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Published: April 23rd 2008
The large congested cities of Thailand had me ready to go to Laos where the cities and population are much smaller. I read in my guide book about a small town called Vieng Poukha that offered great treks and attracted almost no tourists so I went to check it out. I met two other travelers on the bus ride to Vieng Poukha so I assumed it was not going to be as isolated as the guide book informed me, but there was actually only one other tourist in the town. I quickly learned that Laos would be more challenging than Thailand because no one in Vieng Poukha could speak English. We spent two nights in the town waiting for other hikers to come so that our trek would be cheaper, but no one came. During those two nights, I saw two of the biggest spiders I have ever seen. One spent the night about a foot from my head while I slept. Luckily I had mosquito net to protect me.
We went out on a two day trek with the Akha village as our main destination, but stopped off at many other villages along the way. We had lunch at
village that was very welcoming. We ate lunch with them in the new home they were building and they continuously refilled our shot glasses with lao lao (rice wine). We trekked on for a few more hours until we got the Ahka village where we would spend the night. This village did not welcome us at all, but it was such an interesting place to see. It was apparently a special night there because they had a television. The whole village was crowded around this tv and the children were standing atop a fence in the back row just so they could catch a glimpse. (possibly why they did not pay a bit of attention to us.) The peak of the dry season had this village looking desert like. Just to get water to wash up we had to walk for about 10 minutes where there was just a small pool. The next morning I mistakenly used the unboiled water to brush my teeth and paid for it that night and the following day.
The bus rides through northern Laos provided a great deal of excitement, which included rushing adrenaline, plenty of vomit and asphyxiation. These roads went up
and down through rolling hills and were extremely windy. The bus driver must have been getting paid based on how quickly he arrived at his destination because we were moving at an uncomfortably fast speed. We were not even staying in our lane through these blind turns (some without barriers over cliffs) and the driver felt that using his horn to warn a potential vehicle coming in the opposite direction would keep us alive. We did arrive safely but the guy sitting two seats away from me was probably not in high spirits since he spent most of the ride with his head out the window vomiting. A few of the other rides were similar but also involved driving a little too close to fires. The Laos people use slash and burn agriculture frequently and in some places my eyes have even been burning from the smoke in the air. On the bus we actually felt the heat from the flames and watched the ash and smoke fly in through our windows. Despite these few drawbacks of the ride it was a pleasurable experience. The country is filled with beautiful rolling mountains and tiny villages where all of the children
on the street were waving at the bus as we drove by.
Upon coming to Laos, I was surprised to read that it is the most bombed country in the world. I read a statistic that stated, during 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped 90 million cluster bombs over Laos. Equivalent to one plane load every eight minutes, 24 hours a-day, for nine years. Also, more bombs were dropped in Laos than all of the bombs dropped in World War II. Our guide of the trek, Lang Thong, told us that he was born in a cave in 1969. During this time period, the people of Laos moved into caves in order to escape the bombings. Currently there are still unexploded bombs and mines in Laos that are causing injuries and deaths. It is estimated that 30% of the bombs that were dropped never exploded.
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Chris
non-member comment
no chance
i dont know how in the name of god you stayed somewhere with spiders that big!! I couldnt be within miles of spiders that big, WOW.