Monday 25th February
The trek I had signed up for was to leave from the village of Vieng Poukha, 60km back in the direction of Huay Xai, the border town from where I had come the day before. I only realised that I would have to travel there from Luang Nam Tha after I had paid the deposit on the trek, so it wasn't ideal, as it meant I would have to get there and stay overnight. Also, it was a smaller town than Luang Nam Tha – which itself is hardly a metropolis – so the likelihood of there being a great deal to do in Vieng Poukha was pretty low.
After breakfast, I paid up the remainder of the fee for the trek at the 'Green Discovery' office, checked out of the guesthouse and exchanged some money at the local bank (instantly becoming a Laos kip millionaire). There were four other people travelling to Vieng Poukha for the trek: Paul & Karine from Quebec; Kara from Connecticut; and John from Portsmouth. We took a pick-up to our new guesthouse, which was fairly basic, but it was clean and convenient for an early start the next morning.
I wasn't wrong in guessing at how little there was to do in Vieng Poukha. There are maybe a few thousand people living in largely wooden houses off the newly completed Highway 13 road, with a small covered market the only real point of interest (at that's really stretching it!). After spending an hour or so getting briefed on our trek by a guide at the local 'Green Discovery' office, we went back to the guesthouse and spent the rest of the evening chatting and watching the world go by outside. By this stage, we had been joined by a couple from Switzerland – Adrian & Regina – which meant that a group of seven people would be heading out with the guides the next morning.
I really enjoyed the difference in the look and feel of this town compared to most of the places I had stayed in, at least since leaving India. In some ways, it reminded me of the old frontier towns that you see in movies set in the American west: kids walking around freely and playing games amongst themselves; the smell of wood fires wafting over the village; the sights and sounds of farm animals all helping to create an ambiance of life on a more basic level. There was some electricity delivered to the village for a few hours during the evening, but this eventually stopped too, and we were plunged into darkness, only to relieved by the good old candle.
The whole place had a charm to it that I really liked. Also, in many ways, it was even less developed than in India, but it was a lot cleaner and certainly more peaceful. Not long after the power went off at 22.00, we retired for the evening to get some proper rest ahead of the trek.
