Beatin' Paths

Feb 16th.
We wake up early to start our journey and met the guide. We jumped in a mini van (Cause I haven’t had enough of THOSE) and headed to the night market, where you could buy anything you want. Frogs, Bamboo, raw meat, freshwater seaweed, the works. Matt and I found the SADDEST puppy ever, and I tried a tamarind which is a yummy fruit. We were summoned to start the trek, and we drove to a small village and met the chief, who would be coming with us. We affectionately named him Pengles Bo-Jangles, and he was the funniest man I have ever met, which is saying a lot because he couldn’t speak English. We walked up the mountain, where Pangles, Matt and I were in front because I’m apparently good at hiking? And watched Pang machete trees for no reason and cruise around in is Havana flip flops. Ridiculous. We hiked for about 7km in a few hours, which was no big thing, stopping for lunch of sticky rice and seaweed (I love seaweed) and bamboo shoots.
Mcdonalds in the Jungle


Peculiar, yet delicious. We finally made it to the village for the Lahu people, a group of people who came down from Tibet in the 16th century and HAVENT CHANGED SINCE. They don’t even speak Laotian. There are a few buildings, and lots of pigs, chickens, roosters and dogs (and some very cute puppies).


We roll up into this town and sit down and all of the village kids are just staring at up. They were so cute and so funny! We would take their picture, and they would demand to see it on playback. As they got more curious and more comfortable, they would start pointing at the camera. So I would let them use it to take pictures of each other (with me holding it of course) and they thought it was the best thing ever. Some of the pictures are so funny as well.
Boys will be boys


We saw a house where 4 families stayed in a house maybe the size of my Parent’s downstairs tv room and blue room put together (so maybe enough for 2 people, but not 12!) The food was good as everything was fresh and cooked over fire, but the people didn’t have plumbing, so that was gross. They didn’t even have an outhouse. It was a special few days. Once the sun went down we (the foreigners) chatted with the light of the moon, and looked at the stars. Since there was no lights, we coudlnt’ do anything, no cards, no reading, nothing, and just went to bed around 9. This was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, easily. It makes me really thankful to be born in America, but these people didn’t seem to care that that’s how they lived. They know nothing else, other than living on top of a mountain in the middle of a national park. It was kind of like something you see in a movie, but don’t spend a night in, and in my last year of travel, this is going to be one of the experiences I really remember, and really treasure.


Views from NamHa state park