Ban Hat Khai, Laos
When we arrived in Ban Hat Khai, Laos on Monday (15 January) afternoon I'm not sure any of us were prepared for how the next couple of days would unfold. It was really a tiny village and nobody spoke English, at least not much English. I for one, was expecting a small town, but this was definitely just a village. Finally we got the point across that we want a place to sleep, a 'home stay', and then that we wanted to go see the Tad Xai waterfall the next day. So after a couple of hours of hand gestures and broken english, some paperwork, and some traditional ceremony that involved taking some shots of Lao-Lao (Lao whiskey), we were all settled. We were taken to the home where we would sleep, fed lunch, and then shown around the village. The village was really cool and people just went on about their (seemly quite comfortable) lives there. We stopped for a bit to watch some of the local boys play Kataw, which is a cross between volleyball and soccer where a woven rattan ball is kicked and head-butted back and forth across a net. Yvo and I joined in for a bit but were absolutely terrible.
Then we went back to the house and Yvo and I went with the head-of-the-house down to the river to 'shower'. Since the river was quite dirty we felt just as dirty upon returning to the house as we did when I left. But that's how the locals shower so that's how we showered (for a day at least). Then we were served dinner. The meals were edible, but I wouldn't say tasty. We passed the time that evening playing cards with our host. As silly as it sounds, we felt that we were overcharged for accomodation and food and our only consolation was that the money stayed in the village.
The next morning (Tuesday, 16 January) we woke up early, had breakfast, and then took a motorized wooden canoe - which sat uncomfortably low in the water - up the Nam Mang to the start of a trail. We walked a couple of hours through some jungle before arriving at our destination, Tad Xai waterfall. The falls themselves weren't that spectacular but the pool into which they fell provided a beautiful, large, deep place for swimming. We had an excellent time swimming, sitting under the falls, and jumping off the 12 to 15-foot high ledge from one tier of the cascades into the pool. The best part though was not seeing anybody else there. The guides had brought another barely edible meal for lunch so I stuck to eating sticky rice (sticky rice was served with all the meals). After lunch we walked the 2 hours a different way back down to the village.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out not doing much of anything. We moved to another home for the evening, I presumed, to spread some of the comparative wealth around the village. That night after dinner we had more rounds of cards with the locals, at the request of our host from the previous night who came over to hang out. It was really good fun and the loser of each game had to take a shot of horrible tasting Lao-Lao. Pride was not the motivating factor in these games not to loose...
We woke up early again the next morning (Wednesday, 17 January) and I had to catch my ride back to Vientiane without having a chance to tell the others goodbye who were going on down south and still packing up when I left. But Yvo, Helen, and I made plans to meet up in Ko Chang, Thailand at the end of February. So I arrived back in Vientiane Wednesday morning, stopped by the Vietnamese embassy to pick up my visa, and checked back into my dorm room. Once again traveling solo... again.
Then we went back to the house and Yvo and I went with the head-of-the-house down to the river to 'shower'. Since the river was quite dirty we felt just as dirty upon returning to the house as we did when I left. But that's how the locals shower so that's how we showered (for a day at least). Then we were served dinner. The meals were edible, but I wouldn't say tasty. We passed the time that evening playing cards with our host. As silly as it sounds, we felt that we were overcharged for accomodation and food and our only consolation was that the money stayed in the village.
The next morning (Tuesday, 16 January) we woke up early, had breakfast, and then took a motorized wooden canoe - which sat uncomfortably low in the water - up the Nam Mang to the start of a trail. We walked a couple of hours through some jungle before arriving at our destination, Tad Xai waterfall. The falls themselves weren't that spectacular but the pool into which they fell provided a beautiful, large, deep place for swimming. We had an excellent time swimming, sitting under the falls, and jumping off the 12 to 15-foot high ledge from one tier of the cascades into the pool. The best part though was not seeing anybody else there. The guides had brought another barely edible meal for lunch so I stuck to eating sticky rice (sticky rice was served with all the meals). After lunch we walked the 2 hours a different way back down to the village.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out not doing much of anything. We moved to another home for the evening, I presumed, to spread some of the comparative wealth around the village. That night after dinner we had more rounds of cards with the locals, at the request of our host from the previous night who came over to hang out. It was really good fun and the loser of each game had to take a shot of horrible tasting Lao-Lao. Pride was not the motivating factor in these games not to loose...
We woke up early again the next morning (Wednesday, 17 January) and I had to catch my ride back to Vientiane without having a chance to tell the others goodbye who were going on down south and still packing up when I left. But Yvo, Helen, and I made plans to meet up in Ko Chang, Thailand at the end of February. So I arrived back in Vientiane Wednesday morning, stopped by the Vietnamese embassy to pick up my visa, and checked back into my dorm room. Once again traveling solo... again.
posted by Dustin at 3:11 AM
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