Luang Prabang and Trekking

I got to the airport a few hours early just to be sure I made my flight. The airport is about 1/2 an hour away by direct mini bus, but I wanted to take one of the local buses that ended at the airport. I picked up the bus in a park near my hotel and from the sign I could tell that it went to Noi Bai airport, but I had no idea how long it would take. Once on the bus we made frequent stops -every two blocks or so - to pick up a few people. The bus became packed, there were no more seats and not even room for more people to stand, it was cozy. After filling up we drove out of the city into the countryside. At this point it had been about 1/2 an hour and I was becoming a bit concerned whether I was on the right bus. After confirming with my Lao dictionary that we indeed would go to the airport I settled down to enjoy the scenery. We passed through many small towns and by many fields with a dozen or so people crouched down harvesting rice. With a few mountains in the background it was very picturesque.

After arriving 2.5 hours early at the airport (the bus only took about 1.5 hours) I killed time by checking email. However, as is typical for me, I checked email up until my boarding time. Making the assumption that the boarding process would be similar to other large airports in SE Asia or the US. I even had a boarding group number. However, as I was passing through emmigration and security I heard in the background that I was wanted immediatly at my boarding gate. It turns out the we were taking a smaller plane and instead of boarding by groups we all got on a bus and were shuttled to the tarmac. I felt quite embarrassed running down the gate with a bus load of people watching me knowing that I held up the whole flight.

Since it was a smaller plane - about 50 seats - we flew at lower altitude. This meant it was a much more turbulent ride than I was used as we passed through many banks of clouds rather than flying above them. This made me a little nervous after reading in my guidebook that Laos airlines' crash record has never been made public and that most NGO (non-governmental organizations) working in the area advise their employees to avoid it. The author of the guidebook said that their routes are "probably as safe as any." Not exactly comforting, though there were no incidents.

After reading from my guidebook to SE Asia on my flight in to Vientiane (Laos capital) from Hanoi I realized with the limited time (4 days) that I had I wanted to spend most of it in the moutainous region of Luang Prabang. However, my orginal flight I booked was for the next day Sunday June 4th which would only give me only 1.5 days in Luang Prabang. So after arriving in Vientiane I sat standby for the flight on the 3rd. After waiting for 2.5 hours to get on a fully booked flight, I lucked out an got the last seat on the plane.

Catching the early flight allowed me to have two full days and a morning in Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is well known for its laid back atmosphere (many travelers come planning on spending a few days and stay a few weeks) and its trekking and kayaking excursions. I was excited about the kayaking, I haven't been in my boat in almost a year. So I quickly booked a two day trek - the first day involved trekking though the mountains for about 5 hours passing through many local villages and then camping overnight in a village on the ridgeline. The second day we would trek a bit further and then kayak down one of the local river back into town.

Similar to many international trips and other countries the trek plans were changed at the last minute. The night before I was to go we had a torrential downpour. The next day still planning on the two day trek I packed up all of my stuff and checked out of my hotel room only to find out that the trekking route for the two 2 day trip was washed out and the trip was canceled. Most trips required that you book the night before an excursion, this left me with few options to not lose an opportunity to kayaking or trekking. Most trips were slated to leave around the same time in the morning. Luckily I was able to change to a one day trek trip that went to a different location.

The trek was fantastic. We were a small group of only six people and hiked for about 5.5 hours roundtrip into the mountains and through the bamboo forests. The scenery and landscape was amazing. We visited a few local villages which due to there distance from the towns relied solely on farming. The locals would clear-cut many of the hillsides around the village so they could plant sticky rice and sometimes corn. What a life to be isolated from the cares of the modern world, but also back breaking work. All of the white travelers seemed to be the oddity for the kids when we went to the villages - similar to my time in Ghana some were fascinated and would gather in crowds and some would run screaming in terror. The day of trekking was one of the best experiences so far on my trip and I would recommend it to everyone - though I was a bit sore the next day.

Next for the waterfall and camera catastrophe.