Day one in Laos

I'll work backwards:
We made the quick bus and boat ride to Laos and here we are in Houay Xi for one night before our two day slow boat trip to Luang Prabong in Laos.
When we got back from trekking, we showered and brushed our teeth and hit the night market for market-style dinner to bring home and watch a movie. Both completely exhausted - here's why.
So we went trekking. Anne, our trekking guide, picked us up and we were all dropped off at the boat dock. Anne appeared to be somewhere between 35 and 45 maybe. She was very nice and he English was pretty good so we had polite conversations about Thai culture and American cultures.
After a short boat ride back up the river from where we came, we stopped at the same elephant camp we had stopped at before. Kyle and I rode on an elephant which we renamed about 3 times before we finished our 30 minute ride. We sat on a seat/stool strapped to Fancy/Ellie/Michael Jacksons back while the elephants trainer straddled the elephant with flip flopped feet behind the elephants ears. It did feel fairly touristy, a twenty minute walk through town and into the river a bit but damn it, ya can't do this in Oregon!
Then we had lunch and watched a little of Thai boxing on TV. It began to show that Anne was pretty awkward and it was kind of unclear whether we were in charge or she was. We eventually got back on the boat and rode a little further upstream to the National Park. We walk about 200 feet before Anne said we would have a rest. We sat and sort of talked about the National Park system and protecting the teak forests. Then we sort of sat in silence. Finally Kyle asked if we could get going. A bit more hiking and we arrived in a village on a hill. The village was all bamboo houses on stilts with solar panels next to each one. Anne lead us onto one porch where we sat and waited. We waited some more. Kyle and I finally settled into reading our books and Anne sat. It was a beautiful view of the green valley of bamboo in front of us. We sat on a very steep sloped hill so we looked down on the neighbors thatched roof. Kyle and I decided to take a walk up the hill to the highest viewpoint. Again, beautiful view of greenery and terraced rice fields that were just being harvested by the village people. Back down to our house, we rested some more, played cards and watched the kids play between the houses.
Chickens, cats, dogs and kids mingled around between houses while we waited for the dinner that we being prepared inside. We considered asking if we could help but with 6 people already in the one small room where the cooking was taking place, we decided that we would likely just be in the way. Dinner was served to Anne, Kyle and I on the deck. Green curry and rice - delicious!! We sat and talked, through Anne, to the father and mother of the neighboring house. The two boys that lived in the house we were sleeping in were home alone for the night because the father was out hunting a valuable jungle lizard and the mother was staying at the fields for the night.

As it got darker (and considerably colder) we turned in for the night along with everyone else is town. Our beds, blankets on the bamboo floor next to the fire, took up nearly the whole room. Kyle and I read for about half and hour and looked at each other and said 'I'm not tired, are you?' 'No, what time is it anyway' '7:45pm' 'Oh, that's why!'. It seems that farmers go to bed on the early side.

After a rather chilly, OK freezing night, we were woken by roosters (they live under the houses on stilts so when you are sleeping on bamboo slats on the floor it is like a rooster crow in your ear!) and the older son making fire.

A quick breakfast before heading out to continue hiking to the waterfall nearby. The hiking was not too difficult, the sun hot but up in the mountains it was nearly cold in the shade. We walked to another small hill tribe village where we sat outside a church (many hill tribes are christian after missionary influence) followed by a hike to the local tea plantation and lunch stop in a small town. After that, a long walk to the hot springs. The hot springs were pleasant enough but the moonshine rice whiskey afterwards was even more pleasant and smelled way better! Finally, back into a tuk-tuk for the ride home.

The trekking was a good experience and certainly got us out of our comfort zones. It was not nearly as touristy as we thought it might be which was a pleasant sup rise. It was a little heavy on the awkward silences with Anne and strangely sitting around waiting for something for bizarrely long stretches of time.

Now we are in Laos, ready for the next chapter!