The Journey Home, Chapter 4: Falls, Treks, and Pachyderms

[QUICK NOTE: It's been hard to hear about the absolute destruction going on in the Philippines right now. If you're looking for ways to help, World Vision International is currently launching their relief response. They're a great organization that focuses on the well being of communities, especially kids. If you can help out at all, please check out http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/typhoon-haiyan-response-philippines. Thanks for your time! -Brett]

We arrived in the evening, passing by boutique hotels, Bohemian cafes, and a relaxed nightlight environment as our tuk-tuk dragged along toward our hostel. Exhausted from protesting scams and two days spent on the Mekong River, we had a chilled-out night with a couple of Lao beers. We needed our energy - the next few days in Luang Prabang would be about exploring this side of Laos to the fullest extent.

A Cascading Paradise

The next morning, with the day essentially unplanned, Chloe, Harry and I joined up with a group from our hostel headed for the Kuang Si waterfall. I ended up riding shotgun in an overcrowded van, which ended up driving for about 45 minutes through a winding mountain road. While it may not have been the best trip for my motion-sickness-prone stomach, once arriving at Kuang Si, any loss of breakfast that may or may not have occurred on the way there was soon forgotten.

After passing through a random bear sanctuary, I was soon looking at aqua blue pools, flowing down into one another through a series of beautifully terraced waterfalls. Housed within a tranquil jungle canopy, each pool beamed with bright blue colors, in a surreal display of the most inviting, natural swimming pools I've ever encountered.

Floating and drifting against the currents, I found a half-submerged tree on which I could take it all in from. The water was pure, the air was clean, and there was really nothing else to do with the day except enjoy the swimming. The drive down proved to be much more tolerable for my weak stomach, and I was able to notice the pure beauty of the mountain countryside surrounding Luang Prabang. 

Head for the Hills

While towns like Luang Prabang provide the sights and charms that so many people search for when traveling through Southeast Asia, to truly experience the unvarnished, raw beauty of Laos you've got to take your comfort zone to the next level and step away from the air conditioned guesthouses and chic backpacker pubs. To me this meant getting out of Luang Prabang for two days, and joining a trek into the surrounding highlands.  

After a banana pancake breakfast, Chloe, Harry and I got picked up by a van around 8:30 a.m, driving for about an hour into the hills until we arrived at a small village that would serve as our trailhead.

The three of us geared up for a day of hiking, we followed out guide Lee through a winding, muddy path that took us further and further away from the village, and into a landscape of green and gold beauty. The greens of the jungled foothills melded with the golden hues of the terraced rice fields in a harmonious meeting of natural growth and human cultivation. 

A few hours into the trek, after a lunch break of fried rice and cucumbers, Lee took us into a Hmong village nestled inside the isolated valley of jungle and rice fields. The Hmong are a minority ethnic group in Laos who predominately lead lives centered on subsistence agriculture, within the innumerable hillsides of rural Laos. In the first Hmong village we came across, mothers and children were quietly resting away the day, while dogs, pigs, cats, chickens and cows went about their daily business inside and outside the village.

Continuing our climb up the valley wall, I looked outward across the valley, where a blue sky covered a quiet, peaceful community of people living in harmony with their wildly remote environment. It was a hot, sweaty climb to the top, but didn't really have time to be uncomfortable - the air around me was too clean, and sights below me were too beautiful. 

At the conclusion of our ascent, we arrived at another Hmong village, slightly larger than the first, and teeming with a little more life. Passing the two-room school and lone general goods shop, we sat down inside our bungalow for the night.

Nightfall came quickly, and we ate a candlelight dinner of rice and veggies. The stars above reminded me how far away I was from boulevards, traffic jams and crowded sidewalks. The mountain air and peaceful solitude of the Laotian hills breathed a pure rejuvenation of total oneness with God's immense and unfathomable Creation that night.

All was well.

Down the River

The descent naturally took less than half the time we used to get up to the valley's edge. A couple of hours hiking got us back to our original trailhead, where our van picked us up once again, this time taking us downhill to the Nam Ou River. We hopped out of the van, where we saw our next mode of transportation for the day: kayaks.

After an easy launch, we floated downstream, the gentle current doing most of the work. The Nam Ou cuts through the countryside much like the Mekong, walled by towering jungle trees, hanging over the shoreline. Following a quick lunch of friend rice and bananas, we jumped back in the kayaks and floated down to our first significant river challenge. The Nam Ou eventually dumps into the much larger Mekong River - we were right at that confluence with nothing but our dinky, rented oars to get us across the mighty Mekong.

Aiming about 50 meters upriver, we started our crossing; I immediately felt the uninhibited, raw strength of fresh water fury as soon as my kayak entered this tricky junction of streams. The 50 meter target proved accurate. We pulled up on the opposite shore of the Mekong, right at our intended destination - the Pak Ou Caves.

Long used as Buddhist shrines, the caves gaze outward toward the confluence as a sort of guardian to the unrelenting forces of the Mekong. We stayed just long enough to give our rowing muscles a break, then boarded our kayaks one more time for our final destination: elephants.

Pachydermia 

Cautiously letting the Mekong do most of the work, I gently guided my kayak back across the river, to a landing about one kilometer downstream. The smell gave it away pretty quickly - it was was clear that elephants were nearby. 

Sure enough, as we landed our boats and climbed up the riverbank, the land-mines laid by these beasts eventually led to the animals themselves. About four elephants waited for us, eating away at the local greenery in quantities incomparable to any other creature found on land. 

Well, highly domesticated (for better or for worse), these super relaxed elephants were clearly used to human interaction. Chloe, Harry and I hopped on for a ride, and my first thought was - I'm going to fall off of this thing and break my neck. The closest experience I've had to riding an elephant before this was riding a horse - not even close to being the same thing.  Fortunately, neck-breaking didn't happen, and I even managed not to fall off at all, somehow. Overall, it was quite the experience.

It was comforting to see how the handlers treated the elephants during the riding. No beating or whips needed, just a few verbal commands. Our elephant looked like she was in good shape - she certainly had an appetite for bananas. 

After a miniscule snack of about three whole bunches of bananas, it was bath time. The elephants followed us all down to the Mekong riverbank jumped right in for a nice cool-off. We were invited to join them, but feeling less than eager for Cholera or a Mekong parasitic infection, I opted to watch from the shore.

Luang Prabang will always be a special place to me because of this trek. The picturesque scenes, and the quiet beauty of this side of Laos will forever be in my memories.