The last 10 days or so we have been out in the Laos countryside without mobile phone network coverage, internet and even electricity, but now we are back in Vientiane to get an extension on our Visas to be able to stay a couple of days more. After Luang Prabang, which was a lovely little town by the Mekong river, we wanted to go a bit further north so we decided to start at Muong Ngoy, a little village recommended by many persons we have spoken to. So from Luang Prabang we took the truck-bus (songtaewn, which is a truck or pick-up with two benches on the back with a roof over), the Lao public transport No 1. On the bus roof one passenger had placed a cage with chickens and somehow some of them managed to escape, so everyone jumped of the bus to help catching them all, which was a pretty funny sight.
The Lao people are a bunch gifted with seemingly endless patients. We were told that the bus would leave at 07.30 but we weren’t surprised when we still were waiting to depart over an hour later. Here the buses leave when full, when the driver has finished his meal or when he is finished haggling over bargains such as bamboo at the market. At roughly 08.50 the bus driver decided he had enough people on the bus to make the trip worth his while, which in this case meant 35 people squeezed together with numerous 20-kg rice bags and other baggage. To our surprise 6 other tourists were on the bus as well.
We took Route 13 north and I must say the quality of the roads on this stretch isn’t much to complain about, sealed road with the occasional bump. The road ran alongside the Ou river for most of the way and even though I wasn’t blessed with panorama view from my seat squeezed furthest in the bus I still managed to see some of the nice scenery, and there would be more to come. When we reached the village of Nong Kiauw 3 hours later we had lunch and thereafter changed to a slow boat go up to our final destination one hour up-streams. The scenery on this stretch was even more breathtaking. Rugged mountains and limestone formations, mostly covered in a lush green blanket of jungle sharply descending into the river. Sometimes the shallow river got a bit narrower and the boatman has to give more throttle to the chugging engine to take us through the streams and whirlpools that surround sharp rocks which he skillfully navigate around. This is dry season (even if the rainy season is imminent), so the river is really quiet, but I can imagine what it would be like after weeks of heavy rain. However even in the rainy season it doesn’t rain all the day, usually it starts sometime during the afternoon.
Muong Ngoy is set along the east riverbank in the most stunning environment, all surrounded by mountains. There are, to our surprise, quiet a few number of guesthouses here but most of them are “same, same” which means a bamboo bungalow with no fan or hot water in the shared bathroom, but most of them are facing the river which is ideal for lazy days in the hammock.
Nonetheless it feels somewhat good that regardless of how many keep you are willing to spend, there is nothing else available.
On the boat here we started to talk to Keith from Ireland and Kiran and Josh from Australia and we decided quickly after debarking to find a guide to do some trekking. But to be honest it was Josh and Kiran that found the guide while we were trying to take in the atmosphere drinking Beer Lao in one of the guesthouses… .
The guide Muen was 28 years old and was living in the village with his wife and 6 months old daughter. He spoke good English so we decided to go on a 2 day trek the day after to see some Kamhu hill tribes in the area. That decided we had a few more drinks to get to know our fellow trekkers a bit more and around 19.00 the last beams from the sun disappeared and people started up their generators. Light started to flow and the beer started to get cold as well. They have maybe 10 generators, which is really converted truck engines and they serve an incalculable number of different grids spread out over town, don’t ask me how it all works, but it does.
People follow pretty much the cycle of the sun so even if they now have generators to supply electricity people go to bed early and go up at 05.00 or so when the sun starts its arduous climb over the eastern mountains.
We took of the next morning, visited some caves which served as hiding place for the local villagers during the Second Indochina War when the US bombing campaign dropped 2 093 100 tones of bombed between 1964 and 1973. That is one plane dropping bombs every 8 minutes around the clock for 9 years. That makes Laos the most bombed country in the world per capita, and the world didn’t even know about it at the time (did you know, now?). The goal was to close down the Ho Chi Minh trail but the campaign wasn’t very successful in the end. Still there are evidence scattered all over this peaceful village. Bomb craters, and big 500 kg empty bomb cases amongst others. No one knows what’s still out there. Anyway, after another hour or so of walking we reached the first village where we would have our lunch. Unfortunately since this village was only an hour walk away from Muong Ngoy there were other tourists coming in while we were there, to the mixed emotions of the villagers. The meal consisted of the ever present staple sticky rice (and this is sticky stuff, no American style fluffy crap here) bamboo shoot soup, and noodle soup. The meal is put on a small round table in the middle and everyone digs in, a very communal experience. After lunch we had a hard 3 hour climb up to the next village were we would spend the night. We struggled up the path (and it is really important that you stick to the path because of all the UXO that litter the area) and under the threat of thunder and dark skies we made it to the village without a single raindrop falling on our sweaty heads and hats.
This village was set on the top of a mountain ridge and a total of maybe 50 small bamboo huts were the entirety of living and storage facilities for this village. As we passed the fence people, mostly children, stopped what they were doing to have a good look at us. A smile and a “sabaidee” took the edge, but not the curiosity, of the situation as we passed through the village heading for the common house. We sat down and were instantly surrounded by 20-30 children that shyly and curiously stared at us with their big brown eyes. We started back and this game continued for a while before the first excitement over the newcomers had disappeared. Later we stepped out to have a more proper look at the village and then a tail of children followed us around, an entourage that we would have to get used to.
The village had one generator, which it took 20 men I don’t know how long to get here, installed in the common house. This was the only house with electricity sometimes in the evenings, the rest of the huts were simple bamboo huts with a fireplace where the women started to cook dinner shortly after sunset.
The Kamhu are self sufficient on most things, rice, meat, fish (cattle run all around the village) and even gunpowder for the homemade hunting rifles.
It would be so easy to say “these people live a simple life”, and romanticizing the whole thing, but here they are pretty much isolated from the rest of the world with the exception of a market 5 hours walking away every 10 days. They go on with things like their ancestors have for hundreds of years. No one knows how long this village has been here. Our guide thought 200 years, maybe more. Some academics believe the Kamhu were one of the first groups to settle in Laos hundreds of years back.
I was pretty impressed that they had a dedicated school building for education in the outskirts of the village. They learn maths, Lao and other things so I am sure the notebooks and pencils we brought will come to good use.
Before dinner we tried to get to know the children a bit better so we started with some games like “Musical statues”. After a lot of giggling a couple of brave volunteers joined in. All of us laughed a lot and soon the elder women and a few teenagers that passively had been in the background came closer and laughed as well. As darkness came in the children got even braver, hiding their identity in the dark, and more audaciously then before joined in the fun and games. After dinner we played some cards before going upstairs to sleep on the mattresses that had been put in order for us. I had no trouble going to sleep after a long day of walking.
The next morning we had breakfast and started our climb down. As we passed the school building we stopped to give them the gifts and it was pretty moving when to see their faces when they wanted to shake our hands and even spontaneously started clapping hands. As a last echo when we rounded the corner a couple of children, too young to be in school, came running down the hill screaming “Sabaideeeeee”.
I don’t know how often they get foreign visitors up here, but according to our guide it is not very often. Certainly not that often that they didn’t feel curious, shy and excited by our visit. I hope it stays this way.
On our way down we had to walk in a stream for a couple of hours before reaching the place from where we would take the boat home and it felt good to put your feet in the cold water.
The subjects of discussion for the rest of the day had the tacit feeling of gratitude for what we had experienced.
Laos is really like no other place. It has been occupied, colonialised and bombed like no other country in the world but still the people has so much charm and friendliness. The scenery it has to offer is fantastic too.
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