Vietnam: Day 4

Itinerary:
Day 4 (Wednesday, Jan 7, 09): Pu Luong (hiking through minority villages in the Nature Reserve area) (B, L, D, G)
After breakfast, we'll set off towards Eo Ken through pristine scenery which is, well off the beaten track high on a slope of a mountain. It's a stiff hike, but the effort is worth it. After a short break, your route will take you to Dong Dieng village for lunch in a local family. In the afternoon, you'll continue on the route before strolling downhill to Kho Muong village where we spend the night with a family in a traditional stilt house complete with a natural stream for our bathroom!
We will sample the villagers' hospitality and their competence in serving and preparing meals. The Pu Luong trekking route is a good example of effective collaboration between foreign NGOs (non-government organisations), mainly Flora and Fauna International (FFI- a UK based environmental charity), local authorities and individual communities. Apart from assisting families to conver their homes to host visitors, they are taught recipes, cooking techniquies, and other hospitality requirements. We are pleased to be involved with this community-based developement project.

Journal:
Jan 7, 2009 5:20pm Kho Muong
It still amazes me how comfortable, yet unbelieveable this entire experience has been. This morning waking up in the stilt house was so interesting, especially considering how different the village looking during the day. We all passed out by about 9pm last night and, from what I heard, woke up at various points of the night due to roosters. There is something about rooster crys at 2:30am that make things very confusing and somewhat irritating. After a breakfast of noddles and fried duck egg, we began the first hike of the day. It took about 3 or so hours (most due to P's extreme tripod usage). It was a fairly tough hike, with plenty of uphills and mud, but beatuiful cannot even begin to describe it. It seems that every shot is amazing, even with the fog and the flat lighting we've been encountering. We've seen so many fields, rice patties, duck, chickens, cattle, dogs and the most interesting and friendly people. Everyone is very welcoming and always has the biggest smiles on their faces. Such a thing is so rare and forgein in the states. As fasinating as the people seem, I still find myself having trouble approaching people and asking to take their picture.
We hiked to the second village for lunch and we were all glad to have some relief from walking. Luckily, we got their just as colder weather and some mist picked up and left as it ended. We ate a lunch of sticky rice, hard boiled egg, and barbaqued pork. And we ate with our hands! I love it! It was great to relax. We also used one of the most primitive bathroons thus far...a straw hu (not enclosed at all) and a hole in the ground. Oh, and I almost forgot the highlight of the first hike: as we walked by a school, which was below us, an entire class of children ran up the hill to greet us and have their pictures taken. They posed and everything. It was perfect. Okay fast forward.... we hiked another 6 miles to the village we are currently at and spending the night at. Due to the mist and abundance of fog, most of us decided to put our cameras away. This also sped up the hike a great deal. Everyone was also experiencing some psychodelic imagery every time we looked up from the group into the foggy landscape. I doubt there was anything in the rice, but it was fun to watch the world contract in and out. It was also fun to listen to everyone else bug out about it. At this point in the night, we are waiting for dinner and watching the world get darker. Not to mention colder. It's amazing how much colder this damp enviornment makes everything feel. I am looking forward to food and rest so much. Gosh, my back hurts. I better rest up, for tomorrow we have a much more intense hike ahead of us.

Looking back...
Dear god, I miss that food. I am salivating just thinking about it. Hiking was the best part of this trip, I have never felt healither than I did in those few days. These last few entiries have been really good to go over and think about what I was thinking then. I think the journal entry pretty much sums up the day. Oh yea, that "much more intense hike ahead of us"....yea...about that....

Random photo of the day:
left: kids from the school
right: just some landscape














Good photo of the day: Priscilla ate this chicken head