At the foot of Mount Pha
Daeng, a sign reads “Unexploded Bombs,
Still in this Area. Dangerous!” remains
a chilling reminder of the horrors of the Vietnam War. Collectively
unmindful of the warning, we reckoned every bomb ordnance buried along the
trail stretching to a radius of a few kilometers, were all swept clean already. Laos—by
the way—is a vastly different nation now compared to what I first read in
history books.
The clandestine carpet bombing
extended by the US Air Force to Laos during the Vietnam War disrupted the lives of the locals in the countryside. As our young
guide who speaks better than average English, was telling us facts about
the mountain, I imagined young men like him were among those who died during
the war: young, bright and delirious of wonderful nature. Amidst all environment
issues and concerns hounding us right now, he probably knows it’s still a good
world we are living in today.
Word. I muttered to myself.
He won’t be here guiding travelers to a mountain top, if the Mekong region stayed
the same. I will never be here as well, If I don’t have the liberty to travel.
The word “freedom” comes to mind as
he described to our group the scenery that awaits us at the top of Mount Pha
Daeng. “Sea of clouds everywhere you
look. We lucky because we are early. Foggy at the top”.
You can’t get any freer than
that, I thought. But to enjoy the great outdoors—at its rawest
conditions—comes with a huge responsibility though: to remain a steadfast
responsible traveler supporting all sustainability efforts.
A
Chill Hike to the Forest
Since the town of Nong Khiaw
is already located in an elevated terrain, the way to the peak of Pha Daeng is
only a thousand five hundred feet away. An achievable hour-and-a-half hike on a
steady pace gets you to the top. Since I jumpstarted to the lead pack of our
group, I reached the viewpoint at around the same time while the sweeper pack
arrived in exactly two hours.
I’ve been to several mountains
in the Philippines offering stunning sea of clouds sceneries, but as
each one is unique, the panoramic view that greeted me at the peak of Mount Pha
Daeng astonished me.
Standing on a big slab of
boulder—which has since became a favorite Instagram spot—I was instantly arrested by the
moving fog slowly giving glimpses of the valley and the Ou River below.
With my fellow travel
bloggers still on the trail up, I took the opportunity to have my portrait
taken standing on that rock. With the hazy forested mountainside of Nong Khiaw
behind me, I took one leap for joy—a moment captured in one take—by one of our
guides using my camera.
Mist-Veiled
Valley
As soon as the peak became
crawling with our group consisting of several travel bloggers, Destination
Mekong staff, local guides and Luang Prabang tourism officers, I found myself a
quiet spot just to let the place sink deeper into my consciousness.
While the sun starts showering gleaming
rays over the lush tops of the surrounding limestone mountains, the thick fog enveloping the magical landscape earlier, has started to clear as if waved by an invisible hand.
Slowly, I caught sight of
the town in the valley below, the long snaking line of Ou River exposed itself.
Chocolate brown when seen from the Nong Khiaw bridge, but from the top of Pha
Daeng, it looks every bit of glittering gold. We all had a ham and egg Bánh
mì for breakfast and stayed at the viewpoint for another hour. At around past 8
am, all the mist has vanished thus signaling for us to have one last look at the valley
below and start our descent.
On the hike down, I once again raced to the
front of the pack arriving at the jump-off first. I told one of our guides that
I won’t take the van back to town as I would just set out on foot.
Strolling back, I passed by
the rest of the town seeing little kids waving from their windows, mother’s
carrying baskets in their heads and fathers toiling to various tasks in front of
their houses. These are all familiar sighting in most sleepy towns in Asia, but despite my accustomed
sight of it all, I can’t deny that it’s life ordinary at its best indeed.
