Muang Ngoi Neua, Laos
Our boat pulled up to the shore of the small, riverside village of Muang Ngoi Neua around 4 PM on Thursday (4 January). Ivo, Helen, and I found a couple of bungalows overlooking the river for $1.50 each. Which, while cheap, had to be negotiated down from $2, now the going rate for riverside bungalows in Muang Ngoi Neua since it has become a tourist destination. When my current guide book was published 2 years ago, most of the bungalows were in the $0.50 to $1 range. That is what tourism does to a village I guess. The bungalows are very basic, but fine for a night's sleep. Hammocks on the balcony from which to admire the view were nice. As we were walking back to the main street and we ran into our Israeli friends, Michal and Bat-Shahar. They had arrived in Muang Ngoi Neua the previous day becuase their bus arrived in Nong Khiaw early enough to catch the last boat to Muang Ngoi Neua the same day. We had arrived in Nong Khiaw too late the previous day.
While we were talking to the Israeli girls and making plans for the next day, a couple of guys that were on our boat walked up and asked if anyone wanted to go for an over night trek the next day through some of the local hill tribe villages and jungle covered karst (tall, steep, limestone mountains) landscapes. We had already made tentative plans for our group to go on a boat trip the next day to see some villages, but I decided the trekking was more what I was looking for. Ivo wanted to go to, but Helen wouldn't let him (glad I'm traveling alone so I can make my own decisions...). So Ivo, Helen, and the Israeli girls decided to stick with the boat trip plan. I joined John (from Israel) and Tom (from England) to try to organize a trek. We found a 'trekking company' (one of the few in the village) that would take us trekking for $18 for 2 days (all inclusive). While we were negotiating a Korean woman, Soon, came up and was also interested in trekking so she joined us. After some discussions over dinner (we had about 11 people for dinner with my original group) the 4 of us decided we would strike off on our own, sans guide, as its supposedly easy to trek on your own in this area (many villages and villagers take the paths daily).
The next morning (Friday, 5 January) after leaving my big back pack under Ivo and Helen's care, I met up with John, Tom, and Soon in the village market for breakfast and to stock up on some food for the trek. We planned to stay with a village family that night who would cook for us so we only needed food for lunch. We took a digital photo of the sketch map on the wall of the tour agency, which served as our map. About 9:30 AM we were off. We made a stop by a cave after about 45 minutes. It was pretty cool and we explored the dark passages for a few minutes. The cave kept going deeper but we didn't have the proper equipment to go any further. We passed a village or two and relied on asking the villagers we saw along the way for directions. This worked out fine for a while. At one point we were following a guy for probably a couple of hours and arrived at what we thought was the village we planned to stay at for the night. It turns out he wasn't going to the village we wanted to go to, even though when we asked he nodded yes. So he walked us an additional hour and a half to another village, which again wasn't the village we wanted. But by this time it was getting late (~5 PM) and we had been walking up and down hills the last half of the day so we decided to just stay there for the night. We went up and met someone who looked like a village elder (big, fat, smiling man sitting in front of his house). Toya, his name we later learned, seemed pretty happy to meet us. With no one in the village speaking English and a couple in our group knowing only a few words of Lao, it was an interesting stay. Toya had a young boy - one of many children that had gathered around us - show us to a home where we could stay for the night.
When we were invited into the house I was got a laugh from the family when I took off my shoes, as the floor inside was dirt. There was lots of sitting around staring and smiling at each other. We tried to think of ways to entertain the kids. Hand games, digital pictures and videos, headlamps, sparklers (which Soon had been thoughtful enough to bring), and a glow stick (which John had brought) were all big hits with the children through the course of the evening. The family fixed us up a pretty good meal, by village standards, of rice, dried pork, minced pork, and some green, leafy vegatables (maybe morning glory?). There were no bathrooms in the village (not even holes in the ground), but it was comfortable enough for a night - and apparently comfortable enough for them for a lifetime. They actually had a light bulb attached to some power source - that didn't put off much light - which they must save for special occasions as the kids stood around staring at for a while once it was turned on. The very pregnant Mama, didn't skip a beat and was cooking, cleaning, and climbing ladders the whole time. The father, Papa, ate with us while the rest of the 5 remaining children and wife sat quietly around the fire. Once we were done eating it was their turn to eat. Papa and Mama had 10 children, 5 of whom stilled lived there, and one in the oven! Things shut down early in the villages and by 8:30 PM we were all laid down for the night.
At some ungodly hour the next morning (Saturday, 6 January) the roosters started their song and dance and didn't stop. The one right next to the house was alarmingly loud. About 2 hours of restless 'sleep' later - and after hearing the family moving around for at least the last hour - I got up and discovered it was just after 6 AM. No reason to waste the daylight I guess.
After a breakfast of the same food as dinner we gave the family some money and were off. We had quite a discussion on the appropiate amount to give. We didn't want to offend them by giving to little, but if we gave too much they might be expecting visitors in the future to give the same or more. We just wanted to do the right thing. We decided on $1 per meal and $0.50 for sleeping which appeared to be the going rate for things in the villages. So that was $2.50 per person and $10 total (100,000 Lao Kip) which is a large sum of money to a villager. We couldn't really tell if they were happy or disappointed as they showed no emotion. Papa showed us the way out of the village and down the trail for about 30 minutes to the first fork. The trail the the next village was easy enough to follow but quite over grown in places. I don't think it gets used as often as the other trails on the 'normal village circuit'.
Two hours later we came to the village of Ban Kiua Khan where we had intended to overnight before getting 'side tracked'. All the children from this village gathered round to stare at us too even though it was our impression before we left that foreigners where not an unusual sight in this village. From this village the path was straight forward enough as we had a good sketch map. 4 hours later, 1 hour of which we spent walking along and through a stream winding through a tight ravine, we arrived at the river side village of Ban Hat Saphei; our final destination. We walked down to the river bank and fortunately caught a ride quite easily back down river to Muang Ngoi Neua for $1 each. So instead of paying $18 each for a guide, we each spent less than $5 for 2 days of treking with extra adventure for free! As we were pulling up to Muang Ngoi Neua we saw Ivo, Helen, and the Israelis sitting on the river bank. Good timing.
After checking into another bungalow, Tom, John, Soon, and I went for a big lunch. Later my original group of 5 went out for dinner while Tom and John stayed at the bungalow and Soon disappeared. Then we ended up playing cards in Ivo and Helen's room until about 10:30 PM. On my walk back to my bungalow that night I must have been the only one awake. The village was strangly quiet with only the occasional rabid-sounding growling dog. We decided to leave the following morning as there wasn't a lot to do in the village and we felt we had gotten a taste of village life. I actually wanted to stay one more day, but I wanted to stay with the group more. Tom, John, and Soon were also leaving. So the next morning (Sunday, 7 January) we all boarded the boat for the trip back down the Nam Ou to Nong Khiaw.
While we were talking to the Israeli girls and making plans for the next day, a couple of guys that were on our boat walked up and asked if anyone wanted to go for an over night trek the next day through some of the local hill tribe villages and jungle covered karst (tall, steep, limestone mountains) landscapes. We had already made tentative plans for our group to go on a boat trip the next day to see some villages, but I decided the trekking was more what I was looking for. Ivo wanted to go to, but Helen wouldn't let him (glad I'm traveling alone so I can make my own decisions...). So Ivo, Helen, and the Israeli girls decided to stick with the boat trip plan. I joined John (from Israel) and Tom (from England) to try to organize a trek. We found a 'trekking company' (one of the few in the village) that would take us trekking for $18 for 2 days (all inclusive). While we were negotiating a Korean woman, Soon, came up and was also interested in trekking so she joined us. After some discussions over dinner (we had about 11 people for dinner with my original group) the 4 of us decided we would strike off on our own, sans guide, as its supposedly easy to trek on your own in this area (many villages and villagers take the paths daily).
The next morning (Friday, 5 January) after leaving my big back pack under Ivo and Helen's care, I met up with John, Tom, and Soon in the village market for breakfast and to stock up on some food for the trek. We planned to stay with a village family that night who would cook for us so we only needed food for lunch. We took a digital photo of the sketch map on the wall of the tour agency, which served as our map. About 9:30 AM we were off. We made a stop by a cave after about 45 minutes. It was pretty cool and we explored the dark passages for a few minutes. The cave kept going deeper but we didn't have the proper equipment to go any further. We passed a village or two and relied on asking the villagers we saw along the way for directions. This worked out fine for a while. At one point we were following a guy for probably a couple of hours and arrived at what we thought was the village we planned to stay at for the night. It turns out he wasn't going to the village we wanted to go to, even though when we asked he nodded yes. So he walked us an additional hour and a half to another village, which again wasn't the village we wanted. But by this time it was getting late (~5 PM) and we had been walking up and down hills the last half of the day so we decided to just stay there for the night. We went up and met someone who looked like a village elder (big, fat, smiling man sitting in front of his house). Toya, his name we later learned, seemed pretty happy to meet us. With no one in the village speaking English and a couple in our group knowing only a few words of Lao, it was an interesting stay. Toya had a young boy - one of many children that had gathered around us - show us to a home where we could stay for the night.
When we were invited into the house I was got a laugh from the family when I took off my shoes, as the floor inside was dirt. There was lots of sitting around staring and smiling at each other. We tried to think of ways to entertain the kids. Hand games, digital pictures and videos, headlamps, sparklers (which Soon had been thoughtful enough to bring), and a glow stick (which John had brought) were all big hits with the children through the course of the evening. The family fixed us up a pretty good meal, by village standards, of rice, dried pork, minced pork, and some green, leafy vegatables (maybe morning glory?). There were no bathrooms in the village (not even holes in the ground), but it was comfortable enough for a night - and apparently comfortable enough for them for a lifetime. They actually had a light bulb attached to some power source - that didn't put off much light - which they must save for special occasions as the kids stood around staring at for a while once it was turned on. The very pregnant Mama, didn't skip a beat and was cooking, cleaning, and climbing ladders the whole time. The father, Papa, ate with us while the rest of the 5 remaining children and wife sat quietly around the fire. Once we were done eating it was their turn to eat. Papa and Mama had 10 children, 5 of whom stilled lived there, and one in the oven! Things shut down early in the villages and by 8:30 PM we were all laid down for the night.
At some ungodly hour the next morning (Saturday, 6 January) the roosters started their song and dance and didn't stop. The one right next to the house was alarmingly loud. About 2 hours of restless 'sleep' later - and after hearing the family moving around for at least the last hour - I got up and discovered it was just after 6 AM. No reason to waste the daylight I guess.
After a breakfast of the same food as dinner we gave the family some money and were off. We had quite a discussion on the appropiate amount to give. We didn't want to offend them by giving to little, but if we gave too much they might be expecting visitors in the future to give the same or more. We just wanted to do the right thing. We decided on $1 per meal and $0.50 for sleeping which appeared to be the going rate for things in the villages. So that was $2.50 per person and $10 total (100,000 Lao Kip) which is a large sum of money to a villager. We couldn't really tell if they were happy or disappointed as they showed no emotion. Papa showed us the way out of the village and down the trail for about 30 minutes to the first fork. The trail the the next village was easy enough to follow but quite over grown in places. I don't think it gets used as often as the other trails on the 'normal village circuit'.
Two hours later we came to the village of Ban Kiua Khan where we had intended to overnight before getting 'side tracked'. All the children from this village gathered round to stare at us too even though it was our impression before we left that foreigners where not an unusual sight in this village. From this village the path was straight forward enough as we had a good sketch map. 4 hours later, 1 hour of which we spent walking along and through a stream winding through a tight ravine, we arrived at the river side village of Ban Hat Saphei; our final destination. We walked down to the river bank and fortunately caught a ride quite easily back down river to Muang Ngoi Neua for $1 each. So instead of paying $18 each for a guide, we each spent less than $5 for 2 days of treking with extra adventure for free! As we were pulling up to Muang Ngoi Neua we saw Ivo, Helen, and the Israelis sitting on the river bank. Good timing.
After checking into another bungalow, Tom, John, Soon, and I went for a big lunch. Later my original group of 5 went out for dinner while Tom and John stayed at the bungalow and Soon disappeared. Then we ended up playing cards in Ivo and Helen's room until about 10:30 PM. On my walk back to my bungalow that night I must have been the only one awake. The village was strangly quiet with only the occasional rabid-sounding growling dog. We decided to leave the following morning as there wasn't a lot to do in the village and we felt we had gotten a taste of village life. I actually wanted to stay one more day, but I wanted to stay with the group more. Tom, John, and Soon were also leaving. So the next morning (Sunday, 7 January) we all boarded the boat for the trip back down the Nam Ou to Nong Khiaw.
posted by Dustin at 7:16 AM
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