Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
May 31, 2014
It was an early start for our mountain bike trek. A quick bit of breakfast, big bag packed and left in the guesthouse and we were raring to go. Ka was our local guide and he was great. Brilliant local knowledge, pretty decent English, very understanding and patient and just an all round nice chap really. We got the bikes all set up and ready and we were off.
It started off nice and easy. Ka took us to a local shop where he bought the food in for lunch then we cruised out of town nice and gentle for a few miles. It was hot though. That’s one thing I had noticed so far in Laos. Compared to Thailand and the other Asian countries I’ve been to it was a ridiculous heat. The temperatures seemed no different when I checked them but in Luang Prabang there was not a breath of wind. It was completely still and the heat was dry despite the country being lush and green.
We stopped off first at a small textile village. Apparently many years ago the Chinese used the skills of these villagers to make clothes and fabrics for their Emperors. It was interesting. I got to see silk worms spinning their little silk cocoons. They do everything in house here, Their own silk worms, their own cotton, then they weave it themselves using old wooden foot pedal looms and then in turn make clothing from the fabrics they create. It was a nice relaxed place and great to see that nobody hassled you to buy anything despite the fact they had many creations on sale. From there we rode for only another few miles before turning off and heading up a track to a temple that over looked the town.
Again I was all templed out but Ka was really good and he talked us through a story of Buddha that was depicted on around 50 different paintings that the monks had done on the walls so it was a nice bit of education for us and the temple itself was nice enough with a lovely view once we were up on the top floor.
After the temple the riding really began and the half decent roads and tracks we were on gave way to a road that was under construction and was rocks and rough gravel and stones. It went on and on and climbed higher and higher. The heat was belting down and we had to stop to take in water more and more often. But Ka was good and patient and he stayed to our pace and made sure we were ok. Eventually we stopped at the side of the road at a farmers hut to take shade and have our lunch. Lunch was good. Ka disappeared and came back with some banana leaves to use as plates and then he pulled out a big bag of sticky rice, a beautiful barbequed fish and some local sausage. We rested a good half hour and took in as much water as we had left before we headed off again.
The rubble and rocks continued for miles until eventually we hit some tarmac again and some small villages where we could get more supplies and water. Not long on the tarmac and we turned off down a rough dirt track and headed towards a river. Once at the river we turned and a small rickety bamboo bridge came into sight and on the opposite side the small village that we would be staying in. The bridge was all twisted and gnarled but still usable. The locals have to build a new bridge each year as the rainy season and high river level wash it away. We walked our bikes over the bridge and then pushed them up a steep incline and into the village.
We stayed at what was supposed to be a home stay but it was really a small bamboo hut in a garden over looking the river in the compound of a local family. We parked up and dropped our bags before sitting down for a well earned rest and a good drink of water. It was beautiful. We sat there and looked out over the river. Children playing and diving off the bridge into the water. Old ladies carrying all sorts of goods over the bridge and a small group of locals sat doing exactly the same as us. Sat enjoying the view from their small village.
The Khmu are an ethnic group that mainly live in Laos. They don’t speak true Laos and have their own customs and beliefs compared to the other groups in the country. There are many different minorities in Laos but most are bracketed into three types. Those that live in the lowland, those in the middle hills and the Mongol people who live up high in the mountains. All three groups are distinctly different with how they look, their language and their beliefs.
We took a wander through the village which was very small indeed. You could sprint through it in the time it would take Usain Bolt to run 100m. Around six hundred people live here but given the fact that most families have 6-9 children that doesn’t equate to a lot of households. It was fascinating and we were greeted with mixed response by young and old alike. Some folks friendly giving you a smile with a little twinkle in their eye and others staring at you as if you were an alien. There have been other travelers here before many times, but we are still obviously a curiosity to them. The children were beautiful. Most of them happy and friendly as children usually are with their innocence and then the others that stared in almost a worried and scared way. We checked out the whole place slightly uncomfortable as you obviously do feel a little out of place and then headed back to meet Ka and the family who were bust preparing the evening meal.
The family were nice. A couple whose children had grown and moved on and the fathers mother who still lived with them. She was old and senile and slept in the kitchen which was a separate building. It was hard not to feel for her as she knew nothing of what was going on around her. Spoon fed by her son for every meal. The beautiful thing with a lot of families in Asia is that they care for their elders in every way. No nursing homes here. The elders are respected and looked after, they are the wisest of all and it’s great to see the respect they command within the family. Some basic food later and we headed to bed early to crash out. The heat and long ride had taken its toll and we were shattered.
The next morning we were up early at 6:30am and were having breakfast by 7am. We were off on a trek by foot high up into the hills to visit an even older Khmu village. The people who lived in that village had now moved down here into the lower village having been nudged by the communist government here in Laos. They still use the higher village though, to farm the land and they also keep a lot of their livestock up there. The walk up was beautiful and interesting. Before we had left the village we stood and watched one of the local black smiths heating up farmers scythes with his small home-made bellows and then beating the blade into the right shape with his hammer over an old American military shell. A shell! These people used everything they could get their hands on and there is an abundance of bombs and metal left over by the American bombings that took place here. From there a winding muddy path took us up through dense forest and in between fields that the locals were farming. We waded through streams thick with swarms of butterflies so dense that their wings brushed you as you walked through them. It was a really pleasant way to spend a morning. A couple of hours trekking later and we had reached the higher village.
It was deserted. We could see the locals further up the hills in the distance working the fields but the only life in the village at the time were their pigs. Lots of them. Young and old scavenging about for fruit that had fallen from the trees. We stayed a while and looked around before beginning our descent back down into the lowlands and into the village. Once back we had one more final walk around the village and said our goodbyes to those villagers that had been more friendly with us, in particular the children. We left a couple of Laos school books that we had picked up in town to give to the local teacher in the school at the next village that the children go to and then we hopped back on our bikes.
Once over the bridge and back on the road we realised just how much the previous days ride had taken out of us. Sore bumb’s and tired legs hit us straight away. Ka told us that the ride back would be easier as we would take a different route. A quick steep climb he said and then a long cruise downhill would get us back to Luang Prabang. He certainly got the steep climb bit right that was for sure. It was an absolute killer. It would be a tough ride anyway in the UK climate but in the heat of Laos it was simply punishing. We poured buckets of sweat and had to stop for water every couple of hundred yards. Dani struggled at times, throwing up at one point and I’m not surprised, it was a steep winding mountain road that snaked on for ever up a mountain side. An hour later it eventually leveled out and then slowly but surely started to descend into the long downhill section Ka had told us about. At last we could relax a little more and cruise. After a quick stop for some noodle soup we eventually rolled back into Luang Prabang a few hours later and back to where we started the day before. It was a great trip out and one that you had to really work for which made it all the more rewarding.
Once back our passports were ready to collect complete with Vietnam visas inside. With our bus ticket to Vang Vieng booked for early the next morning and in desperate need of sleep and rest we turned in early all packed and ready to head off the next day.
