Trekking in Phongsali

We have just returned to Thailand after a great couple of weeks in Laos. The trip had many high points as well as a few low points. We decided that we wanted to go trekking at some point on our trip and we decided to go to Phongsali in Northern Laos as our trekking base. The bus trip to Phongsali was an arduous journey to say the least. Ten hours crammed on a bus passing by the edges of frighteningly steep cliffs. Almost none of the road to Phongsali is paved, so we endured many bumps along the way. Because of the rains, there were many landslides blocking the road. We stopped intermittently to wait for backhoes to clear the rubble from the road, as well as for the driver to have regular cigarette breaks. We arrived in Phongsali at night, found a place to stay, went to bed and then woke up early in the morning to find that our room was directly above a chicken coop full of noisy roosters.
Phongsali was a delightful town. It is very isolated compared to most of the other towns we saw in Laos and there were almost no tourists there (probably because of the difficult road conditions.) The town is devoid of "city noise" like cars, motorbikes, and honking. Because of this you can hear other noises, which at times seem equally loud, for example: roosters, children playing, music, and chickens.
We were walking around the meandering cobblestone roads of the town when we by chance met Ms. Tui, a worker at the tourism office. We told her we were interested in trekking and she quickly arranged for us to leave the next day. We decided to do a four day, three night trek into the hills outside of Phongsali. Phongsali province has the most ethnic minority groups in all of Laos (a total of 28). During the trek, we would stay overnight at several Akha villages in the mountains.
We started off the trek Monday morning by boarding a bus to a nearby town called Hat Sa. From there we boarded a boat that took us up the Nam Ou river to the start point of our trek. I should note that we were not trekking alone but with a guide named Khounsey.
After we got off the boat the trek immediately was kicking our butt. The assent into the mountains was incredibly steep and the day was scorching so we instantly were drenched in sweat. We stopped after 3 hours for a lunch of sticky rice, pork, and hard boiled eggs. We continued on after that trudging through winding jungle "paths." Khounsey took the lead, hacking away the overhanging vines and tree branches with a machete.
Along the trek we passed through about 10 different Akha villages, all of which were spectacular. It was mind boggling to ponder how far removed these people are and just how much effort must be put in for something that we think is simple, going to the doctor for example. When an Akha person gets sick or needs something from the "modern" world they must trek hours and hours through impossibly rocky, steep, and muddy jungle to get to Phongsali.
We immediately noticed while passing through the villages that the men mostly sit around smoking tobacco bongs or hanging out in the house while the women do absolutely everything else. The women collect water from nearby streams for drinking, cook, clean, gather food from the surrounding jungle, carry the children, feed the children, make tea, feed the animals, etc... They do this while wearing these incredible traditional costumes. The Akha men wear Western clothes and the women all wear traditional garb. Their headdresses are massive and are dripping with silver and colorful beads.
During each of our three overnights we stayed at the house of the chief in the different villages. All the chiefs were very welcoming and hospitable to us. We at meals with the chiefs as well, sharing in meals of the local Akha food. The food was almost all the same at each village. We received steamed rice, boiled bamboo (a major staple for the Akha), sometimes beans and eggs, and pumpkin soup or cucumber. Before each meal the chief pours everyone a shot glass full of rice whiskey. Before and at different times during the meal you clink glasses with everyone and slowly sip the whiskey. I must say, the rice whiskey didn't sit very well with me. It was so potent, I felt that everytime I took a sip any sort of living organism in my mouth and/or stomach was effectively being killed by the alcoholic burn.
Unfortunately, a low point came after the first overnight when I discovered that someone had relieved me of the majority of my cash during the night. Our guide blamed it on the villagers, but I am almost entirely positive that it was in fact the guide himself who stole the money. Since it was a rather large sum, for the next four days I entertained fantasies in my head of sneaking away, looking through his pack and finding my money (my passport photos, and one Joker, which were also stolen). I finally decided against doing that because Khounsey was our only lifeline back to Phongsali. If I did steal my stolen money back, and he found out, there were a series of possibilities I thought could happen. 1) He could leave us in the jungle with no way out. 2) He could resort to some sort of violence (he did have a machete in his backpack after all!) 3) He could steal the stolen-stolen money back. Anyway, none of the possibilities seemed very good, so I decided not to look (probably the rational decision). But, it was rather torturous to be fairly certain that my money was within a few feet of me for the next three days. Oh well. Lesson learned.
Anyway, after that hitch, we continued on the trek. The first two days of the trek were amazingly beautiful and the next two days poured rain. The unfortunate thing about rain in the Lao jungle is that it brings out hordes of leeches vying for your blood. I have had some experience with leeches in Nepal, but the sheer number of leeches we pulled off our boots and skin was exponentially more that in Nepal. After a while, it was almost pointless to even check for leeches because the minute you pull one off, you have two more on you.
During the third day it was so rainy that the "paths" had turned into streams and as the rains continued, into rivers. After we set out on the third morning, we were completely soaking wet with in 20 minutes. We continued the six hours hike for the day in a sog. We had to forge a river on the third afternoon to get to another village. But before crossing the river we at a wet lunch of "hot dogs", fish in tomato sauce (canned) and wet rice from the previous village wrapped in a banana leaf. Since there were so many leeches we had to eat lunch sitting on rocks in the river. We were completely rain soaked anyway, so eating lunch in the river made no difference to us.

After four days of trekking 6 hours per day we were completely exhausted. I had gone through such a range of emotions during the past 4 days that I was emotionally and physically tired. I had been awestruck at the villages, humbled by the scenery, touched by the kindness of the local people, amazed at the isolated the Akha people live in, suspicious of the thief, angry at our guide, disgusted by leeches, amused (especially during shower time. This consisted of me, Eric, and Khounsey washing at the village taps or in a stream. Women in Laos bath wearing a sarong wrapped around them so as not to expose their bodies. I did this too and not have much respect who can effectively wash while wearing a sarong. Anyway, during shower time the majority of the boys in the village would gather around and watch us bath, probably laughing at our pale skin), angered at Khounsey for being a thief, satisfied by the meals we were served, ached after long ascents and slippery descents, and much more. Overall it was an amazing experience that I am glad I did. Since the majority of Laos is rural and isolated in this way, I feel like I understand the country to a much higher degree.