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...
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