Advertisement
Published: December 8th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Road Less Traveled Sometimes leaving the guide book behind and venturing off the well trodden tourist path can bring unexpected pleasures and reveal more about a country and its people than one could ever glean from being a follower. Putting fears aside and heading off on bike into the countryside with no maps, no sense of place and only the sun to guide my way provided me with one of the more enriching and enjoyable experiences thus far. I set off in the morning and pedaled out of town toward the not too distant mountain range tucked behind Luang Prabang. The ride was a steady climb and after a few miles, the paved streets turned into bumpy dirt roads. I ascended slowly through some remote villages and met with a two lane highway which took me a few thousand feet higher into the mountains. Near the point of exhaustion, (for some reason I chose to wear flip flops mountain biking,..duh) I spotted an old wooden sign “waterfall” with an arrow pointing down a dirt side road. I wasn’t sure how far it would be to the falls, if there were any, but just started riding and enjoying the serene
Waterfalls
A surprise find and quiet. Eventually, after a pretty steep dusty climb I reached a clearing with a small lake and a lush canyon area with hiking trails, streams and the waterfalls. The hiking trails were a maze of stepping stones and steep stairways that wound several miles through beautiful soggy fern canyons. Along the creeks there were empty bamboo thatched huts here and there perched on stilts over the water. After a long bike & hike, I had found a perfect meditative retreat to rest the mind, body and soul. Water has such a calming and relaxing effect.
Nearing the top I started hearing drumming and singing. “Hmmm, are there cannibals in the Laotian jungles”, Naaaa. Pushing on to the top I found a group of Laotian boys sitting around in a circle having a “picnic” in one of the huts at the base of the waterfall. I crept up slowly so as not to disturb them, but they spotted me and shouted out a welcoming hello, so I walked over and joined them. They ate green beans, drank beer, and loudly sang Laotian and Thai folk songs while one of them strummed a small guitar. Seeing me wander out of
the jungle looking like a lost tourist and clearly parched, they smiled and handed me their peace offering, a small cup of BeerLao on ice which really hit the spot. I stayed for awhile and we chatted as best we could with my fifteen or so words of Thai (many Laotians also speak Thai) and their few words of English. I put in a request for some Zepplin or Rolling Stones, but they hadn’t heard of either - oh well. This friendly encounter reinforced for me one of the reasons I enjoy traveling so much; it restores my faith in humanity and proves to me that at their core, people are generally good no matter where on this planet you happen to be. More importantly, it reminds me how blessed and fortunate I am for so many things in life and as Americans how lucky we truly are. I have seen people living in absolute squalor in just about every country, in conditions that make our homeless look like middle class citizens. Through these experiences, it’s hard not to be humbled and to reflect on what great inequity exists in the world. On a more personal level, it’s hard not
Around town
One of the many Buddhist Wats around town to wonder why I was dealt a better hand than most in the world and how to best use it. Ah yes, "what is the meaning of life"? one of the questions that comes into sharper focus when you see yourself in contrast with the rest of humanity.
Rambling on back down the mountain, I decided to take a swim in the lake and realized there was a zip-line platform, COOL! I jumped right on and zipped across the lake, dropping in from eight or ten feet above for a cool plunge. After a while, all of the local picnic boys had come down the mountain and joined me, performing some pretty deft acrobatic maneuvers on the zip line. Watching them all joke around and fly across the lake in skimpy underwear was a hilarious sight.
Exhausted from the biking, hiking and zip lining, I rolled back into town and treated myself to another therapeutic Laos massage treatment, a daily ritual. Most things are cheap in Asia, but then there are some things that are ridiculously cheap: Ninety minute massages can be had for four or five dollars and a decent meal for three with many beers around
Jungle friends
The picnic clan up at the waterfalls. for less than fifteen. It seems to good to be true. The following morning, I met up with Geerd and Steffen for a full day of kayaking down the Nam Seuang river. It’s low season so the normal class 3-4 rapids were nothing more than easy going class 1 and 2’s. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and the river provided some great scenery of mountains and sandy beaches where villagers went about their day fishing on the riverbanks with the kids playing alongside in the water. About half way down the river, we stopped on a nice stretch of beach where our two friendly guides prepared a great lunch. About twenty kids from the local village came running out onto the beach and just stood there staring at us from about ten feet away. Apparently they rarely see tourists so we were something of an oddity for them. This went on for about twenty minutes as we tried as best we could to entertain them with some stupid human tricks like juggling oranges. At the end of the day, we pulled out of the river and carried the kayaks through a forested area into a clearing in a dusty
village where our truck and driver awaited us. The village was filled with women and children and the men were probably out working. Again, like up river at the beach, the children stood around gawking at us. I left my camera behind since water and cameras don’t mix, but I hope to get some shots taken from Geerd and Steffen posted here soon (if you guys are reading this, please email me some shots from Kayak day).
I used my last full day in Luang Prabang for biking around and capturing a few more pictures of the town before boarding a flight with Geerd & Steffen,.... headed for???
Advertisement
Tot: 0.189s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 19; qc: 117; dbt: 0.1092s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Rachy
Rachel
hello from vietnam
hi michael Just read your blog of LP. Sounds like you loved it as much as i did. As you can probably guess from the heading i'm in Vietnam now, currently Nha Trang but moving on to Hoi An tomorrow night. My plans are now to head to Ko Pha-Ngan for Christmas and New Year and then Ko Tao after that, then over to other coast. Hope we'll catch up some place, otherwise its great reading your blogs. Enjoy wherever you go next. Rachel