No roads, no power, no hot water. – 3 days Trekking in Luang Prabang

I had organised a trekking trip for 3 days with a friend of a friend of the hotel owners.

He was ment to pick me up from my hotel at 8am, 9am still no show. I was getting nervous that I had lost my money. But alas he showed up and a short 1 hour tuk tuk ride later we were at a small river side that we needed to cross to get to the track we were going to be walking on.

The plan was a 7 hour hike the first day, a 5 hour the second and a short 2 hour the final day with a boat trip.

We had cross the river in the slim tree trunk boat powered only by a long pole that the captain could reach (with ½  a arm in the water) the bottom.

The otherside was a tiny trail that we were following. It was definitely not the normal tourist spot and I loved it.

We hiked through tree plantations and rice fields. It was only me and my guide called “Leo”. He was also working for a company called Tiger travels but did side jobs at special requests. The 3 day trekking was not the normal. 

The views were northing short of amazing, I know I say that a lot but its true! The trails were not something people would normally see, the villages we came across were not use to seeing tourists.

At around lunch we met our first other group, 2 Germans and a guide. They were with the same company. We stopped off at a small village next to a lake. The local children scurried as we entered the village and appeared minutes later with plastic bags full of crafts they had made and proceeded to place them out in a lovely shop around were we were having lunch.

It was so quite, this was the first time I noticed that there was no road, no motorbikes and no power lines running to this small village. They had no communication to the outside world apart from people that walked into there 12 family village. They had cows, sheep and chickens and that’s all they needed.

After lunch  we trekked again into the mountains, along more rice and cliff sides. The landscape looked to untouched and clean. Apart from the trail, which was nothing short of a water buffalo or goat trial, it was like we were the only ones to come across much of this land.

After a few hours we came to the rice fields and the hops fields used to make Beerlao (the only beer available in Laos).  We could see as fr as the eyes could see and it was bloody hot today. No shade in the rice fields, my guide kept asking me if I wanted a break but I just wanted to keep walking and get to the beer at the end.

We had been at it for 7 hours when we finally entered a small village at the bottom of the valley. 



They were c.moung originally from Cambodia a few 1000 years ago. They lived in bamboo houses in a small village. The villages in the area got to small in the last 50 years and they all combined to create one larger village.

We were staying in a house down the back of the village with one of the guides friends. It was extremely nice place and the locals were all very welcoming. The house was made in the traditional methods out of bamboo. That night a few other groups of travelers joined me in the village.

After dinner we relaxed by a small campfire, even the local dogs enjoyed the warmth, the valley was freezing at night.

That night there was gun fire in the town at 1am, the next morning we found out a old lady had passed away in the night and the gun fire and the ringing of the town bell (a wheel alloy) during the night was to let the village know the passing and to come and pay there respects and help build the coffin.

We headed off into the jungle following a river, todays trekking was going to be shorter than yesterdays only 5 hours but it was going to be uphill for the most part then sharp down to a river.  

We hiked up a steep hill into a h.moung village where we had some lunch. The houses were similar to the ones in the village bellow but there was no water here. The kids had to carry it up the 45 min climb every day if they wanted water to drink.

It wasn’t long after lunch we reached the town we were staying at that night. It was located next to the same river we had started at the day before but some 4 hours down stream. The village was build with 2 ethnic groups, the k.moung in the middle of the town and moung on the outer edges.  As we walked into town we walked past the local school, the kids were playing soccer while the teachers played the Lawn bowls type game for who buy’s the beers.
There were only a few beers on the table.

A small boy who wasn’t attending school walked past with a piece of elephant leaf stem, and a massive knife. He was playing with it, and slicing the stem with a single slice the knife was razor sharp.

As we walked past the town there was a house having its roof replaced, my guide “tried” his hand at it but was clearly out of practice. J

My guide had to go get supplies for dinner over the other side of the river which left me a few hours to kill by myself. I found the local shop and bought a beer. The kids in town had just gotten off school and wanted to play infront of my camera. Take a look at the silly faces they were pulling… so funny.

My camera has a flip out screen, so they can see themselves in live action. It was a big hit. The last shot was a group photo, I made a peace, this was taken as rabbit ears and they sung a song… I almost died of laugher.

That night after dinner my guide asked me if I would go with him to talk to some girls as his wingman. Not knowing a word of Lao it was going to be interesting! 

We walked to the moung area and Leo told me that moung culture is different from others, if we (the moung) want to meet a girl we find one we like by looking through the walls of the house then call the girl out. If you don’t know the name you can ask someone in town. 

He proceeded to what in western culture would be called “snooping” around peoples houses. Peeping in through the wall then he found the first girl all a while I stood away waited for a axe welding husband to come running out, but nothing every happened.

The father came a few minutes after they started talking but Leo still managed to get her phone number and name before she departed, the next house was another girl and same deal.. after a few minutes, they were going to another part of the town to meet someone else. I took my leave and headed back to the guesthouse.  

He was not the only person snooping around that night there was at last count 12 or 13 other young or old men doing the same thing… The village couldn’t have had more than 15 families.

The next day we headed out of town with a short 2 hour trek towards the waterfall to finish off my tour. I was looking forward to the end. It had been a long and trip.

The waterfall was a nice multi tired waterfall which cascaded over limestone. It was like no other waterfall I had ever seen.

The water was crystal clear and blue. Apparently its much more spectacular in the wet season but never the less it was great.

All this with elephants swimming in the lower pools was a nice end to my tour.

That afternoon I would arrive by Tuk tuk back in Luang Prabang and prepare to make my next run on my motorbike.

Till next time, stay fresh… I mean have fun!

Steffen.