CRAZY JOURNEY: DAY 51 - LUANG NAMTHA DAY 2

JUNGLE TREK TO HILL TRIBE

Our Native Guide with the dyed teeth shows us the way

We were up at 8am to meet Mai, our trekking guide for the day. He told us we were going to embark on a 6 hour jungle trek to visit a remote Hill Tribe. After a 45 minute drive we were dropped off at our starting point and met by another native hill tribesman. Off we set deep into the jungle and were introduced to the native flora used by the hill tribe as food and medicine. There were plants to treat stomach illnesses, sinus problems and malaria. We found hard to comprehend how these people could have first established the benefits of these plants for particular illnesses, a lot of trial and error we presume!

We noticed our native tribesman chewing something all day and hocking up massive red spits every few minutes. On closer inspection his teeth were all red and it looked like he had just done a Dracula on someones neck. Mai explained that this was a native chewing drug taken from certain bark, leaves and the ash of a particular burnt plant. Rhys and Dave plucked up the courage to give it a go and a few chews and red spits later, the taste was described as wooden flavoured toothpaste, in other words disgusting! Check the video below for the day's highlights.

We took a break for lunch in a makeshift hut in the middle of the jungle where Mai served lunch on plates created for everyone from local leaves. We ate native hill tribe dishes including 'SA' a minced pork dish which was eaten using our hands by shaping sticky rice like a spoon.

After lunch we trekked on and in a few hours we eventually reached the hill tribe on top of a mountain. It is hard for us to imagine that these people exist in an environment so far removed from everything and with no electricity, running water or communications. We were all brought to a locals hut and were made drink two shots each of the locally brewed Laos equivalent of Irish Poitín. We had a good laugh playing with some of the local kids who came in their droves to say 'Sawat Di' or hello to us.

Fintan with the 'Joust House' in the Background

Another interesting facet of hill tribe life was what we dubbed the 'joust house'. These are tiny huts elevated 20 feet in the air but still connected by a stairway to the main hut. We wondered what the purpose of these were and Mai explained to us that local tradition dictates that its taboo for unmarried couples to have sex in the main family hut as it angered the house spirit. So they have developed these elevated huts for the sole purpose of allowing unmarried couples to get busy.

A local kid carries his baby brother

We left the hill tribe for our pick up destination and were waved off by a group of local kids. Mai explained to us that there is a new road being built to this hill tribe. Laotian tribes are under threat from extinction due to the creation of rubber plantations bought from them for as little as 1 US dollar a hectare by predominantly Chinese investors with a huge need for raw materials to fuel the Asian Tiger's growth. On the way home to Luang Nam Tha, we stopped at the local stupa which had been recreated brick by brick after it was bombed during the Vietnam War. Laos was the most bombed country during the Vietnam War and it's airport served as hub for opium smuggling in this region.

The boys beside the old bombed Stupa in Luang Namtha