World Challenge 2014 - Honduras

World Challenge - Thailand and Laos

17 Olavians from the current Year 12 and 13 met on the final day of the Summer term in July, when we had our ‘build-up’ day; we had a kit check, spent time with our Expedition Leader (Matt), ran through important expedition procedures and sorted out last-minute problems before the big departure day!

After a pizza, we eventually got to sleep at about 01:00, before an early 04:00 start. We packed up, had a quick breakfast, distributed group kit and caught our coach to Heathrow. On arrival, we prepared our rucksacks for transit and sorted the group money. Finally, we boarded our 12:30 flight to Bangkok, buzzing with excitement for our upcoming adventure!

Upon arrival at Bangkok, we spent a further 5 hours at the airport, taking the 11:40 flight to Vientiane (the capital city of Laos), where we were first introduced to the blazing heat and thick humidity of the country. We spent two nights in Vientiane, in which we bought team phones and did some sightseeing – we visited a typical daytime market place and night market, took a walk alongside the River Mekong and enjoyed the unexpected calm that pervades the city.

After our time in Vientiane, we took a 3 hour tuk-tuk journey to the village of Ban Na – dangerous, slightly, but there was a nice breeze! We stopped at several markets along the route, for refreshment and for our guides to purchase supplies – it was amazing to see the hustle and bustle of the markets, with huge varieties of food! From Ban Na, we began our 3-day acclimatisation trek around Phou Khao Khouay National Protected Area. We only trekked for several hours each day; however, the heat and humidity ensured it was comparable to a MUCH longer trek back home, not to mention walking up seemingly endless uphill routes on wet, rocky ground from huge amounts of rain. There were plenty of opportunities to slip! Our nights were spent in tents, which proved to be obstacles themselves to overcome – you would have thought, given the climate and the walking taking a lot out of us, we would sleep like rocks. No! This is World Challenge: between the sweat, the stuffiness and the water seeping into your tents, it was preferable to some to just stay awake! After our second day of trekking, we spent the afternoon and early evening playing games with our guides up in the elephant tower and at the end of the trek, on the third day, we were treated to a ceremony by the village in which religious bands were tied on us, before being laid on with a feast!

After a truly exhausting trek phase, we transferred back to Vientiane, from which we began our transit to northern Laos for our project phase, beginning with a 3-hour minibus journey to the scenic riverside town of Vang Vieng. After spending the night there, we continued to take a 7-hour minibus journey to Luang Prabang, a beautiful laid back city set into the mountainous region of northern Laos. Staying here for two nights, we cleared up some admin work and planning and were able to visit a waterfall park nearby. Here, there was a bear enclosure dedicated to their protection and we climbed up to the top of the waterfall and then made a fairly difficult descent down, enjoying the views and being splashed with water on the way down!

On our third day in Luang Prabang, we were introduced to our translators for the project phase – Mon and Jit – who we went shopping with to purchase supplies for the village we were going to work in, Ban Kok. We then travelled by boat down the Mekong for two hours, where were met by a host of children and women, who bore necklaces and cups of flowers to welcome us. We settled into our accommodation for the first day (in a village hall) and then went out to play with the kids with some toys we had purchased them. Throughout the course of our time in the village, we helped to paint over a school, filled in a new toilet block for the village, did some gardening in the area around the school and even managed to teach some basic English lessons to the children! For the whole team, our time in the village was particularly special to each of us, we all took great joy in playing the kids, cooking with the adults and appreciating the fact that they have so little, but were always (both kids and adults) up so very early with beaming smiles on their faces! Other highlights included the temple that sat up above the village, which proved to be an excellent spot for peace and reflection, taking a tour of the rice paddies near the village and, once more, partaking in a ceremony of thanks and good luck laid on by the villagers. In our thanks, we sang for the villagers (of course including Jerusalem!) and the kids sang in return. A truly special time in the expedition, we left the village and headed back to Luang Prabang, ready to move onto the main trek phase.

From Luang Prabang, we needed to travel to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand for our main trek. We did this through two 8-hour boat journeys on the Mekong and a public bus over three days – the first boat trip was to Pak Beng (a small riverside town in Laos) and then onto Hauy Xai (a border town in Laos). We crossed over the Thai border and took a short transport to Chiang Khong, where we stayed the night and had dinner at a tourist-adapted bar, giving us a small taste of home! The following day, we took a 4-hour public bus to Chiang Rai city, staying the night at the accommodation of our trek providers, the Akha Hill tribe.

Finally, the day had come that some had been dreading – the start of our six day main trek! We began by taking a speed boat to a hot spring site, where we had lunch and some time to bathe in the pools. We then started