Jungle trekking in Laos
After arriving in Huay Xin in Laos and missing out on the famous Gibbon experience I headed north to Luang Namtha for a 2 day 1 night jungle trek in the Nam Ha National Protected area (the same area as the Gibbon experience). I paid 320 000 kip (330 SEK/€33) for the trek including accommodation, food and drinking water.
We started at 8.30am, the 12 of us in the group, makinga quick stop at the local morning market where everything was being sold. Fresh fish was taken to a whole new level when they had the fishes swimming around and the chickens, ducks and even squirrels were sold alive from the little cages.
Before starting the trek we stopped by a village school.
Shortly after we arrived in the national park. It was a cold misty morning so when we got to a river first thing and were told to take off our shoes to wade across the knee high water my first thought was "are you joking?" - he was not!
After the river the trek went up, up, up the mountain and before I knew it I was in shorts & tshirt despite the morning fog lingering. It was really beautiful climbing through the misty jungle.
We got to our lunch stop only to be greeted by a group of men from the local village building a bamboo hut. But we still managed to create a table with some banana leaves and a traditional eat-with-your-hands Lao style lunch was served.
We continue our trek through the jungle after lunch as the fog had gone the jungle looked completely different.
We arrived to the little village where we were to spend the night and after a quick wash in the river we watched the sunset as the local villagers were returning home.
In evening the little kids, couldn't be more than 4 or 5 years old, made us a fire to stay warm.
After a cold night sleep in a bamboo hut we headed off again after breakfast.
Lunch was rice (again) with beans together with a lovely tomato sauce cooked in bamboo over a fire. It was the best meal of the trek!
In the afternoon we stopped by a not so very impressive waterfall before finishing our trek later that afternoon. I'm happy I did the trek in dry season as even so it was quite slippery and especially when the legs got a bit tired towards the end of the trek I went down. But it was a really nice trek, and a lot cheaper then the Gibbon experience.
As we returned back to Luang Namtha I got on a night bus straight away to Pak Mong, where I arrived at 3.30am but had to wait until 6am for a tuk tuk to take me the remaining hour to Nong Khiaw. In hindsight I would have waited until the next day and simply got the day time bus and a good nights sleep.
We started at 8.30am, the 12 of us in the group, makinga quick stop at the local morning market where everything was being sold. Fresh fish was taken to a whole new level when they had the fishes swimming around and the chickens, ducks and even squirrels were sold alive from the little cages.
Before starting the trek we stopped by a village school.
Shortly after we arrived in the national park. It was a cold misty morning so when we got to a river first thing and were told to take off our shoes to wade across the knee high water my first thought was "are you joking?" - he was not!
After the river the trek went up, up, up the mountain and before I knew it I was in shorts & tshirt despite the morning fog lingering. It was really beautiful climbing through the misty jungle.
We got to our lunch stop only to be greeted by a group of men from the local village building a bamboo hut. But we still managed to create a table with some banana leaves and a traditional eat-with-your-hands Lao style lunch was served.
We continue our trek through the jungle after lunch as the fog had gone the jungle looked completely different.
We arrived to the little village where we were to spend the night and after a quick wash in the river we watched the sunset as the local villagers were returning home.
In evening the little kids, couldn't be more than 4 or 5 years old, made us a fire to stay warm.
After a cold night sleep in a bamboo hut we headed off again after breakfast.
Lunch was rice (again) with beans together with a lovely tomato sauce cooked in bamboo over a fire. It was the best meal of the trek!
In the afternoon we stopped by a not so very impressive waterfall before finishing our trek later that afternoon. I'm happy I did the trek in dry season as even so it was quite slippery and especially when the legs got a bit tired towards the end of the trek I went down. But it was a really nice trek, and a lot cheaper then the Gibbon experience.
As we returned back to Luang Namtha I got on a night bus straight away to Pak Mong, where I arrived at 3.30am but had to wait until 6am for a tuk tuk to take me the remaining hour to Nong Khiaw. In hindsight I would have waited until the next day and simply got the day time bus and a good nights sleep.
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