EC-Rider Travels

We had a rather leisurely start this morning, meeting Pang and Hell at 9.30 to be taken to the other end of the village, where a lovely traditional long-boat was waiting to take us up the Nom Ou river. It rained last night and the smoke was definitely a little better, but still masking the sun and hills in the distance. But it was lovely to see this more rural part of the country, going about its daily business, much of it on the river. There are lots of very long, very flat, colourful boats with people fishing, and others being buzzed across the river to work.

We stopped at a little Khmu village where we met a the most adorable children and their granny and caused great excitement with our cameras and also biscuits which Pang cleverly brought with him.

We met a lovely group of ladies supervising the bathing of a very small baby in a tin bowl. There seems to be quite a lot of sitting around …. perhaps busier after the rain when they can start cultivating the land. They tend to have four or five children to help with the land as more and more of them are now choosing to leave for the city.

Life in this village was very simple with no running water, some electricity though, needless to say some satellite dishes! Up until a couple of years ago there had been no road into the village but this was built after COVID – I use the word, road, loosely! The villagers are pretty self sufficient, with families having small pieces of land, many, many chickens, a few cows and quite a lot of pigs, most with the most adorable piglets. They grow rice, bananas and tobacco and some have small vegetable patches. Bamboo is a staple product, used extensively in their building and also something they can sell. Any other surplus would also be taken to the local market – several hours away. Pang explained they would have no banking so if they make any money they would buy a cow ($250) or pig ($100), fatten it up and sell.

Pang then took us to visit the village primary School, where there were two classrooms with about 30 children in each. The little ones were having a reading lesson, with a rather sleepy looking teacher and one of the children taking the lead. Needless to say we caused total disruption until Miss Bailey took to the floor to regain order and teach them their numbers in English, which, rather surprisingly, they knew. Oh my goodness they were the sweetest. Next door, the charming, young headmaster was teaching the older ones, in a rather a more disciplined class. We gave him a small donation and you would have thought we had handed over the Bank of England – he was so grateful and made a five minute speech of thanks, which Pang translated for us.

We left the village and went for a lovely walk through the fields and farmland, seeing the locals at work in their fields or on new building developments.

We then headed up a steep hill and down the other side to the most beautiful Tad Mok waterfall. We were quite nice and warm at this point and had the most glorious swim. Pang had kindly organised a lovely picnic lunch and proudly presented us with our tuna sandwiches, all neatly wrapped. Quite hungry and quite excited about our sandwich we were a little disappointed to find very soggy/sweaty offerings…. we tried to persuade ourselves otherwise but they really were beyond disgusting. With Serena on the look-out, I tried to dispose of them …. only quite successfully!

On our way back we passed a group of young, walking up to the waterfall with their guide and then the most hysterical group of Thai monks on the back of a tractor – a ‘works outing’, Pang thought. They were certainly having a great time! Goodness we were lucky to have the waterfall to ourselves.. Oh no they will find our sandwiches! 🙈

We got back in the boat and continued further up stream to another village called Muang Ngoi, which was a Hmong village and clearly quite a back-packers haven with lots of hikes and adventures on offer. School was out and the children were all swimming/washing their hair in the river and the village was coming to life for the evening trade. There were young people selling lottery tickets, rice cakes and curious looking sausages they were cooking on little home-made barbecues. I was not convinced there was going to be too much passing trade.

It was a lovely boat ride back to the our hotel. Goodness it must be so beautiful without the smoke, we may have to come back. In the evening we went to a restaurant in the village, which Pang had suggested. He and Hell insisting on coming to pick us up to take us there – beyond the call of duty, we felt. It was rather a good dinner and in another very pretty spot overlooking the river.