A Plumeria blossom on the pool deck.
Waking up this morning, leaving Jonathan to sleep some more, I was struck by the amount of wood smoke in the air as I left the air conditioned room and walked up the path to reception where I am now. There were also a lot of roosters crowing in the dawn.
We had a walk today.
After breakfast, the vans took us out of town, first on paved roads and then packed dirt to two mountain villages. The first village was Khmer where we walked off the main road among the village buildings. There were a number of thoroughly adorable 2-3 year old kids who followed us around and put on a bit of a performance for us. We also met the head man of the Khmer village who claimed to be 108 years old. I got a sweet photo of him holding his toddler great-great granddaughter in his arms.
A Plumeria blossom on the pool deck.
The strings on my wrist from the Lao baci ceremony the night before.
The altarpiece for our group, now in the hotel lobby.
Lyn, Barbara, John, and Toby - on the courtyard in front of the Villa Maly.
A photogenic child in the village.
A path deeper into the village.
I found the siding of the houses had interesting patterns. This is woven bamboo.
Typical thatch siding.
Our group seems to have picked up three extra walkers.
Another pattern of bamboo weaving on the side of a house; used for the background for these webpages.
The village elder (108 years old) and his great-great-granddaughter.
Although they originate in Mexico, poinsettias seem to be healthy and prolific in the Laotian hills.
I know, they look like horse turds. They are actually a nut of a local plant set out to dry.
A duck of a different color.
A timeless game for a timeless place.
Coming into the Hmong village.
Pausing for some information - Toby, Alan, Jonathan, Carol, and Lyn.
Another bamboo siding pattern.
We followed the dirt road through the Hmong village and on up into the valley where cultivation was evident even on steep hillsides with rice fields apparent. Teak and rubber trees frequently shaded the trail. The path we were on was clearly a commonly used thoroughfare by the villages. Even in the remotest stretch of the trail, it was not uncommon to pass or be passed by a Lao villager bearing a burden. As we left the agricultural fields behind and the path wound it's way through the jungle, the conditions on the trail were often slick and a bit muddy. There were numerous places where we made rocky ascents and equally harrowing descents.
Rubber trees showing signs of harvest.
Following the trail up into the hillside.
The fields frequently had a primitive shelter that would be used by the farmers when they were working them.
Up the trail under an arbor of poinsettias.
A bee/wasp pollenating a poinsettia, with a second insect in flight at top.
Wild flower.
Motorbikes and scooters still used the trail.
John walking through a teak (Tectona grandis) grove.
Looking back, I think I can make out Jonathan, Hung, Carol, and Barbara.
A scooter parked in the bushes. This was still a motor trail at this point.
A morning glory variety I suspect.
A family of farmers cultivating the hillside.
Another wild flower.
The path got rocky and steep.
Now climbing that rocky and steep path.
Despite being rocky and steep in places, the local villagers use the trail on a regular basis…
…certainly more regularly than Mr. Lubin.
A open area of the trail through cultivated fields.
A white butterfly/moth on a poinsettia.
Another butterfly.
There were a number of these types of mushrooms along the trail, usually on rotting wood.
The underside of the mushrooms.
The hooks on this vine looked rather forbidding.
A wild flower.
Butterfly.
Wild flower.
The end of the trail…
…with a statue of Buddha smiling down upon us.
