Lao hill tribe villages Part 1: Khmu village

A boy from the Khmu village

Trekking to a hill tribe village in Laos was one of the activities I wanted to do even before I left on this trip. As usual, the actual experience was quite different from how I imagined it.

I was lucky to find a group that I could join on a three day and two night trek from Luang Namtha. October is still the low tourist season and agencies don’t have a number of people lined up for treks so they only book pre-formed groups. Fortunately Luang Namtha is a small town, there is only one major road and a few restaurants where all the tourists hang out and most of us were looking for trekking anyway. It was easy to spot each other and very quickly eight of us formed a group so that we could sign up for the trek at one of the agencies.

Khmu village

We spent the first night in a Khmu village located on the Namtha River. Contrary to what I expected we didn’t actually have much contact with the local people. The villagers mostly ignored us. They are probably used to the hordes of tourists that come to their village and may even be annoyed by the intrusion. They have their own life to live and their own work to do.

A decent road leads up to the village where a truck delivered our food and bottled water. The villagers apparently don’t own any vehicles, at least I didn’t see any. Electrical cables run up to the village, but only a few houses actually have electricity. There was one house with a satellite dish and the village shop has a refrigerator. None of the houses in the village have indoor plumbing.

Water fountain

There is one communal water fountain in the village and it was busy from earliest morning until it became dark at night. Only women gathered around, to wash clothes, dishes, brush their teeth, and mainly to fill water buckets that they carried back to their houses. I approached the fountain to brush my teeth and wasn’t sure what was the protocol, how should I let them know that I’m waiting for my turn at the faucet. The women were very nice and motioned for me to go ahead.

There is a school in the village with two classrooms for the many children who live there. I was able to give them the school supplies that I carried with me from home. They seemed happy to accept them although I got the impression that since so many tourists bring stuff to them they aren’t really all that in need of pencils and notebooks.

Village boys swimming in the river

The boys spent all afternoon having fun in the river. The girls were probably at home because I didn’t see any except when they came out to get water at the fountain. We, the tourists needed a swim after the long hike up to the village. The guys could go right in, but it was more delicate for the women. None of the local women were in the river and the guide told us that we could go if we cover up. I decided to jump in fully dressed since my clothes were so sweaty from the hike, they were wet already. Some of the other girls used sarongs that the guide borrowed from the village women. In the evening, a couple of local men came to join us as we sat around, drinking beer. Unfortunately they didn’t speak any English, but they accepted beer and the rest of the evening was spent singing.

Piglet running freely in the village

It was my impression that while life in the village is basic, the people are not really poor. They appear well fed and nicely clothed. The village is clean, the fields around it are cultivated and they have domestic animals running around.