In June, I had the chance to travel with Sven and TT to southern Laos as they developed new opportunities for volunteers to work in Eco-tourism in Pakse and Xe Pian, a national protected area. We flew from Vientiane to Pakse,the capitol of Champassak province. The Xe Pian National Protected Area covers 2,400 square kilometers in southern Laos on the border with Cambodia. It’s mostly flat with some hills, and contains 3 forest types (evergreen, mixed evergreen and deciduous) and the largest protected wetland in Laos. Key species in the area include sun bears, gibbons, gaurs, the gigantic Asian bison, the nearly extinct Siamese crocodile, Irawaddy dolphins and tigers.
From Pakse we rode south about 11/2 hours in the back of a sawngthaew to Ban Kiet Ngong, the first village inside the protected area. Here the main attraction is an elephant ride to a nearby mountain. We made arrangements to meet with local officials the next day, and then left for the trek to Ban Ta Ong. The farther we got, the worse the road got until it became more a series of potholes. A thick layer of red dust coated everything by the time the drive was over. After about an hour we arrived at Ban Pha Pho, where our trek began. We picked up a local guide and set off. 
The first hint of adventure was a bridge consisting of three pieces of bamboo: two to walk on and, luckily, one to hold on to.
The first stage to Ban Nong Ping was about 3 hours long, with a couple of rest stops. Sometimes we crisscrossed rice fields, balancing carefully on narrow dikes between individual rice plots, occasionally reaching a dead end and having to find a different path. We passed platform huts where families slept or rested; it was over 40 degrees, so we were the only ones foolish enough to be moving around in the sun! The fields are often far from their houses, so the people build these huts for resting during the hottest part of the day or spending the night when there’s a lot of work to do.
At Ban Kiet Ngong we met with the local people to talk about having volunteers come to the village. After that, we went on the village’s feature attraction: an elephant ride to the top of a nearby mountain where we had a panoramic view that stretched for miles over the protected area. We also got a great view of an approaching rain storm, so decided to turn back to the village! We had a few more days in the south, so we decided to head down to the 4000 islands (See Pan Don) near the Cambodian border. We hired a car and drove down to the ferry for Don Khong, the largest island in the south, and the home of the president of Laos. Very quiet there; a few tourists, though quite a few guesthouses. We drove around the island in the afternoon, stopping at a lotus pond, a temple and a market. Beautiful views from the hotel in Muang Khong over the river with many small islets and people working in boats on the river.
Tuesday we took a 2 hour boat trip down to the island of Don Det, a backpacker haven just short of the border. Quite a site to see with its wall-to-wall bungalows lining the banks of the river: a mini Kao San Road all the way out there! The boat trip down and back was very relaxing.
So what’s it like to travel with the OpenMind team? The first requirement is a dry sense of humor: Sven and TT are great models of sanook! We had a lot of laughs. For them, the trip revolved around developing a new project, so they spent a lot of time in meetings, talking with the national, regional and village leaders. Since the conversation was in Lao, I was very much on my own a good bit of the time. While we visited some of the local sites, it was only when their work was done; we did not visit many of the main tourist sites. They’re very laid back and flexible, so even though I didn’t, I could have simply gone off exploring on my own and met up with them later. Although they provide a wealth of background information you won’t find in guidebooks, clearly they do not have the time to be tour guides! But with their language skills, I was able to interact with locals in ways non-native speakers could not. I enjoyed it tremendously. Sometimes we hiked through forests, often with 
bamboo soaring 20 or 30 meters above us. We came across many areas where the forest had been burned off (slash and burn agriculture) planted with fields of corn and dry rice.
We rested at Ban Nong Ping and made arrangements for boats the next day before pushing on to Ban Ta Ong. Just out of the Ban Nong Ping we forded a river, then on through more rice fields and mixed forests before reaching Ban Ta Ong after another 2 hours. Never drank so much water or sweated so much in my life!
The village has a small bungalow for visitors with sleeping pads and mosquito nets. We had a big dinner at the village headman’s house that night, and talked about life in the village. No electricity, so kerosene torches furnished the light. On the way back to our bungalow we passed a house with a generator which created enough electricity to run a TV and DVD player, so there was a crowd of mostly kids singing karaoke way out there in the jungle. I guess you can only get so far away!
We got up at 5:30 on Sunday and hiked out beyond Ban Ta Ong. Along the way the guides explained the uses of many plants: some for eating, some for putting in water to paralyze fish for catching, some for making furniture. The highlight of the walk was the pit viper dangling on a vine beside the trail; several of us had walked by it before someone spotted it and jumped to get out of the way! The trail eventually reached Cambodia, but since it was another 3-day walk,
we decided to turn back.
We returned to Ban Ta Ong, ate breakfast, and left with a village guide to return to Ban Nong Ping. We took a different route, climbing in and out of stream beds, up and down hills, with the guide often hacking a trail through bamboo and vines. The hills made this trek harder with all the scrambling up and down.
Outside Ban Nong Ping, we got a short rest in a field platform before climbing aboard two boats for the trip downstream. The bamboo grew densely along the banks, often arching far out over the stream. Several times we found kids (or water buffaloes) swimming and people fishing or gathering plants along or in the river. After an hour, we reached Ban Pha Pho, the end of the trek. Back into the songthaew, back over the dusty road to Ban Kiet Ngong.
At Ban Kiet Ngong we met with the local people to talk about having volunteers come to the village. After that, we went on the village’s feature attraction: an elephant ride to the top of a nearby mountain where we
had a panoramic view that stretched for miles over the protected area. We also got a great view of an approaching rain storm, so decided to turn back to the village! We had a few more days in the south, so we decided to head down to the 4000 islands (See Pan Don) near the Cambodian border. We hired a car and drove down to the ferry for Don Khong, the largest island in the south, and the home of the president of Laos. Very quiet there; a few tourists, though quite a few guesthouses. We drove around the island in the afternoon, stopping at a lotus pond, a temple and a market. Beautiful views from the hotel in Muang Khong over the river with many small islets and people working in boats on the river.
Tuesday we took a 2 hour boat trip down to the island of Don Det, a backpacker haven just short of the border. Quite a site to see with its wall-to-wall bungalows lining the banks of the river: a mini Kao San Road all the way out there! The boat trip down and back was very relaxing.
So what’s it like to travel with the OpenMind team? The first requirement is a dry sense of humor: Sven and TT are great models of sanook! We had a lot of laughs. For them, the trip revolved around developing a new project, so they spent a lot of time in meetings, talking with the national, regional and village leaders. 
Since the conversation was in Lao, I was very much on my own a good bit of the time. While we visited some of the local sites, it was only when their work was done; we did not visit many of the main tourist sites. They’re very laid back and flexible, so even though I didn’t, I could have simply gone off exploring on my own and met up with them later. Although they provide a wealth of background information you won’t find in guidebooks, clearly they do not have the time to be tour guides! But with their language skills, I was able to interact with locals in ways non-native speakers could not. I enjoyed it tremendously.
