Trekking to Hidden Hill Tribe Villages
Muang Sing, 21st April 2002
Yesterday, we popped along to the tourist office to check out the
tours on offer. Doing a 1 day trek on your own (with a guide) costs
US$20. Although not a huge sum, it was a little more than I wanted
to spend. However, after the amazing coincidence of meeting Matt,
I'd found 3 other people (him & the 2 Swedes) to go on the trek
with. With 4 of us, the trek would only cost US$8 each, very cheap!
After a big breakfast to fuel us for the trek, we left at about 9am,
then after a short sawngthaew ride, the hiking began.
It was a fantastic trek helped by the fact we had a really competent
guide. We waked for about 6-7 hours and passed through some stunning
terrain. We started by climbing up to the top of a mountain, with
amazing views all round. There is so much untouched land out in Lao.
The only marks on the landscape are the plots of land where
slash-and-burn farming is used. A very destructive technique that
results in large patches of destroyed, charred land.
On the way up the hill we passed a small group of villagers who were
carrying bags of rice up the mountain on their backs. Each person,
including the women, carried a 50kg bag of rice. Just in case you
don't realise, that is a VERY heavy bag. For example, most airlines
will refuse bags that way more than 32kg, because this is the `safe'
limit for the baggage handlers to pick up.
At the very top we came across a gem of a village. A stunning
collection of huts gathered among some rock formations. Some huts
had shiny, new corrugated steel roofs that dazzled me in the bright
light. Animals, including pigs, chickens and huge water buffalo
walked freely among the huts.
We walked up to the headman's hut and on the way children rushed out
to see the falang visitors. Some of them watched us in quiet awe
while others shouted `Sabai-dee' at us. There didn't seem to be any
adults around and the children had the run of the village. As we
instructed beforehand, we pointed to our camera to check if they
would mind us photographing them. Some tribes people believe that
photographing them will harm their spirit, so you always check
before. Some children nodded, agreeing, others shook their heads
angrily.
When we reached the headman's hut, we waited outside while he
finished smoking his Opium, a common habit out here. While we waited
we ate a lunch of Lao food while some children watched us with great
interest.
Our guide spoke some Akha (the language of this hill tribe) so he
chatted with the headman & told us a few things about village life.
The people in the village had very tanned skin, with big brown eyes.
They wore a mix of traditional tribal clothes and very old & dirty
western style clothes, probably bought or traded at the nearby town.
After walking around this village, we thanked the headman and
continued onwards. On our way out of the village, we walked by the
huge spirit gate for the village. This gate is made once a year & it
cannot be touched by non-tribe-members, or it's powers are ruined
and a new one needs to be built, a time-consuming & hard task. It's
always good to be aware of local customs and traditions. What seems
silly to us, can be hugely important to someone from a different
culture. A thoughtless brush against the huge gate would cause the
tribe severe problems and anguish. I took a wide berth around the
gate, I could just imagine myself slipping on a rock, falling onto
the gate and knocking it down! Not a good way to build inter-culture
relations....
We passed through a number of other small villages until we reached
one where children flooded out to see us. It was quite amazing, the
children at the other main village were quite timid, but here they
really wanted to investigate us thoroughly. The all wanted to look
through our camera, check out our watches and touch our shoes. It
was a memorable experience having a group of tribal children all
poking my shoes while another few held my wrist staring intently at
the changing digital display. When I showed the zoom function on my
camera to one of the older children, he was shocked, almost afraid
by it! It's amazing how something so simple to us, like waking shoes
or a watch, can be completely unheard of and magical to others!
After the children had had their fill, we continued on our trek.
After about an hour & half more walking, we reached Muang Siang, the
end of our trek.
Overall, the day's trek has been a fantastic opportunity! Organised
trekking is still relatively new in Lao & they seem to be keeping it
well under control. In Thailand the countless trekking organisations
are wrecking havoc on the lives of many tribes & having huge adverse
affects on their lives. Some villages seem to get huge tour groups
trapecing through every 2 hours, so there lives can't help but be
changed. It's becoming a large problem in Thailand and hopefully Lao
won't end up the same way. At the moment, the trekking seems to be
strictly controlled with each tribe getting a limited number of tour
groups going through them. When we were trekking, the tribes really
did seem untouched by tourism so far. The people were very
interested in us, showing that tourists must still be a rarity, and
I really hope the situation never gets as bad as Thailand..
After the long hard day, we spent the evening chatting & drinking in
a small restaurant. In the course of the evening many people came &
went and we met some interesting people. An American had just spent
the past couple of hours riding in a sawngthaew with a dead monkey
at his feet! Some local just ran up to the truck, threw her bags on
& then chucked a dead monkey on, it's bloody body landing at this
guy's feet, then jumped in herself. Was that her dinner?
While we talked and ate, I noticed a couple of old ladies in
traditional Lao dress had appeared by the door. Their tanned,
wrinkled skin adorned with a large assortment of coloured trinkets
and woven jewellery. In their worn, calloused hands, they bore an
even bigger assortment of jewellry. They held up the jewelery and
called out to us. As we had no intention to buy anything right now,
we just shook our heads and continued chatting. However, as time
passed, more women began to appear. After about 5 elderly women had
congregated, a couple of our group decided there would be no harm in
getting up to have a look. They wandered outside towards the ladies,
and almost immediatly they were surrounded by elderly Laotian ladies
desperatly pushing all sorts of bracelets, bags, necklaces and
souveniers into the travellers' faces. Like a crowd of hardcore
Manchester United fans who had just found David Beckham and Ryan
Giggs standing in the street, the old ladies pushed in closer and
closer, holding their arms out, each more eagerly than the other.
Very quickly the crowd grew until no less than a dozen old ladies
surrounded the western backpackers. At any one time each traveller
would find 10 different items of jewellery in his or her hand. As
soon as one of them indicated that he liked an item, 20 similar ones
would be pushed into his hand. The items were ridiculously cheap,
like 10 bracelets for the equivalent of £1 or less! The main problem
was working out who to give the money to because it wasn't easy to
decide who gave him/her what! In the end he pushed the cash into the
hand of one of the ladies and moved off to let them split it up
among themselves, an arrangement they seemed happy with.
The crowd of vendors hung around for another hour or so hoping to
make another sale, but we'd all had enough for today. The ladies
began to creep forward into the restaurant, and almost immediately
the restaurant owner ran out in a frantic manner and gesticulated
madly, telling the ladies to get out. I don't think they understood
his words, but his angry eyes told them everything they needed to
know, and they backed off again before disappearing a few minutes
later.
Like yesterday, the tales continued being exchanged late into the
evening. The evening was a relaxing one and it wasn't until the last
candle had been burnt that we decided to call it a night and head
back to our rooms...
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