Bokeo National Park

Got up about 0600 and watch dawn take hold across the jungle it was beautiful to watch.  It is not anywhere near as noisy as being in town, no roosters, no dogs….

We managed to have some fruit for breakfast and moved out by about 0800.  We were running late but none of us really minded.  We met the others about half way and they were all headed to the third tree house.  Obviously plans had changed overnight.  I guess that is one problem with being at the third tree house is that you are out of contact so will not know when plans have changed.

They served us a hot breakfast when we all got back to the first tree house.  Strangely enough the breakfast was very similar to dinner, rice a small amount of meat and vegetables.

From there we had the day to ourselves to go off and play on the zip lines.

A group of us went off to the second tree house, the others had been there yesterday while we were zipping out to the third house.

Lunch was similar to breakfast and dinner the night before.  Do not get me wrong it is nice food but the same food every meal…..

More of the same happened in the afternoon and then three of the others swapped out with us for their turn in the third tree house.

The evening past with cards, dinner and talk over candlelight and the smoke of the mosquito coils.

The surprise of the evening was dinner…. it was the same as all the other meals but with four types of vegetable dishes with rice and no meat.  No gibbons today, still it was lots of fun.

Bokeo National Park to Luang Nam Tha

The rain started about 0400 and just kept going.  By 0600 it was still raining steadily.  The guide came across with more hot water for coffee and tea.  He told us that we wouldn’t be going zipping as planned due to the rain and fog as it was too dangerous.  He also said that because it was raining the gibbons wouldn’t ‘sing’ so he would not be able to guide us too them.

While it was a little disappointing the experience was still worthwhile.  We all sat around staring out at the fog and rain until 1000 before zipping back to the kitchen area to hand back our harnesses.  Thankfully it had stopped raining but the trail down was quite slippery, almost like wet clay all the way down and the rivers were higher.  Even though we all rolled our trouser legs up there was no point really.  Particularly on the deepest as those of us who are a little shorter got we anyway as the water level came up to my upper thigh.

We were all well and truly mud splattered and just generally grubby by the time we got back to the village of Ban Tup particularly those who’d slipped over.  Thankfully I wasn’t one of them.

We weren’t sitting in Ban Tup long before the truck arrived to drop off the new group and pick us up.  I almost felt sorry for the new group.  At least we had good conditions except for the last day.

The ride back was just as bumpy going out as coming in had been.  We hadn’t been on the road long before we encountered another ute that had broken down.  So our driver stopped to help him.

We were there for about 40 minutes while they were trying to fix the vehicle before we all piled back into our vehicle and the driver took us back to the rest stop where we’d left our bags so we could have lunch.  The driver then turned around and went back to help his stranded work mate.

We had a hasty lunch before the bus to Luang Nam Tha arrived.  Kate and Moses, the UK couple were the only others from our group heading on to Luang Nam Tha so we said a quick goodbye to the others, who were returning to Huay Xai then got on the local bus.

Straight in the doorway just up the stairs sat a dirty old engine which we had to scramble over to find some seats at the back of the bus.  The bus was old and it really did not sound that healthy when it changed gears.

The road, well, it wasn’t the worst I’ve been on but it was pretty close and I left contact with my seat on a regular basis.  Still the scenery as we wound through the mountains was fantastic.  Still the road deteriorated as we went north and the driver drove like a man possessed.

The road narrowed and started to appear less like a road and more like a track cut through the jungle.  We were going well and it looked like we’d be in Luang Nam Tha by about 2000, I guess that is one advantage to having a mad bus driver when about 1830 we came to a grinding holt.  I mean ‘grinding’ quite literally!

It was dark but we could see the tail lights from multiple vehicles up ahead.  The bus driver turned off the bus, not a good sign and got off the bus walking into the darkness up the road.  After about 5 minutes when it was obvious we weren’t going anywhere in a hurry we, being the other 9 westerners on the bus, got off to see what was going on.

We started off down the line of vehicles before speaking to a couple of people from the ‘early’ bus from Huay Xai and they told us they had been there a couple of hours and there was a bus and a truck bogged up ahead that quite effectively blocked the road.

We kept going and encountered the bus first, it was well and truly stuck and looked like it had been trying to get around the truck in front.  It really did not look promising.  The truck had a full load of coal and was at a really bad angle.  It looked like a strong breeze would be enough to tip it over on its side.  The rear left hand wheels were sunk in the mud with only about 5cm of the top of the wheels showing and the front left hand wheels did not look that much better.

There was a truck in front that had stopped to help.  Their first attempt to pull the truck out of the mud proved to be a little disastrous as the truck tilted even more and dug itself further into the mud.

After this attempt progress seemed to grind to a halt with everyone reduced to looking at the truck.  The mood of everyone sunk just a little contemplating how long we were going to be stuck here in the middle of no where.  One of the guys looked up and seeing the stars made a comment that at least the stars were out so it wasn’t going to rain.  I groaned, someone had to say ‘At least it won’t rain’.  The locals who were not involved in the truck watching curled up on the bus to sleep.

Finally after about 30 minutes of truck watching one of the locals brought out some picks and shovels and they started to go to work.  Some of the guys got in and took their turn with the shovel to help.  Having a torch I did the whole holding the torch to the poor sods who were doing the digging could see what they were doing thing.  The guys helped on the dry side of the truck, the advantage being if the truck tipped over it would not be falling on them.  The down side being it was hard work on the dry side.  They chipped away at the hard packed ground only getting small chunks of earth dislodged even though they displayed great effort.

The local guys on the other side had the advantage of the ground having the consistency of mush but the stood hip deep in the mud but if the truck tipped it was going to tip over on them.

By the looks of it they were digging wells under the dry side trying to reduce some of the tilt on the vehicle.  It seemed ot work, a little.

Kate and Moses brought out a bottle of Remy Martin Brandy and passed it around our group.  It was remarkable that the mood got quite, I guess you would say jovial after that.

About 2245 they made another attempt to pull the truck free.  We all started clapping and cheering.  The locals all just looked at us as if we were weird.

A second group had been working on the bus and had managed to get that free with only a little effort.  About 2300 we were back on the bus and once again headed down the road towards Luang Nam Tha.

The bus was sliding all over the road which caused some concern in parts because of the drop straight down at some points.

We arrived in Luang Nam Tha about midnight, hours later than we should have.  The restaurant at the bus station was still open so we sat at on long table to have a much delayed dinner.  I think one and all we were just glad we had finally made it to town.

Luang Nam Tha

The first thing I did in the morning after breakfast was find alternate accommodation.  Most of us had ended up at the Bus Station Guest House since it was about the only place open in town when we arrived.  The town seemed to shut down about 2200 hours in Laos.  It was great to get a bed for the night but the place was just way too noisy

The main street where most of the accommodation and retaurants are is the kind of place that even in daylight you wonder if your in the right place.  It’s kind of empty.

The new place is about 50 cents more expensive but they claim to have hot water.  Still I noticed that it’s solar hot water system and since it’s been overcast for the last few days I doubt that there is any.  Still it is quiet and the bed and pillows seem to be comfortable which is a bonus.

I wanted to do a 3 to 4 day kayaking trip in Luang nam Tha National Park but when I went to see about it they told me that the next one would not leave until the 22 November.  That would mean 2 days of cooling my heals waiting for the trek.  Given that I am heading into my last week I really did not want to do that.  The only trek going was a one day trip personally I did not see the pint of pay for that since I’d already seen Hmong villages and weaving & paper making both on this trip and on others.

I sat on it over lunch and thought about what I wanted to do.  I’ve decided to leave the North and try to head down South for my last week perhaps to the islands and the ruins I thought of flying back to Vientianne but the plane is booked up until the 28 November.  So that does not do me any good.  So I decided that I would try and catch a bus tomorrow afternoon to Udomxai and try to arrange a plane from there.  I got told there was only 1 bus and that was at 0830 in the morning.  That really did not do me much good since my washing is still back and since it is raining it does not look likely that it will dry in time.  I gave up and decided tomorrow could look after itself.

It is strange to be in a place that despite how small still has an Internet conection.  I made use of it but kept it short as it was very expensive when compared to the rest of Laos.

In the afternoon I went for a walk and saw the old village and the Wat.  Then in the late afternoon I joined Kate and Moses at the Boat Landing Guesthouse for a drink.

Luang Nam Tha to Vientiane

You know it’s only after you finish a 24 hours bus journey on a local bus that you remember why, after the last time you took such a trip, you swore never to do one ever again.

I started out on the local mini van from Luang Nam Tha to Udomxai.  Now that wasn’t too bad it was a little crowded and uncomfortable since I was on the wheel arch which cuts down on the leg room.  I’d hate to see a tall person try to squeeze into that seat.  The van would stop for no particular reason that I could see.  One or two people would get off, stand around, have a smoke then eventually get back on the van.  Off we’d trundle for another 20 mins or so if we were lucky and the process would repeat itself.

As I said it wasn’t really all that bad as it was a 4 hour trip, well ok so 4 hours ‘lao time’ which in reality meant about 5 1/2 hours.

Originally I’d meant to stay in Odomxai and hopefully arrange a plane from there to Vientiane then straight on to Pakse the next day as supposedly there were more and bigger planes so your more likely to get a seat than in Luang Nam Tha.  Unfortunately when I got there my luck or lack there of struck again.  The next plane was not until Tuesday.  That meant a minimum of 2 days in Udomxai even if I could get on the plan.

There was a but departing for Vientiane, a night bus, in about 1 hour so I decided to get that instead.  Apart from the lack of sleep they played Lao Karaoke until midnight turned it off for a few hours then turned it back on about 0500.  This was a so called Express bus but it kept stopping to pick up passengers from 0500 hours onwards none of whom paid and the bus quickly became packed.

One of the local woman decided to sit in the seat next to mine with her kid.  Fair enough.  Except like the local males they do not seem to have any concept of my seat, your seat.  She also kept trying to dump her kid on my lap.  If that wasn’t bad enough she started throwing up and the kid followed suit.  I wouldn’t have minded so much if she and the kid had been facing into the isle, but no, they were facing in my direction.

When I got into town about 1000 hours I falked out money for a mid range Guest house and tested the claim of ‘hot water’ before agreeing to take the room.

You know I really, really enjoyed that shower!

Vientiane to Pakse to Don Det

I found the bus station without too much hassle or at least the tuk tuk driver did.

When I got there a man took me to a counter for the VIP Bus took my ticket and gave me another one.  I did not realise until later that the time on it had changed from 2000 hours to 2030 hours and the seat had also changed from 10 to 22.  I went back to the counter and checked to make sure it was still the VIP bus and questioned why the had changed the bus I had booked.

There was no real explanation as to why it all changed but they assured me it was still the VIP bus.  I noticed a few others having the same conversations so let it slide until I could see the bus, after all as long as the bus is comfortable and does not stop every 10 minutes down the road I really do not care.

Thankfully the bus was a comfortable 2 story bus.  I was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to a fat western guy who did not speak a word of english so I had the same problems with him encroaching on my seat and ended up squashed up against the window.  If it wasn’t for him the journey might have been comfortable.

We arrived in Pakse about 0630 and a handful of us sat at a little coffee shop trying to decide what we were going to do.

In the end we all decided to go straight to the islands spend some time there then work our way back to our respective destinations.

A tuk tuk took us to the local bus terminal and we found a sawngthaew, a truck with seats in the back, going to Don Det, or at least to the boat that will take us to Don Det.

The ride was fairly bumpy but no where near the rides up north and a little cramped.  The truck stopped along the way dropping people off and stuffing more people on until the end of the line.  We had to walk the last little bit to where the boats go from but it only took about 5 mins.  There was a little bit of muttering from some particularly since they had been diverting well of the road down minor roads only to have to backtrack to the main road after to drop the locals off at their door steps.

We found a boat that left straight away for Don Det but still arrived in the late afternoon which made it a little hard to find accommodation.  Ended up at the most expensive place for the night as it was already getting dark and none of us wanted to walk around in the dark with our packs, there is no electricity in Don Det and except for a few bigger places that have generators there are no lights.

The evening was relaxed and spent at one of the restaurants \ bars at the waters edge, lets face it Don Det is an island and a fairly small one so just about everything is at the waters edge!