A Trekking We Will Go!

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Ah, good morning Mr. Rooster. How I lover you! At the crack of dawn the hill tribes villagers gather from miles around to sell their wares at the local market and then scatter back home all before 9 AM. I checked out the hustle & bustle & grabbed a sweet treats for breakfast & then met the group for our two day trek--4 Israelis, Gary the Canadian, Dieckland the Irishman, Valentin the Italian & Tyler the American. We took the difficult route up to an Akaa village & difficult it was as we had about 7 hours of hiking ahead of us. We passed through two small villages along the way & even those only about 1-2 hours from town functioned completely in the traditional way--no electricity, no running water, sanitation. The only trademark of the Western world was the modified tractor engine attached to a trailer. Very strange. The children were very friendly & curious about the group of sweaty white folks that had invaded their world. We continued on our hike & found ourselves transported into a low0-lying jungle. Not as lush & alive as your traditional rainforest, but beautiful nonetheless. The views we could see as our guide, a.k.a. speedracer, ran us through the jungle were amazing. We must hurry, hurry, hurry! Aobut 7 hours later we saw Mecca, okay maybe not, but there it was...home sweet village. The village originally had about 35 houses, but now only 10 families remain.

That evening the village was hoping. Bonfires, pigs, chickens, & kids running around everywhere. We had quite a feast topped with a little Lao, Lao, the local fire water & then the highlight of the night...MASSAGES! 10 Akaa women paraded into our hut & rewarded us with serious muscle work. Quite a site to see--10 lazy Westerners lying on the floor & 10 giggling women working us over as the fire crackled on. We fell asleep to ghost stories from our guide about Chinese Akaa that would get you in the middle of the night & and tape of singing & celebrating blaring over the loud speaker somewhere in the village.

Our trek back down that morning was much less strenous, probably because 5 of us decided to take the easy route so we could gawk more on the way down. We hiked through a spirit gate as we left the village set to keep out the bad Chinese spirits and over farmland & irrigation channels we went. Quite a lot of slash and burn agriculture was going on--very hard, hard work with a hoe! It very much reminded me of the hillside farming techniques used in Tanzania. Cut the trees, burn them, plant the crop, harvest & leave fallow for the next 8 years. Crazy.

The hot shower when we got back never felt so good! Gary, Jesse & I had a great feast for 3 bucks a piece & then headed to a wedding that our guide invited us to. The Lao know how to throw a party! Two days of festivities, traditional dancing, loads & loads of food. The cousin of the groom made it his goal to force Lao, Lao upon us & Gary, Jesse, Valentin & I took turns shooting in down. DISGUSTING! Cousin, as I'll call him, kept falling on me & eventually ended up spilling the entire bottle of Lao, Lao on me. BUT...he was having a GREAT time!!!! Intermittenly the electricity would go off, but the singing & dancing never stopped. We finally ran away when we saw another bottle of Lao, Lao being brought out & headed to the club. A final beer, a little strobe light action & home we went only to find that our guesthouse gates were shut. Good thing I don't mind climbing & over the fence we went & crashed. What a day! I love Lao!

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Comments

[Adam]

Cool
Sounds like Laos is living upto expectations. Careful with Strobes!