Weed Soup' by Maria, since we couldn't determine what the 'vegetable' was. It looked like flowers or weeds, but tasted like spinach. It was served with sticky rice, which is the future of food! It's so satisfying to eat and it's even good with jam for breakfast.

We were in bed by 9pm that night so that the family could lock their house and one of the worst nights sleep of my life followed.


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Day 3

For breakfast we had baguettes with eggs and sticky rice with jam - I don't think it's meant to eaten together but it tasted fantastic - and then we headed down to the Nom Khan river to our awaiting kayaks. We were assigned our kayaks by Xou, Hazel & Maria in one, Gaby & I in another, and Xou by himself, and set off on our four and a half hour paddle back to Louang Prabang.

After about an hour of paddling we arrived at a waterfall where we we stopped to eat, swim and explore. Xou brought us some Spicy Papaya Salad and after two mouthfuls I put down my chopsticks (I can use chopsticks now, but I'm not very good with them and usually end up using a fork or spoon instead!) with my lips and tongue burning and eyes watering. It was far too spicy for me.

Following the salad we left Xou and climbed to the top of the waterfall to make our way back down. Hazel and Gaby walked along the edges, whilst Maria and I went down in the waterfall. A 'graceful' entry by myself and a few cuts and scratches later we made it to the bottom where some steamed rice and chicken was waiting for us. After lunch we had a swim in the calm plunge-pool for ten minutes before returning to the kayaks.

Two hours later and we reached the rapids. Hazel and Maria managed to capsize their kayak before they even entered the rapids and Gaby and myself took the wrong turn in the confusion and managed to get 'lost' - getting stuck and hitting rocks and trees before finally reaching the otherside relatively unscathed.

An hour later and we reached Louang Prabang. My hands had blisters and my forearms were sore, but it was a lovely, if tiring, way to travel.


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That night we met up with Carolyn, Dom & Tom at Lao Lao Gardens again for lots of food and far too much alcohol, before collapsing into my bed completely exhausted.