Luang Nam Tha (LNT) is meant to be one of the best places to do several days of trekking in the jungle. When we arrived we tried to find a tour company organising such a trek. There are several of them but we didn't seem in luck and they were either fully booked or had no 3 days/2nights starting when we wanted. On Sunday night we were a bit desperate and even considering booking a flight to Vientiane(Laos' capital city) and change our plans and itinerary. Around 7 o'clock we got talking to 2 English students who had arrived earlier that day and wanted to do the same as us. An hour later we found them and another 4 people and registered for our trek. The adventure was going to go on!
Monday morning we left LNT with a light bag and a fair load of energy. We were late and kept a steady pace whilst crossing rivers (knee deep in water with a lot of current) and walking along rice paddies. As you can imagine the rest of the trip would have to be done with wet shoes! Then we left the valley and started the ascent to our jungle camp with our 4 guides (2 locals from the village where we started, 1 jungle expert and his machete Mr Bamboo and 1 English speaking guide called Yai) . After several hours of muddy and slippery tracks we reached our destination. We washed in the stream whilst the guides were cooking our dinner. The dark night came very quickly and by 8 we had finished eating. Suddenly, one of the guys realised he had a massive blood patch on the back of his trousers... He managed to keep his composure but we were all a bit freaked out and wondered what was happening... a leech had been sucking his blood for the past couple of hours! Once the incident was sorted we went to bed on some comfy blow up beds, this time we had packed our inner sheet and slept pretty well.
The next day walk was very similar to the previous one. Up, down, steep, slippery. There were more leeches, a dead snake, millipedes, bamboos but no mineral water any more. Instead the guides had been boiling water the previous night and used some tea leaves from Vietnam. The result was a very smoky water. If you know Islay Island whisky(Laphroag), that's what it tasted of, ok with alcohol, a bit sickly without. At least we had water. Exhausted we reached the Kmong village where we spent the night. We drunk Lao Lao(rice whisky) with the locals, sung and even had a few beers:-)
For the second time, we put our wet shoes and smelly clothes back on and started an other 5 hours walk. We stopped for lunch and for the 6th time in seven meals we had a portion of sticky rice with cooked vegetables, bamboo shoots and smoked buffalo. We came out of the jungle and crossed cotton, rubber trees and corn fields, another bamboo bridge and we reached the road where the minivan picked us up. In the evening we gathered with the rest of the group and all ordered a pizza from the nearby restaurant. Some even had a cheese burger on top. We were sticky riced out, tired but extremely pleased with the trek!
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