Luang Prabang and The Tiger Trail

I have to start off this entry with a HUGE thank you to Craig and Beth, a couple from Reno that we traveled with during our three day trip. I only have pictures from Craig's camera for now, but hopefully we'll get some from Beth as well. Beth and our guide, Tom, are pictured with us above. We were really lucky to have them along on the trip - not just for the pictures but also their excellent company. Some of our guided trips have been negatively impacted by those that we were grouped with and it made a huge difference to have two people who were fun to travel with. The pictures on this blog are brought to you courtesy of them. In case you're reading this, guys, thanks again!

We just finished a three day trip biking, hiking, elephant riding, and kayaking in the country surrounding Luang Prabang. Like most of the places we've been in Lao, there are several different companies that offer tours and activities similar to the one we chose, but Tiger Trail (there aren't any Tigers around, so I'm not sure why Tiger Trail) has been around the longest and offered a trip that we liked.

The first day was supposed to be a 'moderate' mountain bike ride from the city office to The Elephant Park Project resort - home of four Asian elephants retired from the logging industry. We started on paved roads in heavy traffic, but were soon on a dirt road in an very rural area. The most advanced buildings were concrete with tin roofs, but most of them were thatched. The bikes we were given relatively nice and actually fit both of us, so we were initially excited.
Unfortunately, Nicole's bike chain broke after only about half an hour. Our guide, Tom, didn't have a single tool or any way of calling for help. He actually asked us if we had a cell phone! I thought we were going to end up walking the rest of the route, but somehow he was able to put the chain back together with a knife he borrowed from a local who just happened to be
walking by.
As we all expected, the chain only lasted until the next big hill before breaking again. Still determined to repair the bike, Tom somehow managed to fix the chain again. This time using a rock. Having fixed several chains myself (only with the help of specific tools), I couldn't believe what he was able to do. Still, he was only able to pedal for another five minutes before the entire rear derailleur was somehow tangled in the rear spokes. Fortunately, a couple guys on mopeds drove by and had a pair of pliers that he used to fix the bike for the third time.
After the derailleur incident, Tom decided it was time to give up on the ride and cross the river to a nearby village so he could call the office. The trail down to the river was the only single track biking we did that day, so it ended up being more fun than the dirt road. Finding a place to cross, however, was difficult and it took probably half an hour to find a guy with a boat to take us across. With everyone in and all the bike, the boat had about half an inch of clearance above the water line. We were all sure we were going to end up in the water. Well, I should say all of us were sure, because the three local guys in the boat were all standing up as if it were everyday routine.
Of course, once we made it to the village and he called the office there was nobody there! The Elephant park was only a few miles away, though, so Tom (who had taken the broken bike) pedalled on the flat stretches and walked up the hills. We still made it to the park in time for lunch, so it ended up just fine except that we were a little skeptical about the trip.

We left the resort on about a two hour hike to the Khmut village we were to stay at the first night. The path took us through some beautiful countryside, though there were obvious scars from years of slash and burn cultivation. The Lao government is currently developing new regulations to both enable the villages to continue and restrict slash and burn techniques. The villages are a popular draw for tourists, so there is incentive to enable them to continue farming. On the flip side, the smog generated makes the city unbearable - even for the locals.
The hike fairly easy and we arrived early enough to have a few hours before sunset to walk around and settle into the home stay room. About 250 people live in the village and most work as rice farmers, tending to fields nearby. None of the house have indoor plumbing and electricity is provided by a generator for one hour at sunset. The night we stayed, they ran the generator a bit longer in order for a large group to watch a movie in the building across from ours. The lack of facilities wasn't much of a damper on the mood as evidenced by the laughing children playing in the streets (some half clothed, and two who had to hold there pants up with one hand at all times). The villagers are currently building a new school building our of concrete - a big improvement from their smaller, wooden schoolhouse.

The second day was a full day of hiking in the country through two Hmong villages to our destination village near the Khan River. Most of the villages have spirit based religion, but there was one Christian village. I only mention that because it was Sunday and we could hear hymns being sung while we stopped for a break. It was an odd contrast after seeing so much Buddhist imagery and tradition to hear Christian hymns and a strumming guitar.

We stopped for lunch at a local Hmong villagers house and our guide prepared a noodle soup - basically a ramen style noodle with vegetables. As is usual for the area, chickens freely scurried in and out of the house along with a dog, cat, and a young girl. The woman who owned the house looked like she could be 100 years old, but hauled 2 gallons of water from a stream up a hill to the house (about 1/4 mile away) for our lunch.

After lunch we hiked another few hours before arriving at the final destination. The house we stayed at was celebrating the birth of a baby. It felt a bit like we interrupted until they asked us to join them at the table and started handing us shots of Lao Lao (rice whiskey). Nothing like ending seven hours of hiking in hot weather like pounding whiskey! I thought they were just giving us a shot to try, but they kept handing more and more shots to us. The four of us each had three or four before they then joined in with us - taking a shot, refilling, and then passing to the next person in the circle.
The father of the baby also brought a clay jar full of homemade rice whiskey and two bamboo shoots sticking out of the top. After they demonstrated how to suck the whiskey through the straw, we were then invited to drink with them! Craig tried to slow down the pace by ordering a couple bottles of Beer Lao, but they just added that to the drinks being passed around. This continued for about a half an hour before most of the people had to head home or, I assume, party somewhere else.
While Tom was preparing dinner we walked down to the river to shower. We've seen people showering in rivers ever since arriving in Lao, but that was our first time joining in the fun. There were probably a hundred people - men and women - bathing along the banks, while music played over loud speaker in the distance. Men wore underwear, women a long skirt tied just below there armpits, and children were either naked or in their underwear. Judging by the giggling, they had a good time watching us falangs (in Lao it's falang vice farang) splash around in the river. I thought the water felt great, but everyone else said it was too cold.
Sticky rice, beef, and vegetables for dinner and then off to bed for another night of listening to a wedding party (more people karaoke/screaming into microphones and speakers turned up to 11), snoring, babies crying, dogs yelping, roosters crowing (for some reason they only get to cock-a-doodle as if the final 'doo' is stuck in their throat), sleep talking, people going to the bath room, and nose snorting. There were about eight people in the room we slept in, but the walls were so thin that the whole village might as well have been there as well. I was totally congested as well - contributing my own nasal symphony to the mix.
Breakfast was a French bread loaf, marmalade, eggs, and tea like the first morning. After breakfast we hopped into a boat and road down to the Elephant Park Project. The park is home for four elephants and is funded by tourists. Asian elephants are slightly smaller than the more commonly recognized African elephant. They also have smaller ears and one less rib (in case you were curious). Even so, they are impressive animals both in size and strength. Historically they were used for logging and battle, but are now generally neglected. We rode an elephant for about an hour with a Mahout (elephant trainer). I'm pretty sure he was hung over - apparently Sunday is a big party night - because he put Nicole on the elephants neck to drive and promptly fell asleep. The ride was fun, but we both wished we could have interacted with the elephants rather than just ride
them.

After the elephant ride, we took another boat to the Tad Se Waterfall for a couple hours of relaxing and lunch before jumping into kayaks for a four and half hour paddle down the Khan River. The waterfalls were a beautiful - created by an array of overflowing pools within naturally formed shelves.
Tom gave us the option to drive us further down the river, but we opted to paddle the full distance. Nicole and I both thought it wouldn't be that bad since we were going downstream the whole time, but the low river and slow current made for a tough workout. Pain aside, it was a beautiful paddle with some small rapids. We were also greeted, from time to time, by children playing on sandbars and locals working along the shore.

It was a long day, but a good finish to a great trip. We were both really happy with the whole experience and, though this entry is long, can only barely begin to describe the things we saw.
Unfortunately, we think some river water got into Nicole's water bottle because she's was sick within a few hours of finishing the paddle. She's been sleeping most of the day, eating what she can, and has slowly been feeling better. Fortunately we don't have to go anywhere for a few days and there is a hospital just down the street if she continues to feel bad. We're both hopeful that it is just a 24 hour bug, but will probably test for anything lasting.