VAN VIENG – LUANGPRABANG

In an hour or so we have to get away and rescue ourselves on the bikes. The serpentine begins 50 kilometers behind the village and goes straight to Luangprabang. Sometimes, when we stop to get off the bikes, we can’t even walk straight, just like after merry-go-round. Yet, we just love to feel the asphalt again, plus, it’s very good asphalt. In the mountains we drive through the villages every few kilometers: small houses are built from bamboo or reed, only the wealthiest people here can afford wooden houses. The kids come out of every house and greet and wave us. Driving through these tiny villages, one has to exchange greeting non-stop. 

In the North of Laotian mountains there are several big tribes, the biggest of which are Mungi, Yao and Miao. Their language is a lot different from the official one and so is their lifestyle which is closer to pristine: men are hunting and women are working in the fields. Every village has their common animal stock. 

Since they don’t have power in their dwellings and, of course, no fridges, and the meat is impossible to keep in such a hot climate, they have to divide every pig in between the entire village. Four years ago, traveling through these places on a bus, I accidentally got to see a shaman executing his ritual over a killed pig. Of course, we are hoping to find something like that again, so every once in a while we stop and listen to the silence of the jungle in hope to hear the weird sounds coming out of shaman’s throat. Even though mountain people seem to be friendly and smiling, they are not into getting in a closer contact: as soon as we get off the bikes and try to approach, locals are hiding in their houses, lurking through the wall gaps of their houses. So the time runs and when twilight comes down on us some hundred kilometers before Luangprabang, we have to get the speed on, so we get there before the dark.