a gentle day's walk...

after a quick stop for a couple of bagged lao coffees, we make our way to trekking office. two others have joined our trek: a french guy that manages a castle property (no joke) outside of paris, and an american guy from seattle that’s an engineer and works on airplane engines. they are both really nice. we meet our two guides as well: "paul" the english speaker that specializes in tribal culture and customs, and another guide that is the trail master. we start out by tuk-tuk and ride to the edge of a large section of out of season rice paddies. we walk through section after section of rice paddies that are connected by small wooden foot bridges. small thatch roof wooden structures on stilts are scattered throughout the rice paddies. paul tells us that they are used by the workers to rest and eat meals during the harvesting season. during the harvesting season, the community all work together to harvest one section of paddy at a time - until all the rice is harvested. with good irrigation one hectare will yield about 3 to 4 tons of rice. after a couple of miles, we reach our first bit of shade and stop to rest and drink some water. then we moved on towards the first village. we enter a flat forested area with a trail that runs along a river and a rubber plantation. much of this area of laos is used to grow rubber trees and sugar cane, both of which are transported to china for processing. about a mile later we begin to approach the nam hoy village, a hill tribe of hmong peoples that are originally from china. paul tells us there are 14 houses, 17 families, and 80 people that live in the village. they worship spirits, speak their own dialect, and have a written language that is very similar to english. the village is only 7 years old, as they have recently relocated from considerably further up the mountain. the children can now go to school, they are closer to town for needed conveniences, and most importantly - are closer to the river, their source for water. as we are entering the village a man on a scooter stops and warmly greets our guide, paul, who says the man is his friend from years ago when they met while attending drivers education classes together. the man invites us to sit on his porch and visit with his family. on the way to the man's house, we walk through the village and stop to watch some men building a new house. they allow us to take their photos. we reach the man's house and he invites us to take a look inside if we would like, and to sit on his porch. with paul translating everything, we learn that the man is one of three men in the village with a high school education. additionally, he is also trained as an auto mechanic and a professional driver. unfortunately, he is unable to find employment in either profession. for the past few years he has worked in the rubber plantations, which is considered to be a good paying job with a good future. the man is very curious to learn about all of us and asks a number of questions, such as where are we from? how many hours away by airplane is it? how long have we been in laos? how long will we be here? how long is our entire trip? what is our profession? the man says he is happy to interact with us because he likes meeting people from other countries and hearing english spoken. david asks him for permission to take his photo, which he denies. we thank him for the visit and we move on.

as we descend from the village area, we make the first of several river crossings. as we begin to enter a thick forested area, paul says, "welcome to the jungle". we immediately begin a somewhat steep ascent into a dense jungle. for the first time, i question the type of trek we are on. i remember the tourism office advertised it as "a gentle day's walk" and categorized it as "easy" on the scale of difficulty. i instantly drop to the back of the pack so i can move at my own pace as well as take a quick pee. i see the group stopping ahead to wait for me to catch up. after another descent and river crossing, we stop at a clearing to have lunch. one of the guides gather large palm fronds to place the food on. we all sit in the jungle and enjoy a tasty lunch of beef with bamboo shoots, cabbage and greens, sticky rice, and tomato dipping sauce. after a bit more of a rest, we continue on through the jungle. the second phase of the trek appears to be considerably more difficult than the first. the ascent up the next mountain takes much longer and i am completely winded when we reach the top. the vista is beautiful, but all i can focus on is breathing. everyone else seems to be out of breath too. we all rest under a thatch roof wooden structure as we gaze at the next mountain ahead of us. i keep telling myself, it's only a "gentle day's walk". i squeeze out the last bit of biofreeze from the packet and apply it to my knee. thanks, di. after a good 15 minute break, we begin the somewhat steep descent. at one point we abruptly stop and the trail master tells us there is some uncertainty about the trail. it stops. apparently, we have lost or taken the wrong trail on the descent. our only option is to cut across a 200 ft portion of steep grade mountain, basically bush-wacking our way across slashed and burned terrain. i think, "are you kidding?" not. the group begins to cut across the mountain. i fall to the back of the pack again and begin cursing under my breath. "a gentle day's walk, a gentle day's walk" i keep telling myself. i move slowly and take great caution to not bust up my already junk knee. i make it across the mountain to see that our situation only gets worse. the group is descending through a portion of dense brush that is a vertical 20 ft drop. sweet. i follow david's lead and slide down the cliff face on my bottom. after that, an immediate 20 ft climb up a rock cliff puts us back on the trail. thank god! everyone seems a bit shook up. the guides seem to feel a bit bad. i think, "a gentle day's walk", my ass.

we move on. within a few minutes we are at the base of a mountain with a long dirt trail leading to the top. completely exposed to the sun, the group begins up the mountain. i need to stop twice during the ascent to catch my breath. i keep wondering, if this is the "easy" trek, then what the hell is considered to be moderate or difficult? when i reach the top, the rest of the group is laid out under a shade tree. we rest for 15 minutes and drink water. we continue on and move through two smaller mountain ranges before the terrain flattens out and we begin to approach another village. finally!

we hear music. it sounds like a party! i feel like i could use a party at this point. we arrive to the village and find out there is a wedding. we stand at the entrance of the reception for a few minutes when our guides are warmly greeted by a couple of men. the guides tell us the men are their friends and that we are all invited to join the celebration. as we walk into the reception, everyone smiles at us and people come up to shake our hands. people speak to me in lao. i say, "sabaidee" and smile goofy as usual. we sit at a table next to the dance floor that is trashed with dirty plates and drink glasses. a lady bring us bowls of soup with unidentifiable meat. another lady starts moving around the table pouring shots of lao lao, the local rice wine whiskey. she pours one round, then two, then three. i feel like i can't drink anymore or i may puke. i would hate to puke here. a really drunk old lao man sits next to david and continues to talk him up (in lao). they are insisting that we eat, going so far as to push spoonfuls of laap into each of our mouths (fortunately, it was tasty). our guides eat some of the soup. we watch the locals do the traditional lao dance. i hope they don't think i'm lao and make me dance. i'll be so embarrassed. i wonder who the bride and groom are, but I can't find them. everyone is
dressed the same. is there a wedding cake? i don't see one. i could go for some cake. pie would be even better. i haven't had pie in forever. do they have pie is laos? a man is using a gasoline jug to fill up empty beer bottles with lao lao behind me. i take his photo. we all watch and enjoy the lao wedding celebration. after about 30 minutes, the guides suggest that we best be on our way. we shake many hands on the way out and people continue speaking to me in lao. i wave bye and say "sabaidee!". as we are exiting the village, we see that several of the village ladies have displayed about 100 scarves for us to take a look at. i feel a bit obligated since they were so kind to us and went to so much trouble, and purchase a beautiful hand-made scarf for $5.00. we exit the village and have a nice, easy walk to the next village.

after about a 15 minute walk we reach the last village, which is the location of the ti dam festival that we attended the previous day. i am amazed that the festival area is still completely covered with rubbish with no apparent clean up in progress. i wonder when or if it will be cleaned up. we see children playing amongst the rubbish. we walk through the village without stopping to visit or chat along the way. after one last river crossing, we walk across some beautiful green rice paddies and finish off the day with some great photos. as we wait for the tuk-tuk for a ride back to town, we make friends with some lovely young lao girls who pose with me for a "japanese style peace out" photo. as we ride home in the tuk-tuk we talk about the great day we had taking an easy trek with a "gentle day's walk". although we are tired and weary, we both have a sense of accomplishment and are happy we had such a great experience.

alina