|
 We will leave Vientiane at 7.30 a.m. You will be picked up at your hotel or any other place to your convenience and then we drive directly to Ban Hatkhai where our village guides will meet us. Our transport truck then will bring us to Pha Xay waterfall, passing rice fields and beautiful forest. The orchid trek begins at Pha Xay, a ca. 40 m high cliff, only few hundred meter downstream of Tad Xay. We hike along a network of trails in this part of mixed deciduous and evergreen forest and will be guided by local villagers and an orchid expert. You will not only be surprised about the abundance of orchids but get insights into their specific biology and ecology. You will also have the opportunity of getting introduced to many other plants used by the local people for medical purposes or as food supplement. A picnic lunch awaits you in the midst of the forest. In the afternoon our transport brings us back to Ban Hatkhai where we stay over night in a villager’s home.
Time frame: approximately: 2 hours drive / 4 hours walking
Accommodation: Home-stay (Ban Hatkhai)
Transportation: Ford Everest or pick-up truck
Meals: L, D.
Guides: 2 local guides
Information: 1 orchid expert (English or French speaking)
Tip: bring along appropriate clothes for swimming/change of dress
Note: Please keep in mind that orchids are rare plants, even in a National Park! Do not pick any flower you will find. Just enjoy their beauty at their natural place and not in your hand. Taking photos is allowed, though… Thank you for your understanding!
 Leaving the village early, we cruise upstream for about 45 minutes in a long-tail boat on the beautiful and calm Nam Mang river. We then trek through sometimes dense, sometimes open forest, more or less parallel to the Nam Mang river northwards. The trail up can be in part quite breathtaking. Pha Luang is a huge sandstone plateau about 1000 m a.s.l., with a steep cliff plunging down to the Nam Mang valley, from where we have fantastic views as far as the Mekong Plain and Thailand in the distant mist. The vegetation on the plateau is quite unique. Orchids are not that abundant here, but along the way we will see many plants used by the villagers, and emphasis is put by our expert guide on medicinal plants. Around lunch time, we rest for a while and take a picnic meal at Pha Luang before hiking in a loop further to Houay Ki Ling, a seasonal stream where you – with some luck – may encounter a troupe of macaque monkeys. We then return to the boat which brings us back to Ban Hatkhai. Here our car is ready for the last leg of our tour to bring us back to Vientiane where we arrive around 6.30 in the late afternoon.
Time frame: approximately 5 hours trekking / 2x 45 minutes boat / 2 hours drive
Accommodation: none
Transportation: Ford Everest or pick-up truck, long-tail boat
Meals: B, L
Guides: 2 local guides
Information: 1 orchid expert (English or French speaking)
| FIT |
Price /Pax |
| No. Pax |
| 1 person |
358 $ |
| 218 $ |
| 3 persons |
160 $ |
| 4 persons * |
185 $ |
| 5 persons * |
160$ |
| 6 persons * |
140 $ |
| 7 persons * |
127 $ |
| 8 persons * |
119 $ |
| Maximum group size |
8 Pax |
* With a rented car (usually Ford Everest),
otherwise with the pick-up truck (Ford Rager)
of ‘Vientiane Orchidees’, depending on the
number of passengers
|
|
|
