Into the Lao jungle!

On our fourth day in Laos we started at nine in the morning. With our Lao guides Thon and Sang and together with father Ulli and son Michi we were going to the jungle. Shortly before a forrest we left the car and our trek over rough and smooth started. As we were mostly shielded from the sun by the trees we had only to put on mosquito repellent. Every now and then Thon stopped to tell us details about the jungle and its flora and fauna. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of the fauna…

at least we saw one coati 😉

At noon we had a break in one of the villages of a local clan. The people are living there in a very simple way. To be honest, we didn’t really feel welcomed there, more as if we were intruders. However, we could enjoy our meal while some children were watching us: sticky rice which had been brought in a leaf, a spicy tomato sauce and various vegetables – all pretty good. Afterwards we bought some bracelets from the children – just to be nice – and proceeded to the camp. One villager went with us to carry the mats, mosquito nets and kitchen utensils.

a lot of pigs there

our lunch

typical hut in the village

we left the school in the village 😉

After about one more hour we reached our camp: According to Thon we were the first group to be there after rain season, therefore the place could look a bit rough. There were five bamboo huts for sleeping and one for cooking and eating. Everything looked pretty basic but interesting. 😉

rice everywhere

However, Thon and his gang found ways to prepare four different meals under this circumstances and in open fire. In general we were extremely fascinated that those three men were always busy doing something. Sang looked after the kayaks and went fishing, the villager chopped a lot of bamboo and built benches, a ladder and more. And Thon was cooking, talking with us and did different stuff along the way. We were just standing there being of no use at all. 😀
At around 06:30 pm dinner was ready and as it was already completely dark, we dined in romantic candle light.

cooking in a different way

just another leech

our room before the mosquito net was added

our dinner

wuah, a witch!

good night, good fight!

Although the bamboo huts had spacious mosquito nets, the night wasn’t that comfortable. But it surely was one thing: long. At aroung 8 pm we all went to our huts and we left it only about twelve hours later. The floor was really hard and the air got colder than we expected, therefore we couldn’t sleep so much. In the morning Thon already awaited us with white coffee out of a freshly made bambook cup, and sticky rice with scrambled eggs. It was delicious too.

damn good coffee 🙂

strange but true: our toilet in the jungle

Afterwards it was about to kayak. There should be two persons per kayak and we wanted to try it together. It worked pretty well for Ulli and Michi as one took command, but with us communication didn’t really work, therefore Stefan got kicked out of the kayak. 😀 He had to wait for the help of the guides in a rapid while Alexandra was carried away by the water. As the water was rather shallow, there was no danger at all.

nice equipment

some splashing around

We then decided to split for kayaking, so we wouldn’t have to split in real life. 😉 It was much more agreeable to kayak with one of the guides and so we could really enjoy to float through the heart of the jungle.
The last time we dined on the river bank on huge banana leaves, then we had to hurry as a thunderstorm was about to come. When it started to rain heavily we were already in a village where the car picked us up and brought us back to Luang Namtha.
The tour was a really interesting experience and doing it as a group of four was just perfect.