You can do this trek through a company called green discovery, which is fine if you have a shed load of money to burn, which we didn’t. So we took some advice from the tourist office and decided to wing it.
We caught a local bus to a small place called Thatbot. The local bus was so amazingly slow and filled to the rafters with not only the passengers but the large array of goods they were also transporting. We had at least 3 full car exhaust systems laid out in the aisle, nestling alongside the sacks of rice. Each bus also carries a small contingent of women selling food for the journey. They get on and off the buses at different places and that’s what they do all day. We bought some baguettes but there was BBQ chicken, sticky rice and other items not identifiable to us.
Lucky for us the pick-up driver dropped us off at the headman’s house who understood that the only reason ‘falang’ (white tourists) come to the village is to trek. His English was about the same as our Laos, Danny resorted describing the trek we wanted in pictures and that seemed to work a treat. That night we stayed in the headman’s house; a privilege for us and he was very generous with the rice whisky called ‘LaoLao’. We ended up having a great time trying to teach each other our languages. We weren’t feeling so happy the next morning when the village awoke with the dawn and therefore so did we. There are a great many puppies in the village, during the night one of the little buggers had run off with Danny’s walking socks. Only the night before we realised that there were a lot of puppies and not many grown up dogs… We decided that Puppy Pie must be a village favourite, Danny wasn’t so happy about it… until the morning when he was sockless :).
Unsure how the days trekking was due to start we hung around, until a guide appeared. We had established that during the 2 night trek we would like to stay out in the wilds rather than back in a village. To do this we would have to sleep under the stars something I’d never done before. We had all the gear and borrowed a mosquito net. Our guide took us down to the river where we would begin our trek by travelling up stream for about 50 mins by canoe.
The boat we were to use for the next 2 days was a thin plank construction which was very low in the water with all the bags and food. The river level was also very very low so at times the boat had to be pushed off the sandbars that caught it as it was propelled up river by the ‘longtail’ motor. I was in charge of bailing the water out of the boat as we moved along. 
The first day we trekked to a large 7 tier waterfall where we made camp for the day. After a simple luch of local foods, we went off to investigate the area while the two guides we had with us ‘Bundee’ and ‘Bundeyang’ dispatched the ducks and built a fire. 
We were looking forward to BBQ duck roasting over the fire… but, it was not to be. For dinner the guides had made a very nice noodle soup with the carcass of the ducks the backbone mainly. And the heart, liver and lungs were given to us to eat along with the ducks head and feet. Never in the history of man was has one man been soooo disappointed with his dinner. I tried a little of the duck head, a bit of brain an beak but Danny was not feeling like eating wobbly bits he couldn’t readily identify.It really bought us down to earth as nothing is ever wasted when the Lao people kill and cook an animal, it made me realise how much we throw away as inedible in the UK. Mainly the bits we were now eating. What we really wanted to know was what had happened the meat? We joked that they throw the good bits away as rubbish.
We were treat for breakfast to boiled river shrimp that the guides had caught overnight. I little over powering for me in the morning but Danny scoffed the lot.
Today was New Years Eve and we had another boat ride up the river to where the rapids started. At this time of year the water was very low so it was easy to scramble over the rocks to find ourselves a campsite for the night. The guides were worried it would rain so they found us a spot under a large bolder. We left our gear in camp and after lunch started the walk up the side of the gorge. We were heading up the steep side where we’d be rewarded with a view across the gorge and the Mekong river plane.
The walk up though the jungle was hard work in the heat. We followed a tiny path though the thick bamboo, which took us across dry river beds and eventually we followed a dry bed which bought us out of the jungle onto a very old lava flow. We weren’t expecting this as there are no volcanoes in Laos but it was unmistakeable. We followed the lava flow to the top of a cliff which dropped away dramatically in front of us to reveal the river way down in the bottom.
It was a real breathtaking view and Danny managed to scare the crap out of our guide by getting to close to the edge… as usual.That evening we were treated to the remained of the duck, the good bits of meat this time, as well as some homemade soup and sticky rice. I’d of given anything right then for some mashed potatoes or some custard, I know strange choices but you get some weird craving s for western food. So there we were New year eve laying on a rock by this river watching the full moon rise over the jungle.
Earlier we’d used the river as our bathroom and jumped into a large pool and lathered up. It was all a great experience and the guides gave us some LaoLao, which kept us happily singing songs sat on our rock, till not quite midnight, but we were very tired.
The whole experience of the trek and village stay was so memorable. We had found some of the realness of Laos after the unrealness of the bars and drunk English that we had found in the bars of Vang Vieng at Christmas. I enjoyed being in Laos more than Thailand and Nepal, the Laos people are the ones that make the difference and for me these memories will stick with me the longest.
