Orchha adventure. Into the countryside

There is a lot to see in Orchha itself, but after a couple of days hanging around in town (see the Orchha adventure, exploring the town blogpost), I decided to rent a bicycle and have a look at the surroundings. What I found was sun baked countryside with timeless villages. Friendly villagers-curious ones since people like me don't often visit. And i saw the Indian way of life itself unfolding. Th good thing is that even though the sun is unforgiving-the landscape is mostly easy to handle.

Siting on a hill just outside town, the Lakshmi temple.

The Lakshmi temple is known for its many wall paintings. The interior is a spectacular art gallery. The temple has been abandoned for a long time, and now undergo Restoration.

After the Lakshmi temple, there is a long village, where this man did his backyard field. The village goes all the way to an old wall, the road leave trough the old gate. Outside that, there is slow moving countryside, boiling hot for a cyclist. There is a reason why i always take off with LOT of water!

Well work is the way to get water.

A stop in the square of an "end of the road"village.

Parabol dish-here!
sort of a miss-match!

Same village, different part. The owners of some of the larger houses have beautifully painted the entrance area.

Some construction work going on.

Sitting in the afternoon sun, making baskets.

Old school agricultural machinery in a small field.

Village woman in her fine outfit.

HELLO-BYEBYE!!!! Schoolchildren on their way home to their villages. Transported packed as herrings in a barrel the usual way.

Along the Nam Ou.

Nong Khiaw's riverside skyline-with towering karst mountains in the background. The little town, with plenty of rural charm is strung along both sides of the Nam Ou river in northern Laos. Despite its remoteness, both the food and the accommodation is decent there. Getting there is easy enough-buses run all the way to Luang Prabang, to Luang Namtha and to Udomxai. My plan was to go upriver to villages further upstream, but first i enjoyed a day of biking in in the area surrounding  Nong Khiaw.

View upriver, direction Muang Ngoi village, from the middle of the 1973 vintage bridge connecting the riverbanks. In the evenings, the bridge seems to be a local hangout for the youth.

First i took a trip to Thew Pha tok caves, two holes in the rock 2 kilometers from the bridge. They were set in a spectacular, vegetation covered karstcliff surrounded by rice fields. I was pestered by some would be guides that is not at all needed there. The caves itself aren't that spectacular-the trip here and the imminent surroundings is what makes the easy trip out there worthwhile. However, it is history embedded in them-they were used for shelter during the bombings of the Indochina wars. Villagers and Pathet lao fighters both used it, and remains of their commandopost is still visible inside.

Next, i headed up the dirtroad which is bulldozed up along the eastern bank. It goes up and down, it is muddy and slippery in the rainy season, and there are some potholes to watch out for, but it is fairly easy going. If Nong Khiaw feels remote, then wait till you get out to the small villages along the road. They are outside the map-for them tiny Nong Khiaw is the big world, and everybody coming from even further afield-meaning all tourists-are met with curiosity-of the friendly kind.

I was passed up by people all of the time. Some took a break from housebuilding. Others looking up from repairing and the making of fishing nets. A shopkeeper woke up from his semi sleep. And as always children were cheering and greeting. Many only can say BYEBYE-so that is the usual way for them to say hello. And, of course-bye-bye.

A break in a fishermans home. His daughter posing. A simple bamboo hut on stilts. The TV set , and the satellite dish outside looks somewhat out of place. Lot of people have a TV, and even some sort of a music playing device. But that is generally all they have above the most elementary and basic of things. They are not rich. I spent a good part of the hottest hours in his home, eating fruit-sponsored by him, and drunk beer-sponsored by me. Semi hot beer from the village shop. Not a daily luxury for any of the villagers.

The TV shows karaoke texted musicvideos. Many with the war as a theme and made with a typical socialist-communist style to it. I didn't catch anything of the texts except in this one where B52 and F111 was mentioned. Two aircrafts whose life in these parts were unpleasant for the locals. History is very much alive in Laos.

The following morning i went to the dock to get the morning boat upriver to Muang Ngoi village. But no boat. I had to wait till noon. And while there were too few passengers in the morning-noon saw too many of them-the boat was filled top the brim with cargo and passengers. Tourists and locals alike. I was lucky with the weather-not always the case in the rainy season-so the trip up was amazing. The river goes trough a landscape of towering mountains and lush green jungle. It is as spectacular as it is beautifull.

Female porters at the docks, carrying cargo down to the 12 o clock upriver boat. The boattrip is one hour plus. Muang Ngoi now has got a road connecting it to Nong Khiaw but traveltime along it is 2-3 hours. Or more in the rainyseason. Time being, the boat is how people travel. But it is a matter of time before that change.

The jetty, bamboo and floating elements.

A young boatman.

In Muang Ngoi, the boat was met by a handful of guesthouse owners eager to get guests. There are many guesthouses there now, and a few early closing eating places. But it is low key, and the atmosphere here is that of the Laotian countryside. For most people, life passes as it has always done. Not surprisingly-farming and fishing is what keeps people alive.

A fisherman work on his net in the mainstreet of Muang Ngoi. 

A shop along the mainstreet. A smell of gasoline filled the place-rows of bottles filled with gasoline are lined up for sale. Here you get everything from fuel to beer. Everything from fishinghooks to mosquitonets.

not only shops along the mainstreet, some do the weaving as well.

A working elephant has been scrubbed in the river and leave the village.

Muang Ngoi is a great base for hiking. The surrounding area is beautifull, and there are a few interesting villages out there. Heading out of Muang Ngoi you first come to the Tham Kang cave, out of it flows a small river and there is a nice little pool outside it. Commonly used by locals to bathe in. Inside the cave is another, more secluded bathingspot.

Inside the Tham Kang cave. Crystal clear water with shining stones and small fishes. A great place to take a refreshing dip in the rainy season. Some daylight reaches in so it is not far away from the outside world.

The area surrounding the cave is rich in small creatures-attractive butterflies....

....and some rather strange creatures.

Some enjoy my sweating feet. This was before i dipped in the cave....

Just after the cave, ricecountry begins for real. Big areas of neatly built ricefields, now mostly waterfilled, ready to be planted. Water is everywhere, sharply reflecting the sunshine.

There are large ricegrowing areas, and people were busy working them. Here they are planting rice.

Transporting the riceplants to the planters.

Ba Na village. Remote, yet accessible. There is a place to eat (and get drunk on the local tipple) and an ultrabasic place to stay.

School Holiday.

Many villages are not connected to the grid, some have got their own locally made powerplant instead.

Kratie-from dolphins and craftspeople to villages and exotic dining.

Kratie is on the main "milkroute"between the border with Laos and the central parts of Cambodia. For many, Kratie town is their first meeting with Cambodia. I was one of them, and i like the atmosphere there. However-the tourist information office had little to say, they impress none. Find your information elsewhere.

Renting a bicycle or a motorbike, is a good idea. I opted for the first-paid a dollar for my bike, and headed for the riverferry crossing over to Koh (meaning island) Trong in the middle of Mekong. Only to see a full ferry leaving in front of my nose. And hour of idleness followed.

Koh Trong is only a kilometer from the town, but the separation from the mainland makes it a world apart. It is timeless, slowpaced countryside with farmald and villages, the houses mostly close to the river. I could only explore parts of the island, some of the trail were submerged by rainy season Mekong, but the rest was nice enough. The villages here are relatively well off-having well kept khmer style houses and often a garden. Some of them laid out more for decoration than harvest. Not commonly seen.

Arrival Koh Trong. 100 meters away is the villagemarket. Above the landingpoint is what seems to be the local hang out place, at least in good weather. There is even a tourist information a few steps from the ferry. They  have a couple of bikes for rent.  Bringing one costs a dollar extra with the ferry-but it wouldn't be fun arriving at the island depending on those few bicycles only to find they already are taken.

Villagehomes. All of them have a year of building sign on the roof. Very many are very new. Here lke other places ive visited in Cambodia. Definitely something is going on nationwide.

Typical are the roofornaments.

A barn with fishing and agricuultural tools leaned against it. Illustrating the three legs of livehood on the island: agriculture, fishing and domestic animals.

A local waterreservoir.

Cattle fashion. Most cows on he island have some form of decoration.

People were out and about. I hanged out with some locals in a makeshift gamblingdenn just beside the trail. Later i stopped by a party of youngsters having their own grillparty. They were grilling fish more or less in the middle of the trail, and had a big fishtrap suspended from a bridge, hoping to catch more. A group of children used the trail as their footballfield.

Others were more busy-tending cattle, processing herbs. Ferrying animalfodder. Repairing riverboats. A woman was burning cut vegetation on a new farmfield-her small children assisting. You start seriously participating at a very young age in Cambodia. There was construction of new fishtraps-and chickencages. And everywhere the same story: friendly and forthcoming people the moment you show interest for what they are up to.

The younger generation chilling.

My next biketour out of Kratie was upriver on the mainland. It is a lot less tranquil-parts of the ride was a dust nightmare-every passing vehicle adding their share to the misery. But i recommend that ride too-it is lot of roadside activities going on. Lot to see and learn. And one of the villages is known for its sticky rice production. A god place to stock up on some extra energy.

Travelling the countryside, offering cold, dustkilling shakes. Heaven for dry throats.

Ice is manufactured in factories and brought to countless small customers.

Dustville!

One of several roadside distilleries. What they make will hardly win any price-but without going into details i can testify: it does the trick, and it makes the hangover.

Mountains of firewood outside a brickfactory. These ultrabasic trucks are commonly seen in the area.

Roadside carpentershop. There are many of them along this road. It is sort of a contradiction that so many superb pieces of furniture and wood art gets born n so simple surroundings-but your four star hotel wooden furniture could very well be born here.

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Along the road is a tranquil templemountain with a meditationcentre. A good place to rest in the shade-and with good view from the top-but it is quite a bit to the top.

Seeking shelter from the midday heat. Smart gy!

Approximately 15 kilometers from Kratie, is the startpoint for todays highlight-dolphinwatching on the Mekong River. Upstream and across the river is a deep water area where irrawaddy dolphins usually stay. In relatively large numbers. I say relatively, because this species is about to disappear. They exist in small, isolated pods in a few countries. In Cambodia and Laos put together there are a maximum of 90 dolphins left. And the number is dropping year by year. They are not actively hunted, but way to often drown in fishingnets-their divingtime is so short they can drown in nets even before fishermen have realized there is a dolphin in it.

approaching the forest where we expect to find dolphins.

The boat slowly advanced upstream and across the river, and we headed into an area of submerged vegetation. Petty soon we got our first sighting of 2 dolphins slowly swimming back and forth. The boat was moored to a treetrunk and the engine switched off. It made them come a it closer, but they were not in the mood for further interaction, and slowly went upstream. Seeing no more dolphins after a while of searching the surface, blinded by the reflecting sunlight, we too went upstream in a slightly different direction. Bingo. No less than 7 dolphins were assembled in one spot. They were a lot more active, and some came within 30 meters of the boat. They were funny to watch-doing the stereotypic syncron swimming and sometimes small leaps.

After a days physical activity, getting back to Kratie's food is good. You can try a lot of different things here-the nehm-spicy raw fish wrapped in bananaleafs, the sticky rice-caled krolan-although it is easier to find along the road. You can pass a manhoodtest by eating bugs, actually i recommend doing it with beer. It exellent for that purpose. Sometimes you find snake and lizzards. One afternoon I had a feast on grilled frog with rice.

The cuisine from hell, way to many will call this. But it is actually good food. But when it comes to snakes, a little care is required: the capture of snakes has a serious ecological consequence, some species face serious trouble because of it. So before heading into a snakemeal, know what you buy.