Attack of the Leech

PHOTO ALBUM - Muang Ngoi & Muang Sing

As Brian wrapped up the last blog post, we were in Muang Ngoi, a small village only accessible by boat or walking trails that has no electricity save the generators they run from 6-10 pm every night.  The village pretty much consisted of one dirt road surrounded by the river on one side and farmland elsewhere.  The green-covered limestone karsts scattered throughout SE Asia surrounded the countryside. It was pretty idyllic – I think in the high tourist season this place is pretty popular, but it was extremely quiet while we were there.  We found a pretty sweet riverside bungalow that had an entire wall that opened up to the view and a couple hammocks in the room.  Our days were spent reading in our hammocks and taking hikes out to the nearby villages. Given that up until this point, all we had pretty much done in Laos was relax, more relaxation time didn’t seem all that necessary, but given the upcoming week after we left Muang Ngoi, I’m really glad we came here first.

Upon leaving Muang Ngoi for Muang Sing, a town within spitting distance of the China and Myanmar borders, our travel itinerary looked something like boat – minivan – bus – guesthouse – bus – tuk tuk – bus – tuk tuk. We were at 6 different bus stations in 2 days, every bus was small and overpacked, and the bus and roads were in terrible condition, resulting in at least one person hurling out of the window periodically throughout each bus ride.  Upon finally arriving in Muang Sing, I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed – I think I was expecting a mountain town, and Muang Sing was, well, just a town.  However, we were here for trekking,  and along with Justin, a South African traveler who made the journey with us from Muang Ngoi to Muang Sing, we found a promising two-day trek soon after we arrived in town, which we would embark on the following morning.

The first day of the trek had been described to us as a lovely forest hike on the way to an Akha village, where we would do a homestay for the night. If the clouds were high enough, we were supposed to have great views of valleys in Muang Sing and China. In reality, “Lovely forest hike” is probably an appropriate description during the winter, when it’s cooler, drier, and breezier in northwestern Laos. However, I believe we are officially at the start of the rainy season, which means it is hot, muggy and raining much more frequently than it was when we started our trip 6 months ago.  The trail itself, which was steep, muddy, and had terrible footing, had not been traveled in about a month, so our guide, Puon, was bushwhacking the way for us with her trusty knife…everyone fell at least once, and my hands, arms, and ankles are still covered in scratches and cuts from all the surrounding brush we were fighting through. There was absolutely no breeze, so we were soaked through with sweat, and to make the experience even more pleasant, we dealt with leaches attacking us along the way. It was not the most comfortable hiking experience I have had, and after we came out of the forest, I was quite relieved to hear Puon say that that was the last we would see of the forest.

As we neared the Akha village, we did have views of the surrounding valley…of which many of the trees that should have been covering the hills had been slashed and burned. It kind of looked like a scene out of one of those apocalypse movies.   Our guide told us that the Chinese were paying the Akha village for the privilege of clearing the Akha land so rice and rubber trees could be planted.  This is probably happening throughout Laos - in return for all the infrastructure and monetary support China has been providing Laos in recent years, it seems they’ve been given free rein to log the country as they please…we saw quite a few logging trucks on our journey out to Muang Sing. Although China may feel like the great benefactor to Laos now, if they continue giving up their land, this arrangement may not work out so well for Laos in the future.  At the rate it appeared to us, it will not be long until the forests are completely gone.

We arrived in the actual village around mid-afternoon and set up camp in the home of the village chief. Puon had told us that the 30 families in the village had moved to their current location only about a year ago, in order to be closer to the river. This seemed reasonable, although when I was told that the only toilet in the village was the “nature toilet” , the fact they were so close to the river became a little disturbing, given this is the source of their drinking water (and ours, for the next day).  One of the first things I noticed after we arrived was that Akha women are not nearly as conservative in their dress as Laos women.  Quite the opposite, actually – many were walking around the village bare-breasted or with a bra only, which was quite shocking to see after 6 months in Asia, where bare shoulders are a rare sight on a woman. Given the heat, though, you can hardly blame them.  After relaxing for awhile, we went to the house next door to watch a ceremony taking place to ward off bad spirits (since one of the village women was ill). We walked in to a roomful of people, young and old, watching a group of about 5 men and women in their traditional dress, gathered in a circle chanting. It was a mesmerizing sound – a man always started each round, and the women would join in with different words in different tones, but it blended in an odd way. This went on for awhile, and during all the chanting they brought different objects into the circle that clearly were meaningful to the ceremony in some way, including a chicken (it crossed my mind that the chicken was about to be sacrificed, but luckily for the chicken and my stomach, this was not the case). After awhile, the chanting got more frantic, and soon one of the men started jumping…then after he stopped a woman started jumping…and soon another joined her. They’d stop, then their legs would start shaking, like they were in a frenzied state, and they’d start jumping again. A woman lost her skirt while jumping, objects were getting pulled off the walls and rafters (they were holding onto them for support), and the floor was vibrating so badly that cups and stools were tipping over. Everyone watching started laughing whenever anyone started jumping again, which kind of makes me wonder what was inducing this frenzied state…eventually they calmed down, and went back to sitting in the circle and chanting. We left soon after, although the ceremony went on for quite awhile afterwards.

There’s a game we’ve watched being played all over SE Asia, which is like volleyball except they play with a small wicker ball using only their feet and head.  Brian has wanted to try this for awhile now, and as luck would have it, some of the older village boys were playing and invited him to join. He didn’t fare too badly, from what I observed…his first few attempts at handling the ball were a bit comical, from my perspective and judging from the laughter of his teammates. But he picked up the technique pretty quickly,  and managed to stay on for 3 or 4 games. Meanwhile, as I was snapping pictures of the event, the younger kids in the village were shyly eyeing the camera. I’d hold it up to them, and they’d giggle and run away, then they’d come back again and wait for me to do it again…eventually they seemed to really want me to take a picture, so I did…and then suddenly every village child was doing everything they could to get their picture taken (and of course, run to look at themselves on the camera screen right afterwards). As kids seem to never tire of this game, it could’ve gone on forever except eventually we had to stop to go have a delicious dinner of chicken, soup, and rice, cooked for us by Puon. The chief joined us after awhile, and brought with him a jug of Lao Lao rice whisky. Puon told us they drink Lao Lao with dinner and breakfast to clear the stomach in preparation for eating. After the shot he gave each of us at dinner continued burning in my esophagus for longer than I would’ve liked, I wasn’t too disappointed that the bottle did not make an appearance at breakfast the next morning.

After dinner, Puon led us down to the river for much needed showers. As I wrapped the skirt she gave me around my body and waded in, I was reminded how lucky I am to be able to take a real shower in privacy every day.  We’ve seen all over Laos how the women bathe like that in a river or just out back of the house with a barrel of water.  After our “showers”, we headed back up to the chief’s house and received traditional Akha massages, which were absolutely divine. I’d like to say that after the massage, I had the best night of sleep ever, but it wasn’t so…the chief stays up quite late smoking opium, and seems quite chatty while he does so.

The next day we set out on a much nicer trail, hiking from village to village out in the open rather than through the forest.  We had lunch with the chief of another Akha minority village along the way. He had been chief of his village for 12 years, which was pretty impressive given he was only 34 years old.  He had 4 young sons, and was hoping for 2 girls in the future. To ensure it would be so, he was enlisting the help of Puon’s mother, who had a medicine for his wife to take to make sure she had female babies.  It cost 1.5 million kip (about $187); if his wife had a boy after taking the medicine, they didn’t have to pay. Sounded to us like Puon’s mom has a good little racket going…although just from our perspective.  We ended up waiting out a rainstorm over lunch, so we spent a couple hours in the village. The conversation got really interesting when they started asking how much corn and rice and other fruits and vegetables sell for in our markets in the US. You could see the wheels turning in both Puon’s and the chief’s heads as we gave them the numbers, which were much higher than what they can sell corn or rice for in Laos. Puon started hatching a scheme where she sends us rice, and we sell it at the market in the States and split the profit 50/50…if only it were that easy!

Despite the crappy hiking trails, the leaches, the dehydration, and the heat, this was a pretty cool trek. Our guide shared a lot of good information about Laos and all the tribes and villages we went to, and had lot of questions about where we come from, so it was a great opportunity to compare cultures. The ceremony we witnessed was probably something we’ll never get an opportunity to see again, and how often do you get to take whisky shots with a village chief or share lunch and a conversation (through a translator) with a chief and his son?  The experience was definitely worth the 2 days of travel it took to get into Muang Sing.

Of course, all good things must come to end, and it was time to make our way back to the Thailand border. We said goodbye to Justin, who was planning to head even further out into the middle of nowhere in Laos, and took a two hour bus to Luang Nam Tha, where we rested for the day, ate some delicious northern Lao food, and enjoyed our last Lao massage. The next morning we caught a bus to the border, and proceeded to experience our smoothest border crossing yet. There were no scams, no lines, and no bribes to pay…it took less than half an hour from the time we walked up to Laos immigration and exited Thai immigration, and that even included a boat ride across the Mekong.  Then as icing on the cake, we were able to catch a VIP bus from the border all the way to Bangkok that same night. I normally dread overnight busses, but after all the Laos busses we were on, this Thai bus was like heaven on wheels.

 We arrived in the Mo Chit bus station at about 5 am with plans to head to the Indian Embassy to apply for our India visas. Of course, the embassy (or rather, the office where they’ve outsourced all visa applications) didn’t open till 8:30, so we hung out in a coffee house at the bus station till about 7, then made our way to the office via Skytrain. Upon arrival, we found out they only issue 3 month visas now instead of the 6 month visas - a recent change not documented anywhere on the embassy websites. Unfortunately ,this timing doesn’t work for us, as by the time we plan to enter India the 3 months would mostly be over, but we asked about applying anyway in case there was a 6 month option. There is, but it requires you to go through an interview at the embassy, with documentation explaining why you need 6 months instead of 3. And since that isn’t enough beaurocracy, they also said that rather than filling out the visa application at the office, we had to go to an Internet café, go to their website, fill out the form online, print it out, then bring it back to them.  Seriously?  What does this visa processing company actually do?  Needless to say, it was wasted trip, and we’re going to have to figure something else out for our India visas.

After leaving the visa office, we finally got to our hotel around 10 am, marking about 27 hours straight of transit, and have spent our time in Bangkok catching up on sleep, running errands, and enjoying delicious Thai food.  Since we were in Bangkok, and the movie takes place in Bangkok, we decided we had to see The Hangover 2 while we were here…it had its moments, but wasn’t nearly as good as the first one (not that we had high expectations). We head out today on a train that goes through the Malaysian border, with plans to spend a couple days in Pulau Panang before catching a ferry to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. We started looking at how we’re going to spend our next month in Indonesia, and are already overwhelmed by the possibilities.  Thirty days will not be enough.  We’re now six months in to our trip –  half way.  And we seem to be struggling to fit everything in…