decided to do some hilltribe trekking in Laos as well. This time,
however, we made sure to go with a more reputable company and get a
written itinerary ahead of time. Our guide for the 3 day 2 night
excursion was Kia, a Hmong who grew up in a village 5 hours walking
from Luang Phabang. We really liked his guiding style. He was
easy-going, talkative, and always made sure we were taken care of. Our
trip began 1 hour north of Luang Phabang at a little path on the side
of the highway. The morning hike was fun, with lots of river crossing
that kept us cool. Along the way, Kia would share his knowledge of the
local flora and agricultural practices of the village. He pointed out
Teak, Mahogany, and Mulberry trees which are highly desired for their
wood, and herbs that are used for a variety of purposes- everything
from healing cuts to seasoning salads. The staple crop is rice, of
course. The hilltribe villagers grow mountain rice, which is different
from rice grown in the lowlands because it does not need to be
constantly saturated with water. Other crops include corn and hops,
used in making Beer Lao.
Kia was a great guide
We crossed many streams along the way
We arrived at our first village early in the afternoon. It was a small
village, with only 28 families. The first thing I noticed when we arrived was the many naked children and baby animals running around. There were piglets wallowing
in the mud, peeping chicks, ducklings following their mommy single file, puppies, kittens, and of course human children chewing on sugar
cane and splashing in the stream. They were all so adorable!. There
were very few adults and youth around. Turns out that most of the
villagers go into the fields to work during the daylight hours, and
only the mothers of young children stay home to keep an eye on all the
kids. Village women get married very early and have and average of 6
children! One woman who we ended up giving neosporin to (because her
son got burned by a fire and they have very little modern medicine)
was only 18 years old and she already had 2 kids! We walked around the
village a bit, observing the daily chores before heading out for our
afternoon hike.
The beautiful landscape
Ducklings!
The afternoon hike was not as enjoyable because it was a lot of
uphill, the sun was strong, and there were no more river crossings. But
the scenery was still pretty, with every shade of green imaginable. In the late afternoon we
arrived at the village where we were going to spend the night. This
village was inhabited by both the Hmong and Khmu minorities. As Kia
gave us a tour, he explained to us a few differences between the 2
tribes. The Hmong people originated in Mongolia, then migrated to
China and eventually to Northern Laos in the 19th century. They were
always mountain people and originally migrated south seeking a warmer
climate. The Khmu minority come from Cambodia and are related to the
Khmer. The languages of the 2 groups are very different, so when they
live together in one village they usually communicate in Lao. Luckily,
our guide spoke Hmong, Khmu, Lao, and English, so he was able to talk
to everyone. We were able to identify if the homes we passed were Khmu
or Hmong because Hmong build their homes directly on the ground, while
the Khmu build theirs on stilts, and store supplies or farm animals
underneath. Their religions are also different: the Khmu are animists,
and each family worships one specific animal. The Hmong are
ancestoralists, worshiping the spirits of the deceased ancestors.
Their houses have 2 doors, one for the family and their guests, and
one for the spirits. The tour ended at the village schoolhouse. All
villages around Luang Phabang have their own elementary school. For
high school, students have to hike down to Luang Phabang, a journey
that can easily take 3-4 hours. The primary school in this particular
village was located in the center and the size of a small
barn, divided into 3 rooms. Each room had a few benches and a
chalkboard. Ironically, the bell used to announce the start of class
was an old bomb shell, left over from the Vietnam war.
The school bell, made from an old bomb shell
That afternoon we took a "shower" in the river, the village communal
bathhouse, and relaxed as we observed the daily life of the locals.
Because we didn't speak any of their languages, we had no real way to
communicate with the villagers. And Kia didn't want us helping with
cooking dinner, nor did we end up eating with the family whose home
we were staying at. Therefore, our main interactions consisted of
exchanging mutual curious looks. This was actually the only thing we
were disappointed about during our trip. As there is no electricity in
the village, Kia, Leslie and I played UNO by candlelight after dinner
and then went to bed fairly early.
Villagers milling corn
We were woken up around 4 am to the sound of roosters crowing
competitively. After that it was only possible to doze on and off
because the locals were getting up to start their day. At one point, I
woke up to the ear-splitting squeal of a pig...I think it was being
killed. By 7 am, we had given up on sleep and got up to start our day.
We hiked for 3 hours in the morning to a Khmu village where we would
have lunch. It was an uncomfortably muddy hike because it had rained
the day before. Over an hour of that hike was through leech infested
territory. During that time the trail was crawling with leeches. It
was disgusting! Every time we stopped to try to pick the leeches off
our feet, we would see others inching their way towards us and
crawling into our shoes. At one point my feet were covered with over
20 leeches. Fortunately, most of them couldn't bite us because we had
rubbed our feet with a local boiled root paste that prevented them
from chomping down. Despite this, Leslie got a couple of bites on his
ankle, and randomly one on his chest. The grossest part was when I
slipped off a ridge, and fell face down into the mud. I screamed because I
was scared that I was going to get bitten in all kinds of undesirable
places, but luckily I survived the fall leech-free. We arrived at the
Khmu village just as the clouds opened up and sheets of rain came
pouring down. We watched the rain from the cozy shelter of a Khmu
home, sipping warm noddle soup for lunch. After about an hour the
skies were blue again and we continued on our way. The afternoon hike
was along the muddy tractor road, and Leslie and I spent much of it
kicking mud cakes off the sides of our shoes.
The village which we stayed the second night was much bigger than the
other 2 villages, with 100 families, but everything else was pretty
similar. I spent the afternoon trying to impress the kids by making
silly faces. I was pretty successful with my tuna fish face. We hiked
back on the third day, an uneventful, but pleasant and sunny 17 km hike.
By the end of the trip we were tired and filthy, but very content with
the way it all worked out.
The children get very serious when they are having their picture taken!
At a waterfall on our last day of hiking
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