Remote, remote, remote

Stephen and I thought we'd been off the beaten path before, but never like our trekking adventure in N. Laos. After a six hour mini-bus ride and an hour boat ride on the Nam Ou River (a Mekong tributary), we arrived at the beautiful Khmu village of Muang Ngoi in N. Laos. This village has one dirt road, no cars, and only has power from a generator 6 PM to 10 PM each day. The setting is pure Shangri-La - steep limestone cliffs surround the riverside village and looks similar to the Amazon basin (check out the sunset shot!).

With four others, we set up a two day trek for the whopping cost $18, including meals, accomodation and guide. Since it is the rainy season, we had been warned that it might be kind of muddy - that turned out to be the understatement of the year!

Not even 15 minutes into the trip, we started walking through ankle deep mud, literally filled with leaches and buffalo shit. The hike led us through a maze of rice paddes. We saw local farmers working the paddies under the beating sun with water buffalo cooling themselves in nearby creeks. Throughout the day, you could hear someone in our group yelp as they discovered a leach stuck on their leg or foot as they furiously tried to dislodge the little bloodsucker.

Our trek led us through several villages until we arrived in our homestay village. Our journey encompassed a 6 hour bus ride, 1 one hour boat ride and 8 hours of hiking through the mud, heat and mountains. The village was on a ridge, nestled in the mountains encircled by a wood fence to keep the animals from escaping. We set up shop at a local villagers house and got to know the town. The village was so alive - kids, pigs, dogs, chickens, roosters, and chickens everywhere. We got a fair amount of stares as the only westerners for miles.
Let the festivities begin - soon enough, our host Papa was pouring us shots Lao Lao, homemade rice wine. We were served an appetizer of freshly slaughtered chicken claws & innards. Dinner was actually delicous and many local villagers came for the feast. Before you know it, our guide, Moon, was playing the guitar, shots were flying and everyone was singing "Hotel California". Totally surreal to say the least.

After killing too many bottles of Lao Lao to count, we all slumbered peacefully side by side in the hut, until the village came alive at 5 AM. Roosters were crowing, pigs were snorting, babies were crying, music was cranking and the day was beginning. We waved good bye to our new friends and set out to hike for another 7 grueling hours through the incredible setting before we took a boat back to our jumping off point.