Luang Prabang Trek

I will start off by apologizing for being really really far behind on the updates...it is currently 23 Feb 2009 and we are in Melbourne staying with my sister's close friend from Villanova, Megan, and her husband, Matt. We just came from Thailand and Indonesia and fell into ultra lazy beach bum mode and just haven't been keeping up. So let's rewind to 26 Dec 2008:

The only truly productive thing we did on the 26th was booking a 3 day/2 night trek via White Elephant Adventures through an area in Northern Lao outside of Luang Prabang. So on the 27th Sarah, Hari, Corey, and I set off for some hard-core trekking. The trail was rarely traveled by tourists, in fact in the 3 day period we did not see any other Westerns. We had 3 incredible leaders, Su, Lao, and Leng - locals from villages near Luang Prabang. Not only did they speak excellent English, they were 3 of the most genuinely nice guys we had met in a long time. During our walks they were very talkative, asking questions about our schooling and how the places we grew up differed from their homes. It was really special to be able to have conversations with them and learn about our similarities and differences.

The trail was simply gorgeous, we were truly in the depths of the Lao jungle surrounded by green as far as the eye could see. On day 1 we had true jungle trekking, it poured several times leaving us soaking wet but having the greatest time. The trail was quite difficult while wet, there were steep inclines up rocky trail and deep mud. Despite the non-ideal conditions, the trek was beautiful and extremely enjoyable. And the clouds did break for some sunshine a few times. At one point in the adventure "we were walking along when all of a sudden a young guy (20 or less) came riding alongside of us on a bicycle and suddenly crashed into a ditch on the side of the road. I'm talking a complete and utter breakdown in coordination and a pretty ungraceful landing with a bike on top of you. In a split second, the boy who reeked of booze, nonchalantly got up and waved to us and said "Sa Bai Dee! (Hello!)" as though nothing had happened at all. Reeling in laughter, we proceeded onwards and noticed him almost fall one more time behind us" (Hari, http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chiapoe/1/1230449340/tpod.html). It was hilarious and kept us laughing on and off for the rest of the day.

After 5 hours of trekking we made it to the Hmong village where we would stay the night. It was extremely poor - no power and simple bamboo and straw huts. There were chickens, dogs, and cats running around freely. We saw children playing and saw men and women working. Their way of life was so simple, but they were happy and interested by us. Sarah spent over an hour talking with a group of little girls (I'd guess 5 or 6), communicating via hand signals and the few Lao phrases we learned along the way. We had an entourage of little kids around us, some shy and hiding behind their friends, and some outgoing and laughing with us. Hari made friends with a little boy who had "slingshot skills" - this kid had 90%+ accuracy at hitting water bottles that we put up on a wall from 20+ meters away. Our trek leaders cooked a great dinner via fire and we put on any dry clothes that we had to get to sleep early, as we had a long trek ahead of us the next day.

Thankfully the rain stopped overnight and after the morning mist cleared we were surrounded by blue skies. The trail was still muddy, but we were able to maneuver over the rocks with little difficulty. We went to a tiny village surrounded by rice fields at the foot of a steep rock trail leading to a cave. We hiked up 485 stairs (Hari challenged by ability to count and was quickly put to shame) to the cave and explored the beautiful rock formation. After that we hiked for the rest of the afternoon to another, larger village where we sleep. This one was far more developed than the village the previous evening, there was electricity, TVs in nearly every home, power tools (they were building new homes in the area), and running water. It was really interesting to see how much more wealthy and developed this village was, only a few hours walk away from the village we stayed at the night before. Nevertheless we had a lovely dinner with Su, Lao, and Leng and enjoyed our time exploring the village.

Our third and final day started off at fast pace, as the first stretch of trail that we hit is known for having a large leech population. Since the ground was wet from the rain a few days earlier coupled with the morning mist, we had to almost run through the trail to avoid our shoes being covered in tiny leeches - each one was about the length of a pin, not that big of a deal but still you don't want them on you. We made it through unscathed to a small waterfall where we'd stop to splash some water on our faces and take a break. The trail leading to the waterfall was quite muddy, in fact it was so muddy that in one step Corey stepped knee deep into a mud pit, temporarily losing a shoe. He did fish it out of the mud but they were dead and would be put into permanent retirement upon returning to Luang Prabang.

Back in the city we winded down after a tiring 3 days. While walking down the main street we bumped into Brad and Esther, our Aussie pals who we had spent time with in Cambodia. We had been planning on meeting up with them for New Year's but had not figured out a final plan yet, but they knew where we were and came to meet us. We were so happy to see them and immediately started planning out how we would ring in 2009. We thought it would be appropriate to head to the party scene so Sarah, Hari, Brad, Esther, Neil, Corey, Tara, Sevan, Jani, Annukah, and I hopped onto a bus to Vang Vieng...

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in Lao

We arrived in Luang Prabang at 6am in the morning (night bus) and got to see the monks walking along the street getting food from the town that supports them. The street was lined with monks wearing their saffron robes as they collected food like rice and other delicacies in small bowls that they would eat during the day. It is quite phenomenal, amongst the myriad western tourists walking around during the day, you will see seas of saffron robes as young monks make their way from the school to the Internet cafes to the monastery to wherever else.

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which ensures reasonable tourist development and preservation. The city was the capital of an old kingdom by the same name and was also a seat of the independent Kingdom of Lao from 1954-1975. Situated between two rivers with the mighty Me Kong river on the west, it is a beautiful old town and more importantly a springboard town for all of the amazing trekking and adventures in the northern Lao mountains.

On our night bus we met a couple, Joe and Kim, who were studying in Singapore and spent the day with them seeing the local waterfalls in the area. We hit Sai Waterfall which, via tuk-tuk, was about an hour outside the city. We walked through the forest areas and came to the beautiful waterfall. We hiked up to the top of the falls for a beautiful look down the mountain to the water pool below. While at the falls we met Corey, an American that was also traveling the same direction as we were. We decided to join forces and Corey traveled with our group for the next week.

Later that night for dinner we discovered the amazing sandwich stalls which we consumed almost every day for the remainder of our time in Lao. These were huge sandwiches with fresh cut up chicken, laughing cow cheese, loads of veggies, for about $2. Heaven. We grabbed a Beer Lao and checked out the market. Luang Probang has an amazing night market. The main street is lined with families selling cute bags with flower decorations sewn on them, lots of jewelry and woven bracelets, Beer Lao tee-shirts, and beautiful embroidered bedspreads with the same flower pattern... Now, let me take a moment to tell you about this Beer. Beer Lao, the national beer, is a lager that is easily one of the finest brews in the entire world. I'm not just saying it was good because I was in Lao. It is seriously a world class lager that needs to be exported in massive quantities and sold the world over. We have found it difficult to find this beer in Thailand and they are neighboring countries!

We kept our eyes peeled all day for Hari (an Indian guy with a beard probably wearing a blue soccer jersey, shouldn't be too hard). Since Luang Prabang is a tiny old town with a massive tourist vibe you constantly run into people. While walking through the night market Mary spotted Hari and suddenly took off running and jumped into the arms of Hari giving him a huge hug. The threesome was back together again, now in Lao.

Before long, a motley crew had been assembled together that night including: Mary/Sarah, some friends Hari had met along the way -Neil (UK) and Sevan/Tara (Canada) - our friends from DonDet, Yanni/Annuka (Finland), and Cory (USA). All would make it to Vang Vieng. Mary and I decided that we wanted to have a Christmas Eve party, as we were all away from home for the holidays and we both love Christmas - you should see the number of Christmas songs on our iPods. We were to have the party the following evening, complete with Santa hats that we had been hauling around since Vietnam.

On Christmas Eve, we started the evening off with some drinks at our room, some Xmas music, Santa hats, Christmas cookies (aka Oreo cookies) and some more drinks. Eventually, the party took us across town to a couple of outdoor bars where they had bonfires and Xmas trees, Santa's sleighs, tinsel and faux snow. Did I mention we was in a tourist town in the middle of Lao. Despite the sadness at seeing poor non-Christian Laotians wearing Santa clothing as they worked the restaurants and bars, it was nice to be in a festive atmosphere amongst good people and loved ones.

In this evening, we learned of a fascinating sociological phenomenon from Neil. Singles night at the grocery store. Where Neil is from, in Redding, England, Thursday night around 10pm is single's night at the local Safeway equivalent. He was telling us how this affects what you buy (you don't want girls seeing you stuff yourself full of junk food), causes you to become a more innovative cook (you sometimes end up buying some random ingredients for reasons similar to the first and have to concoct some recipes when you get back home and realize the error of your ways), and can result in some dates. In Neil's case, the icebreaker was those damn vegetable bags that are impossible to open. It led to two dates with a Czech girl. Bloody brilliant.

Xmas day itself was a little bit of a quiet one (translation: hangover day). After taking care of some errands and booking our trek, Cory, Hari, Mary and I headed off to the Pak Ou Caves, about 2 hours up the Me Kong from Luang Prabang. Somewhat disappointing, the boat trip is down the beautiful stretch of the Me Kong and the caves that have many Buddhist relics.

That night we finally had our first random friend sighting (we had been waiting for the day that we ran into someone we knew from home, it's a small world style). Out at a bar I ran into my friend from high school, Christina Penfield. It was so great to see her and we got to spend some time catching up on. All in all we had a quiet evening and dinner as we all prepared for our trek the next morning.

I couldn't have completed this entry in the time I did without help, so to give credit where credit is due- Thanks Hari!

(http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/chiapoe/1/1230449340/tpod.html)

Don Det, Laos - Sticky Hammocks

We said our goodbyes to Cambodia and hopped a quick flight from Siem Reap to Pakse, Laos. From there we took a short 2 hour bus ride plus a 10 minute boat ride to Don Det, one of the 4,000 Islands. Laos is landlocked so the concept of 4,000 Islands was a bit strange, but these small islands are actually located in southern Laos on the Mekong River near the Cambodian border. They are known for being quiet, peaceful backpacker havens so we decided to take a few days to relax Laos-style.

Don Det is exactly what we were hoping for - a tiny, quaint island that can be covered on foot in a matter of minutes. The island is in fact so quaint and peaceful that there is only electricity between 6am and 10pm which may turn off some travelers, but we were totally up for it. The riverbank is lined with small bungalos for US $2/night. Yes, you read correctly, US $2/night. We got off the boat and quickly found Paradise Bungalos, our home for the next several days.

Our bungalo was simple but right on the river with amazing views. We immediately met our awesome neighbors, Jani and Annukka (from Finland), who we would spend most of our time on the island hanging out with and who we would also meet in northern Laos for several days later in the trip. They told us that they had fallen victim to Don Det's "sticky hammocks" and warned us that we would likely end up staying longer than we expected...they were right. These "sticky hammocks" are no myth - each bungalo has 2 hammocks right on the front porch and once you lay in one, you are pretty much stuck there for the rest of the day. It is a little too easy to be a lazy bum on Don Det and we loved every minute of it.

Our days were mostly spent hanging out with Jani and Annukka on the infamous sticky hammocks while enjoying Beerlao, which is arguably one of the greatest beers I have ever tasted. Why the L.B.C. (Laos Brewing Company) does not export Beerlao to the US is a mystery to me, they would make an absolute killing. We were not lazy the whole time, we did take some time to explore Don Det - we walked around and rented bicycles one afternoon to check out some beautiful waterfalls. We were on Don Det the week before Christmas so we decided to have a little Christmas party on our porch with Jani, Annukka, and several other friends who we had met on the island. We drank Beerlao, wore our santa hats, played Christmas music on the iPod speakers, and lit 40 red and white candles on our porch (since there was no electricity). It was a great way to get in the Christmas spirit.

We also spent a lot of time with the resident "dad and mom" of Paradise Bungalos, Lance and Donna. They are an older couple from the US who vacation on Don Det for 3 months every year and therefore know everyone and everything about it. They told us the best places to eat - Paradise's lentil pumpkin curry with sticky rice is easily one of the best things I've eaten on the entire trip, I had it everyday...sometimes for breakfast. It was just really great to chat with Lance and Donna about our travels and how the island has changed in the past few years and how it is still advancing. Don Det is expected to have power 24 hours/day in the next several months which some may view as a positive change, but Lance and Donna expressed their concern that it will take away from some of Don Det's charm, attracting more party-hungry backpackers and taking away from the simplicity of the Lao people who reside on the island. We understand their argument and hope that despite the technological advances Don Det remains as quaint as it is today...

Five days later we had to pry ourselves off our sticky hammocks to head north to Luang Prabang, but we had a wonderful time on Don Det. It is definitely on my list of places to return to in the future.