The day after a tremendous storm and torrential downpours, in the middle of the rainy season, we signed up for a two day trek from Luang Prabang. We only have 8 kilos of luggage with us and Grahams ‘trekking’ outfit is exactly the same as his ‘going to a posh bar’ outfit, but we convinced ourselves that there is very little you can do to protect yourself from a tropical downpour so you may as well wear light summer clothes and embrace the rain.

We started day one with a hearty breakfast and met up with our trekking companions, an Australian guy called Lachlan and a Dutch girl, Inga. We also had a local guide to show us the way. We drove for about thirty minutes into the hills to our start point, where we were given a ridiculous amount of water each to carry. In our wisdom, G and I had decided to share a backpack which in addition to our overnight stuff now also had to have 6 litres of water in it.

As we left the village and headed up into the hills we followed a herd of buffalo, who had churned up the path into a muddy mess. We then got to the first flooded footpath and had to take our shoes off to squelch through knee deep water. Our guide walked incredibly quickly, so we covered a lot of ground. He did ressure us that he used to be much faster and regularly lost his groups, but he had slowed down as he got older… After about 90 minutes we reached a Hmong village and the local children came out to greet and watch us. After a short water break we carried on. ‘This time we go up and up and up’ said the guide. He was not wrong! We scrambled up rocks through the jungle, as he told us all about the local wildlife and trees, some of which are allegedly used to treat malaria.

After around another 90 minutes of up hill climbing we came to a second village, which was also Hmong. This is the same tribe as our guide originated from and he told us about the culture. Hmong people have houses made from bamboo which are built on the ground. The village also grow and harvest rice collectively, and keep it in an elevated rice store. The houses have two front doors – one for the family and one for the spirits. They have animistic beliefs. The Hmong people live up in the mountains and have a very simple life, managing with very little. However, the guide said that more and more of the younger people are leaving these villages to move into the city, learn English and earn money.

In this particular village, a local family came out to greet us and to sell some of their hand-embroidered goods. We sat and had lunch there, which was delicious fried rice served in a banana leaf. Yum.

We then moved on (and up) to head for our final village of the day. Shortly after our lunch break, as we reached the highest point of our walk, we were chatting as we walked along the path when there was a lot of noise and commotion, and a huge tree came crashing down right over the path only a few meters from us. Apparently these noises were Lao for ‘Timber’. We had stumbled across some illegal, and very dangerous, logging. Yikes.

At this point our guide insisted that we all took a bamboo pole to help our descent, which I guess should have been a sign of things to come. We had trekked a long way up into the hills, and what goes up must come down. The paths were very muddy, and had been further churned up by the buffalo, resulting in trecherous paths. We basically skiied down the mud, with many slips and falls along the way. We passed through beautiful rice paddies and saw children, who use this path every day, on their way home from school. We also passed some incredibly strong local women with baskets on their back which were entirely supported by a strap around their head, containing huge bags of rice.

Eventually the path flattened out and we arrived at the village which was to be our home for the night. We were staying in a Khmu village with a local family. Just as we arrived, the downpour started. We were so glad to be under cover, and to be able to wash a little of the mud off. It is very rude to wear shoes inside a home here, so we stopped outside to remove our footwear and I found a leech who I had apparently given a ride (and a significant amount of blood) to! We were welcomed with some squares of cake made from maize flour. It had an odd texture but was very appreciated after all that walking!

The facilities in the village were very basic. We were lucky to have a shower near the house, although it was actually a trough of freezing cold water with a plastic scoop in a concrete room with no lights. After so much hot, sweaty, muddy trekking though, it was one of the best showers imaginable! Once we all got cleaned up we went for a walk through the village, and saw the shower the rest of the residents use. It was a water pump right in the middle of the village square. The Lao people are generally very conservative, so people shower either clothed or in sarongs.

After this we went back to our home to have dinner. The Khmu people are also mountain people, with bamboo houses, but the houses are built on stilts. They cook inside one of the rooms on an open fire. For our dinner we were served sticky rice and vegetables, which was delicious. The village has no mains power, and only four generators. It was very easy to spot the houses who owned the generators though, as these were the ones with GINORMOUS satellite dishes outside. Because there are no lights, people seem to go to bed very early. We all enjoyed one Beer Lao and were the last to hit the hay at about 8pm.

People who sleep early also rise early, and village life was in full swing by 04:30. We managed to snooze until a more reasonable time and then had a tasty breakfast. We set off for our second day of adventuring at about 8 am.

The trek today was a short one hour stroll along the river to a beautiful waterfall. Once we got there we had a dip in the icy water and watched the elephants at play. After this we got in a boat and headed along the river a bit to pick up some kayaks. From here it was a 3 hour kayak along the river and back to Luang Prabang. The river was flowing quite fast and there were some great rapids to enjoy. At one point our guide suggested we go over the ‘big rapids’. It was amazing fun! Later, as we were getting close to the end, we saw nine elephants playing in the river and cooling off from their hard work.

It was a thoroughly exhausting but amazingly fun two days, and we hardly got rained on at all.