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Published: January 7th 2010
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Phu Hin Bin NPA
Misty mountains After our doubts nearly got the best of us, our guides arrived in a tuk tuk with our three other trekkers (a Swiss guy, and a Canadian/Thai couple). One of the guides spoke very good English, the other a bit, and off we headed. Just being picked up raised our spirits a bit, and it seemed our companions were a good bunch. Then the rain stopped! The tuk tuk drive took us back towards the Buddha Cave and then on for another half an hour or so. The bumpy dirt tracks had been further enhanced by deep puddles and incredibly slippery mud, and before long we had to leave the tuk tuk behind and revert to trekking proper. The scenery was even more stunning, the dark, towering limestone outcrops clothed in vegetation where the slopes allowed, otherwise the jagged rocks shredded the remaining clouds and mist left after the rains. Even our guide said he hadn't seen the area looking like this, it was very other-worldly - Gandalf could have popped out (shouting Sabaidee probably)!
The trek proved to be fantastic. It generally took us along the flat, farmed land, surrounded by the hills on all sides. We passed through
some beautiful wooden villages, surrounded by giggling kids shouting Sabaidee, with animals everywhere and the adults giving us welcoming smiles. The farmland itself was mostly rice, with occasional, incredibly neat, allotments and plantations of banana, pineapple or tobacco fields (for example) around the villages. Every now and then we would draw closer to the cliffs, and through lush jungle at their feet. We saw some beautiful, massive caves, on the first day stopping at one where a river emerged from its foot and we swam in the 'Green Lagoon'. We had lunch here, a jungle picnic, on a tablecloth of leaves eating local food out of our hands - sticky rice, veggie concoctions, fish and delicious puddings made from rice and coconot milk. At one point the trek took us under the mountain through a vast limestone cave with a sandlewood Buddha (hence known as Sandlewood Buddha Cave!) and out we popped in to a large open area of scrub, grazing land and agriculture within a wide bowl formed by the mountains.
We came to a village where the organisation had built a lodge for the tourists and had a wander around before diner, Rach transfixed at one hut
Phu Hin Bin NPA
The mountain roots which had both the cutest little girl and the cutest puppies....where to look! The organisation and treks were developed with help from a Dutch NGO, and is now entirely run by the Laos Tourist Office, the Dutch having fulfilled their role to set it up. The aim is to bring sustainable, sensitive tourism in to these areas to benefit the local communities and give visitors an understanding and respect for the local indigenous peoples. Hence, our guide told us that 80% of our cash goes in to the communities. These guides are just the organisers and English speakers (not to put them down in any way!) - at various villages the local guide is swapped, transport is picked up from different locations and of course we were cooked for in different places - the aim is to spread out the cash through the NPA's villages, not using outside guides etc. In the village we were cooked a lovely diner and, after me and the Swiss guy played a mysterious card game with some of the old guys, we were then given a traditional welcoming and good luck ceremony - a Baasli ceremony to call our spirits back to us. These
may have been left behind on our journey, and so the equilibrium needed to be restored. We were seated around a bamboo-leaf, conical structure (like a small temple) decorated with flowers and surrounded by bananas and fruit. Us tourists and the guides were blessed in turn by two of the old guys, wishing us safe travel, good health and wealth, while cotton bracelets were tied around our wrists (which need to stay on for at least three days for the blessings to take effect) - Rach and I will apparently have a football team of kids! We drank a shot of the local Lao Lao (Lao 'whisky', which we had more of before and after) and ate offerings of bananas and chocolates. It was then our turn and we chose someone from the group or village representatives to give our blessing. Both Rach and I chose one of the old dudes, my guy wearing a stylish black balaclava for some reason. Rach couldn't quite see clearly and filled the guys glass with loads of Lao Lao and he had to wander off to be sick! But he took it well!
The next day's morning trek was harder and more
sweaty heading up through the feet of the hills through proper jungle. At the beginning, still morning, we saw quite a bit of bird life and even a flying squirrel (according to our guides, I must admit it happened so fast I thought it was a coconut falling from a tree!). The jungle at the base was lush with buttress trees, palms, climbers and vines with the odd clearing felled - the villagers are allowed some trees for building. Slightly higher up the slopes, where it was slightly drier but still with some humidity, Autumn had kicked in with deep red leaves against the cliffs stained white by calcium seeping out of the rocks. Where the slopes were less steep, the rocks were a dark black, jagged shards with the crevices being eroded down by rain, wind and roots. Up at this higher level, the dry season had kicked in and the trees had lost their leaves, white trunks and branches standing out against the dark rocks.
On we went and finally came across a village for lunch, and picked up two 'tractors' (a motor driving two wheels towing a wooden trailor, with two long handle-bars like horns for
steering) for an incredibly bumpy journey to the Blue Lagoon. The waters here arise from an incredibly deep shaft, and were blue at this time of year - due to chemical composition and the rainy/wet seasons the waters are sometimes green or clear. We had a lovely swim here, local kids and women laughing at us and chatting, and then our tractors took us off for another hour drive before we trekked further on to a beautiful village on a river bank - incredibly picturesque! Friendly villagers washing or fishing in the river, small terraced allotments up the river banks to make use of the fertile silts left as the waters dropped following rainy season. There was a narrow wooden bridge over the river which we crossed and wandered to a swimming hole at the foot of some cascades. We had a swim and wash here, and changed in to clean clothes so that we wouldn't be responsible for asphyxiating our fellow travellers on tonights bus! Poor Rach had developed massive (I mean massive, toe sized!) blisters as we hadn't worn our shoes for so long, but luckily could wear flip flops for the last few hours of the trek.
After the swim we jumped aboard the waiting tuk tuk, all knackered but happy, for the journey home, nearly breaking the tuk tuk on the first hour of muddy dirt track where we had to get out repeatedly so it could pass deep mud pits. Wet season must be fun! The trip was fantastic, our companions were lovely, the guides great, and the people we met on the way so friendly. All against the stunning kast backdrop. We got back in to Tha Khaek for a sleepy diner, then headed off the catch a 10pm bus to Vientiane where would arrive early in the morning. Despite the constant Thai music which was played throughout the night, we managed to get some sleep on the bus!
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