Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Nam Ha Protected Area - Day 4

I woke up today feeling reasonably well, considering all of the rice whiskey we consumed last night. After several ounces of water, I was feeling even better. We muddled around the village for awhile, but we didn't have too long to wait until breakfast. Last night, Pon had called Green Discovery and asked them to drop off some more food supplies. I think he told them that we were getting sick of eggs & omelets in the morning (which is the opposite of how I really felt), because a guy showed up with baguettes, sweetened condensed milk, and apples. When I asked Pon about this later, I realized that he must have been fiending for something sweet. So with a hungry stomach (but not a hungry appetite), I ate the baguette & the apple. These were to become our worst meals during the trek. The guy from Green Discovery had brought several of eat, so we were assured of a bad breakfast on day 5.

Uncle Mai & the chief's granddaughters showed up at our bamboo house for breakfast, and to also bid us farewell. I wished that we didn't have to move on today - I would have liked to spend an additional day in the village. The village is actually part of a program from the Laos Tourism Authority. They are the only other people (besides Green Discovery) who have permission to run trek within the Nam Ha Protected Area. After we left, I found myself hoping that we would visit more of the Laos Tourism-supported villages than the Green Discovery villages. When I asked Pon about tonight's logistics, he informed me that we were staying at a village that only hosts Green Discovery guests.

Today was a long day of trekking. We had a lot of ascents & descents; constantly walking up mountains only to walk down into their valleys. My feet were beginning to show wear. I was worried about this from the onset of the trip, as the last time I was in Vietnam and wearing my Chaco sandals, my feet developed blisters in a few areas. I wasn't too concerned yet; my feet only hurt a bit and I had packed plenty of moleskin for these situations. The scenery was beautiful today; we would start on the valley floor, which was covered by a tree canopy and surrounded with jungle types of plants. The valleys would have a cool breeze running through them, probably caused by the temperature difference between the bottom and top of the mountain. As we ascended, the plants would turn from wet, green leafy plants into more and more trees. We passed through several bamboo forests, until we were near the top of the mountain and the flora turned into deciduous trees. We repeated this over & over again, until I was at the point where I actually yearned for lunch.

I consumed enough food for two people at lunch. Since James got sick in Luang Prabang, his appetite was about as big as a toddler's. Mine, however, made up for his lack of eating. We always joked that I was eating James' share of the food. After lunch, we mustered our energy to set out again; knowing that the afternoon would be no less brutal than the morning. As we panted up the hills, I heard more & more gunfire. I remember one hunter was hunting near to our lunch spot. As we got closer to him, I could feel the shots getting louder. At some point, we must have passed his hiding spot, as the decreasing volume of his gunfire put me more at ease. I really didn't want to catch a stray bullet on my eco-friendly, nature preserve trek - that would have been laden with irony.

We arrived at our bamboo long house around 4:30, and were welcomed by 20 children yelling 'sa-ba-dee' (hello) at us. It's funny - the children use this word to get the foreigners attention, as they know it's the only word that all tourists know. I found the children cute at first - I was taking photos of them and they were entralled to see themselves on the LCD screen. I used the zoom feature to zoom in on a child's face - he must have been about 3 or 4 years old. He started roaring with laughter as I zoomed into his eyes & nose. The other kids also busted up laughing. I did this with a few of the other kids, and they would turn away from the group momentarily (maybe in embarrassment) when I made the small parts of their face take up the entire LCD screen on my camera.


Pon had mentioned that we would be getting traditional Akha massages after dinner. After all of the massage in Luang Prabang, I was excited but I also knew that the quality may not be great. We ate dinner - (more sticky rice, chili paste, and pumpkin soup) and followed it by another bottle of rice whiskey. All of us were tired, so we laid on our straw mats while we waited for the village masseuses. Three young girls (maybe 18 - 22) showed up, dressed in traditional Akha clothes. I thought that it was great, even if it was only for show. All of us stretched out in anticipation for the massage, not being able to communicate. Even Pon, who doesn't know much Akha, couldn't communicate with them. I had a mediocre massage (it was better than nothing), but the whole experience was definitely ... an experience. The girls were all chewing betel nut, so every 10 seconds, the women giving me a massage would stop, lean over, and stop betel nut juice on the ground. She was also slurping (like she had too much juice in her mouth) and all I could think of was 'please don't drip that shit on me'. After about 10 minutes, she spit out the entire wad of betel nut, which made me feel better.

They finished up the massages, and then posed for some photos. James' camera was a huge hit - the red-eye feature on my camera blinks like 6 times before it takes a photo, and they weren't feeling it. The good news is that the one photo I did take turned out well. After everyone left, all three of us crashed until the next morning.

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