Jungle Adventure

On Boxing Day we took a Jumbo (a homemade three-wheeler taxi) 45 minutes out of Vientiane to a small village where we found a boatman to take us on the 2nd leg of our journey which was on the Nam Ngum river. The journey along the jungle-lined river, on a beautifully crisp and sunny morning, was breathtaking.

Our destination was an “Eco lodge” where we stayed for 2 nights – a bamboo hut with limited electricity, cold shower and resident “wasp spider”! James bravely faced his fear of wasps… and spiders… and spider-wasps! (Google say ‘St Andrews Cross Spider). Although he remained a little edgy.

The lodge provided great Lao food, our favourite of which was the sticky rice. It didn’t seem to matter when you ordered the food always arrived at 7.30pm (an hour after dark and usually 1 ½ hours after being ordered)!

We spent a day trekking through the jungle and visiting a small local Hmong tribal village. The village was home to 10 wooden houses on stilts, very friendly Hmong people, inquisitive children, chickens, pigs, dogs, goats and cattle. A road has recently been built to the village- before that all access was by the river. The Eco Lodge buys produce from the village and has enabled it to buy a few solar panels - Another humbling experience.

We enjoyed our peaceful stay in the simple bamboo hut – good thinking time.

I can also now boast the most extreme mossie bite we have experienced – left upper eyelid!