Luang Nam Tha

As we were heading separate directions, we said good-bye to the UK folks early one morning and got on a bus headed for Luang Nam Tha. It was a super ridiculous mini-bus journey. It's basically all day in a 15 passenger van with no a/c. Well, this one had a/c but the driver kept turning it on and off every 5 minutes. I think in an elaborate effort to drive me insane.
We made it to Udom Xai pretty uneventfully minus the sweating and organized a trek to start the next day in the Luang Nam Tha Protected Area.
Bright and early the next morning we met with our guide- Pon, and headed to the market. We bought a bunch of ingredients to cook food with while we were out in the jungle.




Garlic

Cilantro, Eggplant, Tomatoes

We took a bus and started our trek. Pon showed us local plants along the way as we walked.


Some rather large ants, apparently not that poisonous
Jerry in the jungle

Me too!

Lunch out in the bush
There was some pretty dense bush in places. Lots of bamboo! At the end of the walk there was a little bamboo hut at the confluence of two rivers. What made it so wonderful was there was a rope swing into the lake. We both took a few swings into the water- so nice and cold!




Does this rope swing make my ass look fat?

Pon cooking rice over the fire with a steamer he wove from bamboo

Our digs for the night

That night we heard some people just outside the hut. Pon said it was some local villagers using our fire pit. I said, that's nice but I need to sleep and they are loud, plus they are creeping me out. You have to remember we are out in the middle of nowhere, it's weird they are here too without even talking to us. Plus one of them had a rifle. I realize now that this may sound really terrifying if you're my mother. (Sorry). But they left after Pon asked them to and then we all got some sleep. Apparently the local villagers go into the Protected Area and hunt at night for pretty much anything that moves. Nice guys, real nice. That might explain why the biggest wildlife Jared and I saw the whole day were ants. Pon told us the adventure company (his bosses) that took us out here pays for the priviledge to use this Protected Area, and that goes to the local villages. However, given the rampant corruption in pretty much every other area of business in SE Asia, I'm sure the individual villager gets absolutely no benefit whatsoever and does not feel the slightest bit of guilt for hunting in here and probably doesn't even consider it poaching.
The next morning we hopped in some kayaks and headed down the river. We stopped in a few villages along the way. They didn't seem too jazzed up to see us. I think there's a couple new whiteys rolling through every day.


Locals fishing in the river with a pair of goggles and bare hands!

One of the villages we stopped at

That night we woke to very loud rain and very itchy skin. Turns out we had bed bugs! We had gone so long before getting them, I was really amazed.
Days Since Last Bed Bug Incident: 0
Up Next: Making our way to Pai