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Published: October 3rd 2008
Elephants Bathing
at the Elephant Conservation CenterSabaidee! (That's "hello" in Lao). So, we've had our first crazy adventure of the trip, but I think we'll save it for the end of the blog so we can tell it in some detail (and those of you who've already had enough wont miss out on reading everything else we've done in the past few days because you're already bored.)
Our last blog left on in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. We ended up extending our stay one more day to see elephants...and it was a great decision. We had opted out of the normal "trekking" scene of Chiang Mai both because of our concern for the impacts on the local villagers, and because despite our desire to see elephants, we didn't want to see them performing tricks at the elephants camps that populate the north of Thailand for tourists pleasures. So, we put together our own day trip (that involved a very long, unorganized bus trip) to the Elephant Conservation Center. The center rescues elephants that are being used in illegal logging activities or sick ones from the other camps are donated to the center to be rehabilitated. We got to see the elephants bathing, working, play with a
Views from Nong Khiaw
The Nam Ou river...every morning a mist would settle over the river. baby elephant (they weren't nearly as strict as a place like this in the US would be and we got to touch the elephants and get up very close whenever we wanted!), and see the elephant hospital. It was a fantastic experience and definitely well worth the hassle of figuring it out on our own to escape the hordes of tourists!
From Chiang Mai we moved on to a three day journey into Northern Laos (but this story will come with our "adventure" later!)
Our first stop in Laos was Nong Khiaw, a small riverside village up in the mountains that is somewhat off the main tourist trail. We splurged ($30 a night) for a really nice riverside bungalow, but after our travelling experience it was well worth it and the guesthouse was really nice. We only spent one full day in Nong Khiaw (mostly taking a long nap, but also hiking up to an awesome cave-and having our first experience with leeches-yuck!) as our real destination was Muang Noi Neua...our next destination.
Muang Noi Neua was another hour journey by boat upriver (which was literally a covered canoe with a only semi-working engine that had to
be repaired frequently throughout the journey-and in which in typical Lao fashion we crammed in more than maximum capacity and left the dock well after the scheduled time). The town is only reachable by boat and had no motorized vehicles of any kind. We stayed in a small bungalow overlooking the river (back to our budget accomodations at about $4 a night, but with cockroaches and other bugs and a bed that looked like a series of speed bumps(we ended up sleeping perpendicular on the bed to try to find some semi-flat areas) -guess you get what you pay for.) Our big activity of the area was a full day trek into the mountains behind the town through rice paddies and some hill tribe villages. The highlight of the trek was a cave with a fresh water spring that flowed out into a pool and a series of river crossing areas where we had some very refreshing and enjoyable swims.
During our time in the northern mountains (we were in small villages away from huge influxes of tourists), we were surprised by the villagers reactions to us, especially after having heard that Lao are some of the most friendly
rickety Lao bus
one of the many buses we've ridden in the past week people in SE Asia. On a couple of ocassions we were shooed away from stopping to watch traditional activites or sports games (we stopped to watch some teenagers playing volleyball and one of the boys actually left the game to come over to us and tell us to leave). Everywhere we went we felt as if we were some sort of spectacle or thing to be stared at. However, during a later conversation with an english-speaking Lao, we discovered that many of the northern hill tribe Lao in particular feel that having one's picture taken captures their spirit so that it cannot travel on after death and thus they are somewhat opposed to travelers and their frequent picture-taking. So we are now much more cautious with our camera, although those sentiments aren't as strong now that we have come down from the mountains.
Another cramped boat ride and even more packed sangthaew (pick-up truck) ride-think 22 tourists packed with all their luggage in the back of a truck the size of Matt's Tacoma-we finally arrived in Luang Prabang, our current home. We had heard that this town is a must-see and definitely agree. We are happy to settle in
Luang Prabang
the historic district...beautiful french colonial buildings. here for a few days (waiting for a letter to arrive from the US), taking care of business (laundry, blogs, etc) and just taking a break from the crowded, slow transit system. Yesterday we did our first tour, which ended up being a great experience (we chose an ecotourism company that only took small groups). We went white water rafting on the Nam Xoung river. Despite a long, dusty drive to the put-in point (one of our guides' hair was blonde it had so much dust in it and he was calling himself a "Falang"-white person), most of the day was spent on the river going down class 2 and 3 rapids. There were two other Dutch, a German and an Austrian with us, as well as our 3 Lao guides (1 in the boat with us and the other 2 as kayak safety/guides-in-training). On our first large rapid of the day, the boat flipped and we ended up swimming down a pretty long rapid (Matt and the German and Austrian girls were swept through some trees). We all escaped unharmed, though the others not having much water-experience were slightly shaken from the spill. At the end of the day
we got to play with a bunch of kids from the village where we got off the river. It was the village of our kayaking guide, Sok, and we had a blast swimming with the kids and taking pictures (they aren't of the spirit-capturing belief).
So, now on to our long three day adventure getting from northern Thailand to northern Laos. I'll try to sum it up as much as possible, but there are some details that just can't be missed! The first two days actually went quite smoothly, despite long bus rides and boat rides and lots of waiting around to leave. Some of our best experiences of the trip actually happened during the travelling as well. On our last leg of the first day, we met a Kiwi (New Zealand) guy and a Dutch couple who we crossed over the river from Thailand into Laos with. The five of us found an awesome little guesthouse (the Arimid) in the Lao border town of Huay Xai and had a fun evening talking in the guesthouse restaurant and being entertained by the Lao guesthouse owner, Mr. Chitaly. He was one of the friendliest fellows we've come across and spoke
English very well. He helped us to reorganize our plans, suggesting that we get off the two day slowboat trip after the first day and taking a bus up to Nong Khiaw, so that we didn't backtrack at all and got to experience a bit more of the "true Laos".
The next day we boarded the slowboat to head down the Mekong river towards Luang Prabang. The Kiwi, Gary, and the Dutch, Steffen and Annemarie, came with us. At first it looked like it was going to be a very peaceful trip with only a handful of other travellers, until the tourbus showed up and about 50 backpackers boarded. The boat only had wooden benches that weren't attached to the deck and thus tipped over if you tried to do anything but sit straight up. It was a long (7-8 hours) journey down to Pak Beng, with gorgeous scenery, but pretty uncomfortable seats. We docked in Pak Beng and found a guesthouse with our travelling companions and enjoyed another dinner with them and fun times sharing travel stories and discussing politics and our respective countries.
The next morning we parted ways (everyone continued on for a second day down the
Mekong on the slowboat) and we caught the bus towards the mountains. Our first leg was a 4 hour bus ride listening to blaring Lao music to Oudamxai and trying to clean off the mud we had accumulated on our clothes while waiting for the bus that morning. We had a 2.5 hour wait in Oudamxai before getting our next bus to Pak Mong (about a 2 hour ride). Both bus journeys involved numerous stops for no apparent reason. In Pak Mong we boarded a sangthaew to head the last 26 kilometers to Nong Khiaw. It was dusk at this point and we thought we were only within an hour of our final destination. We were already talking of a nice dinner, a shower, and a comfy bed to crash in. We sat in the back of the truck waiting to leave, packed in with about 8 others and an entire mini-mart full of supplies for one of the passenger's family store. As the minutes ticked by we realized that there was some sort of brake-line leakage and it ended up taking almost an hour to repair. Finally, well after dark we pulled out of Pak Mong and began the
Baby elephant
This baby almost knocked Matt out later on after trying to pull him into his pen. We spent about 25 minutes playing tug of war with him and wrestling him. long winding journey towards Nong Khiaw. About 45 minutes later, a few passengers less and many stops later (luckily we had off-loaded the mini-mart supplies by this point), the truck screeched to a stop. We sat there, expecting just another routine stop, maybe a chat with a brother, a quick snack or a bathroom break. However, we finally climbed out to see what was taking so long and discovered the rest of the passengers, our driver and the entire village staring at a lake where the road had once been. After some gesturing we determined that the river had flooded the road and the water was head-high, making the road impassible. We spent an hour watching villagers wade out to there knees then return, claiming they could go no further, trying to gesticulate about a possible boat to cross in and trying to figure out what the truck driver's plans were. We finally realized that our truck was going nowhere-the driver had fallen asleep in the front seat- and made ourselves a (uncomfortable) bed in the back of the truck along with three other Hmong villagers. After a long night (with frequent flashlights pointed in our faces with curious villagers
Lao barbeque
Matt was supposed to cook his own food, but ended up having to have the 13 year old kid do it for him since we couldn't figure out what went where. checking out the "Falangs" in the back of the truck), we awoke to find the water level much lower, but our truck driver still unwilling to cross. We boarded the next bus that was brave enough to cross (it was only about knee-deep by now) and made it the final few kilometers to Nong Khiaw-where we checked into our ultra-luxurious bungalow and napped until the afternoon.
We're tired of writing-and sure you're tired of reading. Thanks for following us on this journey. We miss you all. We'll write soon. Love, Matt and Megan
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Xiao
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Quite a trip
Gosh, this sounds quite a challenging trip, take care. I really liked the picture with Matt wrestling with the baby elephant:)