Day 95 Trekking in Laos Day 2 10 May 2012

Besides the sunrise, Ana hates roosters! They start their ka-ka-doodle-do/kukeleku in the middle of the night! And some of them don’t even make the whole sound! And only through this experience would she know this. Martijn claims that he didn't hear them.

Since the village had no running water or electricity we stayed in the stinky clothes from the day before and headed out, but only after a filling breakfast of noodles with vegetable, rice and tea, and waving our goodbyes to all the kids.

Today’s hike was a bit more strenuous since we had to walk down to the river and then up again. For sure, it was too much for our guide who had four more shots of Laos Whiskey and a major hangover. In reality we would have been right there with him if Ana had not pretended just to take sips and Martijn didn’t spill some of his fire water!

The second village that welcomed us was HuayLa of the Akha Poli (42 houses/454people), similar to the previous village but with running water, hydroelectric power only in rain, and a different dress. The headdress represents marriage status and the coins show how rich the husband is.

There we were allowed to rest and eventually wait out the rain storm that passed at the house of the Chief. Lunch consisted of mushrooms picked along the way, made into soup and stir-fried with fish.

While we were resting Martijn took off his knee supports and found a bloody mess. A leech had crawled up and attached itself to the backside of his left knee. The little blood sucker, although very creepy, is not dangerous since it does not carry any diseases and does not hurt- until you are trying to pull it off in a panic.

In the end we had to leave while it was still raining otherwise we ran the risk of walking at night. We put on our useless raincoats and sloshed through the thick red-orange mud. The mud clung to our hiking-boots and made it feel like we were walking in ski-boots. Exhausted we reached the river we still had to cross- with our shoes off and our pants rolled up.

Upon exiting the river a new leech had attached to Martijn’s foot and his reaction made our guide laugh. He said “Martijn you are so big and so scared of a tiny leech!” Martijn could not deny this.

Sometime later we reached the village of Kokngiew of the Khmu and Lao Sit Hill-tribes (57houses/495people) where we would stay the night. We sat down to rest and introduce ourselves to yet another crowd of curious children.  While we were sitting there Ana felt something on her leg, zipped her pant leg open and saw a leech fall out. While it seemed a close escape, one of the kids noticed blood on Ana’s pants. Those pants came flying off! And 25 children and several adults stood looking at her bare bloody legs. Luckily her trekking shirt was long enough to save her modesty and there are no pictures to capture this embarrassing moment. We set out on our trip saying that we would both experience everything the other experienced, and while we were talking about food and activities, we can now count bloodsucking leeches too!

Before dinner we were treated to a Basi Ceremony. During the ceremony four stings were tied on each of our wrists, signifying wishes for good luck, lots of wealth, 100 children, and safe travels.

Dinner was a fresh duck (again it quacked at us on its way to the kitchen), bamboo and sticky rice (rice that sits in water for 3 hours and is then steamed and that you eat with your hands making it in to little balls).

Again we slept in the Chief’s house under the comfort of a mosquito net. However fear ruled the night as Ana saw a cockroach on the outside of the net and considered its possible entry through the net’s many holes. She told Martijn and pointed it out making sure he suffered right along with her.