Trekking on the Ban Nalan trail

We returned yesterday from a two-day guided trek on the Ban Nalan trail, in the Nam Ha National Protected Area in northern Laos.  In addition to two local guides, we were accompanied by a young couple from Germany and man from the Mont Blanc area of France.

After a short ride in a minibus to the village of Ban Chalemsouk, we started our trek by climbing steadily through the jungle toward the top of a ridge.  Once there, we took a break for lunch.  Our guides cut banana leaves and spread them out as an instant table.  Then they piled on the food: sticky rice, a pork and vegetables dish, steamed cabbage and bok choy, other greens, a tomato-based sauce, and a noodle dish.  We all ate with our fingers, Lao style.  After lunch we continued through the forest, and eventually descended toward the Khmu village where we would spend the night.  This village is currently only accessible by the very steep and rough trail we were on, but the residents are in the process of cutting a small road, just wide enough for motorbikes or small tractors, so that they have easier access to outside.  A little before we reached the village, we encountered all the village men sitting in a clearing and passing the local homebrew, lao-lao.  They were continuing the celebration from a wedding the day before.  Of course they insisted we share some before we headed on down the trail.  Once in the village, we dropped our gear in the room they have for visiting trekkers and went for a very refreshing swim in the river.

This is a fairly large village, with maybe 30-40 families.  There are pigs (adults and many piglets), chickens, and dogs wandering everywhere and mostly coexisting well.  Lots of kids, who all loved to be photographed and then see the pics on the camera screen.  Every family has a house for living (with space underneath for their animals--the heat source), a small house nearby for their rice storage, and most seem to have a small garden plot as well.  The rice fields are a bit away from the village and across the river.

After some pleasant wandering and way too many photos, we returned for a great dinner of pumpkin soup, a string bean dish, another tomato salsa, chicken, and of course sticky rice.  Again, family style on banana leaves, and all digging in.  We had spoons for the soup, but all shared from the same two large bowls.  After dinner one of the villagers came over with a bottle of lao-lao, and we passed the glass around until we'd finished it off.  Later in the evening we were invited to sit around the fire with one small group of villagers.  They took turns singing, there was lots of laughing, and several beers were passed around.  Around the edge of the fire were a couple of small packages wrapped in banana leaves: tadpoles cooking for a late night snack.

In the morning we had a hearty breakfast of sticky rice, green beans, and eggs and then hit the trail again.  We walked downstream along the river for a while, then climbed steeply up and over a ridge.  Lunch on top, then a descent to a Lanten village on the other side.  The Lanten have started to move away from their traditional subsistence farming (mostly rice) toward cash crops: primarily rubber and cotton.  They spin the cotton, weave cloth, dye it, and produce some clothing as well as selling the cloth.  Most of the local ag production is exported to China, which is just a few kilometers north of here and seems to be Laos' main trading partner.

Photo note: To keep things manageable, I'm starting a new Picasa album for the pictures since crossing into Laos. 
The album with Thailand pics is at http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part1.  New pics are going into http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part2. 
Not much there yet, but stay tuned.