A bit of 'Life School' in Australia & Southeast Asia: 3 day Hillside Village Trek

Okay, I’m finally getting down the 3 Day Trek photos. We have been equally busy, and a bit lazy during our remaining time in Luang Prabang. I’ll sum that up in another post.

We decided to do our 3 day trek through White Elephant Adventures. One of my favorite memories from my previous trip to Thailand was a 3 day trek, which exposed me to a world I had never seen before. Now that I’m older and there is more education surrounding exploiting hillside tribes etc, I wanted to be cognizant of picking a trek that aimed to avoid that, and actively work with these communities while maintaining authenticity. Here is White Elephant Adventures’ Mission Statement: http://www.white-elephant-adventures-laos.com/tours-in-luang-prabang/ecotourism-louangphrabang/

As I mentioned earlier, this trek took a bit of convincing to get Maeve on board. It’s hard to know when to push and when to amend plans. I knew that Maeve was capable of the trek (though, granted, it was a bit more challenging than I realized, and therefore the mental battle was tough on the 3rd day. I thought it would be mostly downhill, but there was a far amount of climbing before a steep descent.

Anyway, we set off on a Friday morning and drove 1.5 hours southwest? I really have no idea what direction from Luang Prabang, but I do know we started and ended at different points on the Nam Xuang River on Sunday afternoon. It was a 30km (18 mile hike) in total - and of course as we gained elevation, the views were fantastic. We had two others on our trek with us — Anne and Hartini, along with our guide, Khumlar.

Night #1 - we stayed at Long Ngad village - a Hmong village. What I loved is that we were a fly on the wall and a big curiosity to the village. There are not too many visitors, and Maeve got a lot of attention due to her bantu knots, and likely her darker skin She said they were all looking at my pointy nose too. Ha. The first night was a unique experience as the whole village was preparing for a big wedding hit next day. We were in the bride’s village and members of the groom’s village were arriving in mass numbers. There was definitely a huge amount of excitement and everyone was busy doing their part. We were able to witness an entire village working together in preparing and cooking. We went to bed around 8:30pm, but we were staying in town center — a building right in the hub of all the action. Essentially, they set up our beds, but there was another area set up where a bunch of babies were sleeping too, and then other kids were running around and planning in the room also. Oh, and a major part of the story is that they fired up the generator at 8pm and started playing Laos karaoke style music — LOUD. Like, I could feel the bass vibrate my body, loud. So, I took half of an ambien (should have taken the whole thing) and we all wished each other luck on sleep... but, what I didn’t realize is that the music would be going ALL night — until 8:00am. Somewhere around 3am they actually started doing karaoke, and intermittently babies would cry. I’m not going to lie... there were moments during the night that I didn’t find the experience to be so amazing. But, we got up the next morning and realized that we had an opportunity to witness something special. The reason that the party went all night is that they had to butcher a cow starting at 3:30am so that they could prepare it and cook it in time for the wedding — they don’t have any refrigeration in these towns. So, the next morning, when I made my way to outhouse that was, more or less, quiet and remote the day before - it was where all the butchering was taking place. Men and women were busy cutting and preparing the meat. “Oh hey, everyone... don’t mind me”. Ha. Anyway, shortly thereafter they walked by us with the cow head, and then a little while later, the cow tail -- leaving an impression on Maeve. Ha. It’s too bad we had to leave before we could catch a glimpse of the wedding, but it was fun to see what we did, despite the night of non-existent sleep.

Night #2 — we stayed at a Khmu house at Kalangkong village, which is an adjacent Hmong/Khmu village. That night was significantly quieter and so nice. The villages were so neat to walk through, and again, we were a big curiosity, and lots of kids interested in interacting. And, I can’t even tell you how amazing the stars were from this vantage point.

Throughout our trek we came across freely roaming animals - within villages and also between. There were lots of cows, pigs, dogs, cats, chickens, roosters (the sound of Southeast Asia) and even goats.

I was glad we could do this trek so that Maeve could experience that others live much different than us - hard work, different homes and lifestyles, but also can be, seemingly, very happy. We did have the opportunity to steal glances into two different schools to see a bit of what that looks like, but also the challenges of getting to school. Anyway, I was very pleased all and all that Maeve did it and what we were both able to see and exprience.

"Before"

We had to cross the river by boat to start.

Some of the wedding preparations in full swing at the first village we stayed at-- sticky rice pounded into a dough-like substance, which they'll cook later.

The kids at this high school had just been let out for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to go inside the classrooms. There was no electricity, so the rooms were actually quite dark.

Maeve doing her own math equations - not to be one upped by their trig. Ha.

Kids are the same all over the world. Running away from school on a Friday afternoon. Ha.

Little kids playing with fire, little kids kids whacking things with knives, young kids driving mopeds. I am always highly amused at the polar opposite lives some of our kids lead -- but at the same time, how similar too.

Kids just playing everywhere. It was refreshing to see kids just making up games and playing with whatever was available.

Here is the scene of "No-sleep" night #1. We were on the right. The babies were on the left. What I can't capture is the music and kids running around. Ha. I didn't really capture other photos of the mayhem, as I didn't want to be that person... but it was exciting for everyone.

These villages are just peaceful. Very hard working people. I wish I had an insider scoop on the village gossip though. Ha.

We saw a lot of people use the communal taps to bathe or do laundry.

A lot of action in the kitchen the morning of the wedding.

Our treking crew (minus Khumlar) laughing about the night as we ate breakfast.

A Khmu house being built near Long Ngad Village. The government said that the Khmu village needed to move close to the Hmong village as they would not provide electricity to both villages. Quite the undertaking to build and move a whole village.

I love a good rice field

Family photo. Smiling still -- hadn't gotten to the big climb of the day yet as of this photo. Ha.

A typical village scene. Cows/pigs/dogs/chicken... you name it.. just roaming.

Maeve loved all the dogs on this trip.

Rice laid out to dry..

Laundry and piglets

We saw this a lot - they'd dry out these plants and then they'd be sold in markets for brooms.

Most of the hard work done on day #2 here. So, we're happy.

Inside a typical Hmong house.

Our sleeping area on night #2 - a Khmu house (2nd story).

Friendly, but curious.

The kids making sticky rice

Just a little kid with a knife and a bone eating the marrow.

Little boys chasing a running

I forget this guy's name, but he came up to us and wanted to practice his English. He was visiting the Hmong village as there was a wedding there the night before. So many people get excited to talk to English speaking tourists in this country -- its a fun experience.

Oh these boys. They started a game where they would creep up on Maeve and then she'd turn around and chase them, and they'd screech and run away... only to repeat it multiple times.

Dusk - outside our homestay on night #2

This is our homestay on night #2. This boy is 9 years old - so much smaller than Maeve. He was helping with dinner.

Getting cozy for our second night of sleep.

Heading out for day #3

We decided to check out another school we came across along the way and inside all of the classrooms were these toothbrush holders. The kids all brush their teeth at school. Genius. In fact, I think Maeve could use this kind of system sometimes.