Out of time

You may have trusted your eyes during your entire life, but going to Laos you could well start to have some doubts. If not, how do you explain the centuries old lifestyle of Hmong or kamu tribes, who have hardly ever met tourists and will stare at you with some sort of fearfull shyness as you enter their village? How many countries in the world offer the opportunity to go trekking in virgin territories, where sanitaries do not exist and purified water bottles come with a Red Cross Logo? I already had experienced trekking in the Northern part of Thailand five years ago, where tourism has now fully replaced opium as the business of choice for hilltribe people. In Laos, eco-tourism is just bourgeoning, and welcoming tourists is still unusual for the tribes surrounding the region of Luang Prabang. So fasten your seatbelts, take a deep breath, and prepare for a couple of days spent out of time.

We went for a two-day trek in the region of Luang Prabang, together with Tristan, Laurenne and Rob, who I had met in Southern Laos previously. The trekking part in itself was not very challenging as compared to what I had done last time around Chang Mai. But the real action lies in the discovery of the surrounding Hmong and Kamu villages, where we spent a night that I will never forget.

A kamu village

You need to imagine territories where so few tourists come that the people would stare at you, and certainly do not smile at the first sight, as opposed to the rest of Laos. Rather, you would be looked with a kind of curiosity expressing fear, which however turns into smiles and laughs once the people actually get used to you. The first thing that comes into your mind is the poverty of the place. Laos as a whole is an etremely poor country, with 75% of the people earning less than 2$ a day, and a life expectancy averaging at 54 years old. In the hilltribe villages, you will hardly see a man older than 45. Many kids suffer of malnutrition, as in Africa (I never thought I would see this in Southeast Asia). The government sends a doctor once a month, which is way too little given the obvious deseases going around. Sanitation is also a problem, since there are no toilets nor showers, and hence you need to use the river (Mathieu and I did, it's fun). All clothes are dirty and children do not blow their nose. Purified water is provided by the Red Cross.

The simplest game in the world: throwing your flip flops at a wood stick

Hilltribe people obviously live from their own agriculture, with all sorts of animals walking around the village. During the night you hear rosters, buffalos and goats, this is quit surreal. As in other regions in Asia, children are everywhere, women appear to do all the work whilst during the day the men smoke opium according to our guide. At night, a local alcohol, tasting a bit like cider, is prepared, and all the men gather around. We were invited to join and had good fun.

Laurenne, Tristan and Mathieu surrounded by Kamu kids

We also had the chance to attend a baptism ceremony (most hilltribes in Laos are animists) and subsequently join the people for lunch. The arms of the baby, mother and father were wrapped, apparently to bring luck. A big lunch followed, during which traditional lao lap was served together with animal blood (this was a bit too much and none of us tried), traditional alcohol and lao lao (rice alcohol mixed with pure alcohol...drink too much of this and you'll turn crazy).

Needless to say, there are not many places left in Asia where you can witness such authenticity, and have the feeling to be lost in time. Since I am slowly beginning a trekking obsession, finding similar places in Northern Thailand will be my objective in the coming weeks. Given the tourism boom there, this will probably turn out to be challenging. We shall see...