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3-day trek in Luang Namtha NPA park ♥♥♥♥
Sunday 25
Awakened by some Thai music at very loud volume at 5am! The road was not really good…
The bus stopped some times, I was pretty sure to have missed the stop :/ I prepared myself to cross the border some days earlier!
But in fact, it was not the case. The bus stopped in the countryside ..!
I took a tuk-tuk to the village to try to find the Green Discovery agency to do a trek.
After a breakfast: baguette – egg and lao coffee. I finally booked a 3-day trek ($83), departure 8:30am.
Just the time needed to prepare my bag!
The group arrived gradually, Sara & Fernando from Spain, Jasmine & Harsha from Australia and Sri Lanka, Sara & Alex from USA and Matt from NZ and we finally met ‘Pet’ our guide.
After a 1h trip in a Song Taew on dirty roads, we arrived in a village which was the departure of the trek. Here we are!
Meet a weaving woman, a child with an alive butterfly hanging to a wire, …
Get some water bottles, and began the trek by crossing the river with a motor-less boat, not really stable!
Crossed by walking some rivers, walked in a forest with huge trees. Then we stopped to have a lunch in a bamboo shelter.
We all slept in the middle of the jungle under a bamboo shelter.
Monday 26
After a quiet morning and breakfast, we continued our trek in the mud along with bamboos and big trees jungle, it was so slippery!
I broke my sneakers, not really adapted to trek in the jungle!
River crossing
Arrived in a small and remote village (no water, no electricity,..), it’s in fact like a giant farm village.
Every kind of animals is free in the peaceful village: pigs, chickens, geeses,..
Children walked barefoot sometimes partially clothed. That’s freedom!
Dinner in the remote village
Tuesday 27
Wake-up in the village, Sara from the states, felt not really well :/ A high fever… Difficult to organise a rescue from the village. She had to walk, no choice :/
We finally took our breakfast (lao coffe, steamed rice, soup and spicy sauce).
Gave some pencils as present (Thanks Charlotte for them)
And we distributed some presents for the kids, Harsha came with some schoolbooks and I had some pencils given by Charlotte for children I could met.
Mission accomplished! Children were so happy! They recopied carefully the writing lines of the books.
Poisonous snake
Time to leave, we walked on the way back with Sara always feeling not really well. We climbed in the beautiful big trees forest and we stepped over waterfalls.
We found a poisonous snake: small and green with a big head ://
We finally joined a small village near the road, where we found some sodas to get refreshed! Perfect.
We saw there a woman with big balls on the neck, a thyroid disease, impressive. We are not used to see this in our western-countries.
We spent the evening all together near the Zuela guesthouse where I found also a nice room (50k Kips).
I booked an all-in-one inclusive trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand including: tuk-tuk + local bus + taxi boat to cross the Mekong/border + minivan! 230k Kips.
The guy from the agency had a really bad english, when I did not understand what he was saying, he was laughing a lot! The first time it’s okay but you try to know how to take a transport to another one and he was not able to understand or express himself, it did not make me very confident… as if he was making fun of me! I finally booked… I will see.
Wednesday 28 Day bus to Thailand
Breakfast in the Zueala guesthouse (banana pancake and my last Lao coffee, 17k Kips) with two English guys met the previous day in the guesthouse.
I had the surprise to see the guy named Chan from the agency where I booked the bus. I was always with the English guys…
We understood that I could not leave today. Impossible to know why.
He repeated “Not possible, my name is Chan”. Wahou! I needed absolutely to leave because of my flight at Bangkok.. I am still in the north of Laos!
After some minutes, I understood and I remembered that he doesn’t have my name… that could be useful for connections! I now know how the connections will be made!
I gave my name on a piece of a paper. I asked him if it was always okay for my whole transportation!! Yep! Ouf… It was only that!
Local bus
Pick-up at 8am to the local bus station. The local bus departure is at 9am.
The local bus stopped many times to get some parcels, we had a lot of parcels on the roof and in the interior!
I visited Huay Xai, small city where people want to spend their last Kips , there were a lot of change offices as well.
Huay Xai border, the other side it’s Thailand
Minivan to Chiang Mai at 4:30pm. Arrived at the Chiang Mai’s bus station at 9:30pm.
Tuk-tuk (120฿) for the city center. I found a simple guest house Chiang Mai Inn with a hot shower and fan (200฿).
I found somewhere to eat close to the guesthouse: a street food ‘Big noodles pad Thai’ (30฿), which is a speciality from northern Thailand! So so delicious!
Strange sensation to arrive at Chiang Mai, I had the feeling to be home mostly: I don’t really know why.. that’s a quite big city with some tourists..
I asked some travel agencies to get a night train to Bangkok but the train didn’t work anymore because of the flood… Ooops!
Thailand
Thursday 29, Friday 30 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
I booked a super VIP night bus ticket 450฿.
The I visited several temples among the 200.
Coocking class at Chiang Mai
The evening I registered for a cooking class at Thai Farm Chiang Mai (700฿).
I joined a nice group of Canadians from Toronto. It was fun! And we succeeded to prepare our dishes! Even very good!
We decided to spend the evening together. Nice party! The last one…
Saturday 1 Bangkok, Thailand
I arrived at 5am at Bangkok in Khaosan Road. What heat!
Accompanied by Sophie a French from Paris, impassionned by Photography (click to see her blog), we tried to found a quiet place to wake up… unsuccessfully! That’s Bangkok!
After a breakfast together (noodles and a lemon shake), I finally took a local bus #44 to Jatuchak a huge week-end market!
Then shower in the airport (350฿, yep crazy) and plane to France through Dubaï.
That’s finished :! Actually I could have stayed longer.
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