We had our first mini-van travel experience from Chiang Mai up to Chiang Khong at the border of Thailand and Laos. Mini-Vans seem to be the predominant mode of travel in Thailand and Laos for travelers who are not flying and are not taking the bus. Most guest houses can find you a seat in one going to most destinations along the beaten path. Our trip was about six hours long and a little rough for us in the back. It was jammed with 9 passengers. Regardless, we got to Chiang Khong in time (and with lurching stomachs) to take a “ferry” across the Mekong River to Huay Xai in Laos.
Our border experience was completely smooth although I think we just beat the afternoon rush. And the words ferry and border did not quite muster up a realistic picture of what we experienced. Our “ferry” was a long, shallow traditional style Laos river boat with plank seats. The Mekong River at Chiang Khong/Huay Xai is quite narrow and took a couple of minutes to cross. The “border” consisted of a small office where we purchased our entry visas (don’t be fooled if travelling here and told you are unable to buy a visa upon entry) and a customs tent on the sandy river bank. We did our business and carried on up the sandy bank to the town of Huay Xai. Huay Xai is really just an entry point for Laos with no particular attractive features of its own. Most people sleep over in Chiang Khong (Thailand) and cross the border in the morning ready to either hop on a slow boat or fast boat to explore the Mekong.
Our border experience was completely smooth although I think we just beat the afternoon rush. And the words ferry and border did not quite muster up a realistic picture of what we experienced. Our “ferry” was a long, shallow traditional style Laos river boat with plank seats. The Mekong River at Chiang Khong/Huay Xai is quite narrow and took a couple of minutes to cross. The “border” consisted of a small office where we purchased our entry visas (don’t be fooled if travelling here and told you are unable to buy a visa upon entry) and a customs tent on the sandy river bank. We did our business and carried on up the sandy bank to the town of Huay Xai. Huay Xai is really just an entry point for Laos with no particular attractive features of its own. Most people sleep over in Chiang Khong (Thailand) and cross the border in the morning ready to either hop on a slow boat or fast boat to explore the Mekong.
We had decided to head up to Luang Namtha, best known for its access to great trekking, kayaking and rafting. We tried the minivan thing one more time…mistake! Our van was a beater with no A/C and our driver didn’t leave town until after 10am (hour late) after driving around and picking up enough fares to fill his van. THEN the steering broke about an hour into the drive. Sadly we were stranded on the side of the gravel road in the blazing heat with trucks barreling by for about 2 hours. We had water and one bag of Lays chips between the 8 of us. Finally a local bus came by and we jumped on. We were hot and tired when we arrived and found our first choice for accommodation to be full. Thank goodness for friendly fellow travelers who whispered in our ear of another equally fine guest house.
While shopping around for a trekking route we bumped into two couples who had just signed up with Green Discovery and looking for a few more people to make their trip complete…and cheaper. Skeptical about pushing off without a rest day after a couple of long travel days…we asked the girls what they thought and they said “sure, let’s go for it.” I think they were lured by the thought of new company rather than being trapped in the jungle with just the four of us! It was a great decision. We felt totally rested by the next morning and our trekking companions, Stephan & Zilke (German) and Regina & David (Austrian) were awesome company.
The trekking in Luang Namtha is all done via local operators who provide guides and arrangements to stay overnight in a local villages along the route. Having done it now, I don’t think it is possible or wise to try and venture out on your own. The route was cryptic and the communication in the villages is Laos only. Clients carry all their own gear and water (we were able to borrow sleeping bags), except for food which is provided.
Our route was a two day, one night trek promising ups and downs over about 5 hours the first day and a little less on day two. The difficulty was labeled as “moderate” however, after trudging up and down the first day, Ron and I both agreed it was more difficult than we had expected. Of course, Sadie & Anna finished with no problem. We are trying not to dwell on feeling like we’re getting OLD! Our route took us through rubber tree plantations, rice fields, second growth jungle, along the river and on day two we had almost the whole day in old growth jungle. This part of the jungle was amazing. The colours, sounds and vegetation were larger than life. At one point we were trekking up stream hopping from rock to rock when we lost our trail because an old growth tree and its strangler tree had fallen down. Our guide Phonsat, or Jungle Boy as we named him (after realizing he had a great sense of humor), seemed to have a 6th sense for how to get back on trail after using his machete to hack our way through. It felt like real jungle adventure. The guides carried our lunch both days and spread it out in a hut on the trail serving it Laos style with no utensils on huge banana leaves.
Village life. Tour operators used to provide homestays in the villages but they have since commissioned the villagers to build a separate dirt floor hut to provide a place to sleep and cook meals. The villagers are invited to sell clients handicrafts, beer and pop – the market was “open” in front of our hut before we could get our shoes off. A large number of the villagers trooped down to hang about our hut, inside and out making it a bit tricky to get changed. The guides buy the food they cook for us from the villagers and set a cooking fire right inside our hut. From the outside looking in, seems to be a pretty good arrangement; providing income for the villagers and leaving a minimal footprint behind. The concept is to experience village life unplugged – and it was! I mentioned they sold us beer, however the beer was “chilled” only by river water but of course we had to have one regardless. The villagers use empty beer bottles to dig into the ground along the bottom gap of the hut. A tiny older village woman passed us on day one. Our guide told us she was carrying about 40 kilos (probably the same as her body weight), part of which was the beer supply. What a hero!
Eventually the villagers settled back into their daily routine and we were left to have a swim in the river then wander around. Communication was tough. Our only complaint about the trip was our guides did almost nothing to bridge the gap. We are still not sure if this was the villagers preference, but it would have been nice to interact more. The village itself was a cluster of bamboo huts built in the dirt on stilts with a population of about 65 people. Aside from a few things carried in from town (no roads and the river is not large enough for boat travel) the village is self sufficient. They grow small crops, gather from the jungle, fish and raise pigs, buffalo and chickens for meat. There were also dogs everywhere…but we won’t go there. I looked pretty carefully at the meat being tenderized on the end of a log for dinner and decided it was too big to be anything but buffalo. Phonsat had me going for a while re the whole dog thing. The village children were laughing and playing all around us, village women bathing and doing laundry in the river and the men…not really sure what they do but they sure weren’t the busy ones. We wandered up into the heart of the village. One house seemed to be different from the rest. Perhaps it was the huge satellite dish? He was also the only guy acting hands on from what we could see; attending to the children and livestock in the only “yard” dividing their space from the rest with a fence and garden. We checked out the dish and it turns out he was generating power from just down the river where the water was faster and running a line on wooden poles up to his house. We assumed we were observing the village chief but it turns out he is just a city guy who married a village girl. You can take the guy out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the guy! 
Our meals were served on banana leaves, sans utensils inside on a low table with little stools (about the size of one of my butt cheeks). We all shared out of communal bowls of soup, vegetable stew, meat and rice. Most of us found it really tasty, ignoring the lingering doubts about eating food prepared in conditions lacking our normal standards of hygiene, to say the least! Anna ate balls of sticky rice for two days. The real treat came the next morning. I woke up and wandered out of the hut to see Ron sitting by the outside fire which had a brewing pot and chicken feet sticking out of it. They had brought the whole thing down and plunked it into the pot, head and all. Unsatisfied with no lid, the cook brought down his machete and sawed off the feet while we watched so he could put the lid on. These two days I think was some of the best education we had had so far towards understanding a life about as far away from our life in North Vancouver as we could imagine. Sadie & Anna (I guess all of us) took it in stride, phew.
Back in Namtha we took a day to get back into homework, research our next destinations and do laundry. Namtha is a nice little town but it would be a stretch to stay longer than a day or so beyond of the trekking or kayaking activities. We booked a local bus ticket outa there firmly refusing to get in a min van again until I am driving my own back in North Vancouver.
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