How to quit your job and travel around the world

Our trekking group: Daniel, Xay, Sun Hi, Catherine, Virginie and Jai.



Akha village elder and chief bird caller pours a round of Lao Lao.



Approaching the Akha village.



Akha children.



Akha spirit chaser at the entrance to the village.

Xay and Daniel resting on the trail.




You know when you have fallen for something so hard, and you don't quite realize it until, boom, one day you realize you're head over heels in love? Well, that's sort of whats happened with me and Laos in the last few days. The people and their sense of community and love for each other and love for their country almost brings me to tears. Everywhere you can see fathers teaching their sons to fish, a mother and young daughter take time to go to a traditional steam room together, brother and sister carry each other when the other is tired. Physically Lao people are warm with each other, using one another for support. They are some of the happiest people I have met in my whole life. But before I get sappy, let me also tell you about the last four days, which have quite possibly been some of the best so far...

I left Luang Prabang headed for Lunag Namtha, and, as predicted, the bus broke down about 60 km outside Udomxai on a mountain pass. After some negotiation, most of the bus crowded into the back of pickup truck. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so my new Polish friend Daniel cracked open a bottle of 2003 Pomerol which he had been carrying around and was afraid the heat would make it turn. So there we were, bumping along in the back of a pickup swilling the very good wine until Udomxai. There, we had to switch to another pickup for the next four-hour leg of the trip to Namtha. Again, about 15 people crowded into the back of the pickup and this time we joined a French woman, Virginie, who then joined our trek.

The following morning our small trek group assembled - me, Daniel, Virginie, and a Korean woman, Sun Hi, plus our guide Xay and his assistant Jai. We set out west of Namtha about 20 km to the trail head, and then hiked into the jungle. The jungle here is part of a protected area and is mostly primary forest cover (unusual here. We stopped for lunch and then continued to a high forest camp - a crude set of rattan elevated huts and fire pit. For dinner, we ate leaves from the trees and fresh bamboo shoots we dug up and mushrooms from the forest (I am really not kidding) - Jai carried two chickens in with us, so we also had fresh chicken. By 7:30 the forest was pitch black with just jungle noises all around, so we went to bed. A huge thunderstorm rolled through the forest that night, keeping us awake for some of the night. By morning, all that was left of storm, was a thick fog weaving in and out of the trees. We ate breakfast (sticky rice with egg) and then headed for the Akha village, our next destination.

After a good hike of 5 hours of rolling jungle path, sometimes, quite steep, we arrived at the Akha village. The Akha are one of the many Hill Tribes that live in Lao and northern Thailand and Vietnam. They are descended from the Tibetan people, which you can observe in their features. The village we arrived at is in the middle of quite a dramatic change: they are moving closer to the road. It will be a massive change for the culture - electricity will follow and motorbikes, but the chief decided that it was neccessary for the village's survival. However, we stayed with them in the old village for what was one of their last nights there. They still observe many tribal rituals: there are spirit gates at every entrance of the village to keep out bad spirits; young boys move out of the house at 15 and build their own house whereupon they basically get to have sex with a girl (who is also 15 and who wants to), until she gets pregant and then they get married. If a woman has twins, it is considered bad luck and one twin is left in the house, and the house burned down. (This practice stopped about 5 years ago, according to our guide.) While it was certainly shocking at first to see children with colds and runny noses, rooting in the mud with tattered and muddy clothes and chewing on whatever is on the ground (plastic mostly), the people were very happy. They don't see a lot of tourists in their village and were very curious about things like my hair and the colored pencils I brought. They loved the digital camera and looking at pictures of themselves. At night we all had a traditional Akha massage, which basically involved a young village girl pommeling you and pulling on you. Everyone was entertained by that. In morning the chief of the village and some elders decided it would be good to drink Lao Lao (rice whiskey) with us and we all smoke together, as we were honored guests. So by 11 a.m. we were pretty much wasted on Lao Lao, of which we drank three or four full bottles. Wow. That shit is strong. Then the chief wanted to feed us and so a cow was killed, and we had some raw tripe and congealed blood (um, even with the Lao Lao I could get that down the hatch) with more sticky rice. I learned how to say "Beautiful" in Akha: Mu tu tu.

So the walk out from the village was a challenge: all of us pretty pissed at this point but quite ok. There was a lot of good feeling among ourselves and the village and that remained through the walk out. I highly recommend the trip to anyone in Laos and I booked through Green Discovery.

Today I was feeling a bit blue so I decided to rent a bike. As I was riding around, a young guy pedalled up to me and said hello and introduced himself. Within a few minutes he asked me if I had free time and I replied "Nothing but". And so he rode his bike along with me and for the rest of the day we toured around. Sipan, 17, is a first year university student and wants to be an English teacher. I took him for lunch for a fried egg hamburgers and so began my lessons in Lao language. "Koy kin ahan Lao! Yum!" I eat Lao food. Yum! "Koy dim bia Lao!" I drink Beerlao! "Koy vao Lao dai noy neung." I speak a little Lao! Anyway, we went to the river Khan to watch the kwai (water buffalo) and then we went to a Wat to pray for peace (didn't catch that word). We then took our nantoctat (bicycles) back to town. Anyway, I am heading to Luang Namtha tomorrow, where, among other things, was a CIA outpost for opium dealings in the 60s and is smack dab in the Golden Triangle. Then on to Muang Sing. I will do a village trekking trip out of Luang Namtha for four days and then bike part of the way to Muang Sing I hope. So I'll be offline for a maybe a week.

Fresh meat on the road side.

The road from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang.

The minibus.


I left Vang Vieng yesterday morning to make the seven hour trip north to Luang Prabang. One note about VV: in the book (that would be the Lonely Planet, which has a monopoly on Laos guide books)it described how the town was filled with stoned backpackers at TV bars watching Friends. Ok, usually the guide books exagerate or underwrite to make whatever point. In VV, it was like a self-fufilling prophesy. There REALLY WERE stoned backpackers sprawled out watching Friends on blasting TVs. So weird. That part of the town wasn't charming, but the surrounding countryside is very beautiful and I am very glad I stopped there. The caving was fun (and scary) and the river was a blast.

Anyway, took the death minibus yesterday - it's only 220 km, but it took us 7 hours. Basically you go up and over several mountain passes with roads full of switchbacks. If you get car sick, forget about it. The villagers burn the hillsides in this season to clear underbrush and also smoke out animals to eat, which makes the air extremely smoky. Literally you can cut the air - there are big floating pieces of ash just hanging in the air and it is hard to breathe. Luang Prabang is as charming as everyone says, though obviosuly in a better season I am sure it's more pleasant to walk around outside. Checked into a very very charming guest house in an old French colonial villa.