Jennatool

we headed up north for about 3 hours in a dodgy little tuk tuk through very bumpy roads with a very mental driver which lead to 2 of the bags falling of the top but they were spotted and picked up before anyone lost all their possesions. we arived in this tiny little town called nkoi noi and then headed further north for a 1 hour boat trip through a beautifull river valley winding itsway through rugged mountains. the contrast between the gentle flowing river and the mountains was beautifull so dont worry LOTS of pics to follow.

once we had got to mung noi we had a climb up a hill (difficult with a massive rucksack on your back i was sure i was going to fall backwards with the weight!) and in to the village. you arive in what looks like the ‘green’ but you soon realise that the whole village is like this. no roads (1 main track down the middle but nothing else), no running water, no electricity apart from 3 hours a day and nothing to do……it was amazing. 

 the first night we went out and collected wood from the forest and had a bonfre on the island in the middle of the river. with a town that small it didnt take long for word to get a round and it become a small party.  after a few beers later it was ‘interesting’ to get back home through the river and up the bank  in the pitch black. you only realise how dark it is when the is no electricity anywhere producing any light that you can see, just a couple of candles flickering in peoples porches.

 next day we had a lazy morning enjoying having nothing to do and read most of my book. then hired old style canoes to go up the river for a while. this actually proved to be bloody hard the current in the river is really strong. we stopped on one of the islands and found a great sand dune to run down and dive in the river. only a few injuries accured here so we headed further up river adnitedly pulling the canoe alot of the way the current was so strong then headed back down stream for the easier bit going through some preety good rapids on the way. went out for dinner that night and meet some really nice loa people so got invited to a familly bbq the next day. 

 the next day we all meet at the resteraunt then headed up the river in their boat and spent the day by the river cooking the traditional loa dishes. the children were in the river catching the fresh fish and everybody was getting different dishes ready. the table was eventually laid out of giant bananna leaves on the ground. it’s loas and thai tradition that is it rude to refuse anything they offer you so they were passing round the loas loas (i now know how to make it but it does taste like baterry acid) and you couldnt say no. to be fair the boys started to refuse long before i did but i think i was getting of lightly cause i was a girl and they were pouring me smaller portions.

the table was made of giant leaves found by the beach.
after the meal we headed further up river to this tiny village that was defiently not used to farrangs as we came up to the village all the children came out of the houses and hid behind the older ones to look at us. here the loas people we were with kinda forced us kinda not to buy 4 ducks for the evening meal. it was ok it only cost us a couple of us dollars each and we had eaten for free at lunch time.  they went and picked the ducks from the millions of ducks and pigs just wandering around and picked them up by their feet and took them on the boot back with us. this was quite odd picking out the ducks that we were going to eat but that was obviously how they do it.

that night turned into a dodgy loas loas drinking loas dancing evening with a sound system that they ran of a generator and must of kept the whole village up, well actually i think the whole village was probablly there. it was great fun if not very odd.

our last day there was spent tubing down the river. on the way up in the boat we had been thrugh some great rapids so we decided to try and master them on our own in a tube. this sounded a great idea untill 3 hours later of floating very slowly down stream e had only been through 1 rapid and were cold, starving, and bored. we later found out on the boat back down the river the next day that we would of had to go for another couple of hours before we hit any rapids. the idea was good but in real;ity it wasnt such a good idea.

 

next day we left our beautifull bamboo huts for 1 dollar a night and headed baqck to lang probang for the night so we could sort out money and internet etc.  we arived in vang vieng yesterday after a scary local bus journey along route 13 through the mountains where the has been loads of hijackings and shootings over the last couple of years.  my fr5iend jack was sat a couple of rows in front of us and as the guy came to sit next to him the barrel of a  AK47 (i think any gun experts can correct me if they want!!!) poked into his leg. he was shitting it to say the least but they were actually there to protect the bus and as looked closer the were three men with these guns and loads with small hand guns. my only thought was if we did get hijacked it was going to turn into a shoot out with no where to hide on a bus!!  well we arived saftly and are staying in a beautifull bungaloo by the river. yesterday the weather was shitty so a good day to travel but we didnt see the veiw we had. this moning was a nice suprise when we opened our door and the veiw was incredible. had a look round to day and every resteraunt here sells ‘happy’ shakes, pizzas, tea. etc so will have t go try those out later. and look in to the famous tubing here , hopefully better than our last atempt.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 6:03 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.