Journey in the Jungle

An old colleague called Alan Cockrall from my international relations days at Vic Uni was a part-time soldier and had returned from a Jungle Warfare training camp from Australia. Him and his mates referred to the jungle as "the J" - as if the jungle was something man could conquer, take-over, manipulate... win-over

On Friday 16th December I hired a guide/translator from a nearby village called Boun Pone, a gorgeous soft-spoken tiny young man half my size for 25 USD a day. We set out from Luang Prabang on boat, and went up the Mekong for about 20 mins, starting our trek (or tramp as we know it in the Sth hemisphere) from a small low land Lao village. The landscapes changed dramatically as we ascended towards the Puluangdai Mountain. First it was all rice paddies and grass, but then the bush became thicker and larger vines grows about.

We walked past a few villages of different ethnicities - 30% of Lao's population are made up of hill tribe ppl. Around this area they are maily Hmong and Kmous, whom have been quite politically rebellious in the past towards the Lao gov. One of the first place we stopped was at a low land Lao village and school - a shack made up with wooden panels. There were about 20 kids, on a break playing. Boun Pone knows the teacher (in fact he know every body) and I was able to mingle with the kids a little and that was pretty fun. One of them had to bring a baby brother to school, maybe cos her parents have to work during the day? I've seen this all on Global Village but when I am actually here it is really quite gob smacking seeing how little they have and get by with. They didnt' have any paper and the kids used chalk and blackboard as their school books. There were these buffalos that just walks into the playground in the middle of the day. Not all the kids in the village went to school - one 4 or 5 yo was helping his grandmother carry a bunch of firewood home. In the villages there's no electricity, and the water is from nearby stream. They have hundreds of animals running around, mostly poultry, pigs and dogs. Doesn't seem like there's much to do there or at least not this time of the year after all the harvesting's done - most of them are sitting around the fire having a chat, its pretty easy going.

Its full moon week, so there were drumming from nearby tribes. Muddy river, snakes (one of them as thick as my wrist) , buffalos, long blade like grass, all it needed was a B52 bomber flying ahead to complete the Apoclypse Now picture, or an Indiana Jones movie. Except I'm not in a studio, no make up artists to wipe off my sweat, and can't blame the director or the agent for roping me into this cos I brought it all upon myself... it was bloody tough, with a good 8 hours uphill on the first day. Particularly when the bush is quite thick and having to get rid of the grass in the way. Its quite a common path for the Hmongs that live at the top of the mountain going to and from town, but from the two days there I have not seen a single foreigner.

Late in the afternoon we finally arrived at the top of the mountain - I was about to die of exaughstion by then. It was intriguing to find these two huge villages on the top of this mountain in the middle of no where. Why they chose to live up there at the first place was a mystry to me. But they've been doing it for thousands of years and they seem find it fine. Out of my request Boun Pone organised for us to stay at a smaller village where there's less chickens and ducks - with the chief's (or Big Man, as BP calls him) family. The Big Man is called Jueh and his Hmong tribe village is called Mopblai village - over looking thousands of layers of mountain, protected by the jungle. There were vine gates preventing wild buffalos from intruding into their tribe land and tampering with their sticky rice.
Some of the women were in traditional Hmong outfits, but most of them just wore simple clothes like the Laosians. The only thing that had "electricity" was this rice shelling machine powered by diesel. The housing was simple straw houses - on the ground, not like on stilts like Lao or Vietnamese. The Big Man had 12 kids and quite a few grandkids, they share a bigger house that had an enclosed bedroom with a huge board where the entire family sleeps together - how they manage to have sex is quite another matter... My bed was a "storage" area above a whole bunch of pumpkins and squashes. Boun Pone brought dinner material with him and cooked seperately to the Hmongs - not quite sure why but I thought I'd ask later rather than being insensitive. But the Hmongs gave us some of their food as well that was pretty plain but nice. The Big Man smoked a big bong (opium??) and played a fun instrument which i'll get a pic of soon. They were quite happy for me to take photos, and upon seeing the image in the camera they break out in surprise and laughter.

I had a chat with the Big Man via Boun Pone about his village, what they do etc etc. Next week is Hmong New Year (damn im missing it) where they will probably slaughter quite a few pigs and dogs for the feast. New Year is the one and only time of the year you can chose a partner and get married - harsh! Big Man tried to marry me off too - he says he'll find me a nice Hmong boy. I explained to him that I already have a boyfriend and anyhow I don't think i'll be getting married any time soon, I'm too young (25). Big Man chuckles and tells me that Hmong girls get married when they are 14 or 15, but if they are not good looking they don't get married till they are 30. Sarcasm exists in Hmong??

Other things of interest:
- they treat their own illnesses - hot water does the job most of the time, but if its serious they have to walk 6 hours through the jungle to Luang Prabang for the nearest hospital!!
- Big Man used to be a police man during "the war" but he decided to come home to the village cos he's got too many kids to look after
- They've seen plenty of brits, americans and japanese, but I am the first Taiwanese and first New Zealander they have ever seen.

Dinner was at 6pm and they all went to be at about 7.30pm - lack of light I suppose. They then get up at 4am in the morning to do various things around the village like collecting veges and kill pigs. I wanted to see them kill pigs but I slept in (thanks to my 33 decible earplugs).

to be continued...