Morning
After breakfast, your expert guide will meet you at your hotel in Muang Hiem and take you to Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park.
First, you will visit the National Park’s headquarters and the Visitor Center in Muang Hiam. The guide will share a presentation of the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park and introduce the on-the-ground efforts in protecting wildlife.
After a 30-minute drive along a curvy road through gorgeous mountainous landscapes and through the National Park corridor you will arrive at Ban Nam Poung Village, an ethnic Khmu Village, situated on the edge of the National Park’s boundary.
The village guide, porters and cooks will be waiting to meet you at the village. The guide will inform you about the itinerary of the upcoming tour. Soon after that, get on a hand tractor (tok tok) – a tractor for plowing rice paddies that can be converted into a transportation vehicle and pass through this Khmu village. This is a good opportunity to see the daily village life and briefly learn about Khmu culture. The following 5km on the tok tok will continue through the village’s rice and corn fields with moderate climbs, learning along the way about upland rice cultivation and rural livelihoods.
Once at the edge of the fields and forest your guides will explain the different management zones of the park and you will start trekking into the National Park. The trek will follow a 7km trail built and maintained by the village. This trail passes through a thick jungle and mixed deciduous forest. At about 12:00, enjoy a local picnic lunch inside the National Park.
Afternoon
After the lunch, continue trekking. The local guide will show you medicinal plants and spot animal tracks and birds along the way. After around 4 hours trekking inside the National Park, you will arrive at the Nests campsite and will be shown to your accommodation – the hanging spherical “Nests”. Enjoy free time to relax and bath in the nearby river.
Evening
Relax around a campfire inside the National Park and enjoy a traditional Khmu dinner prepared by the village cooking group.
After dinner, you will receive a briefing about wildlife viewing at the Poung Nied salt lick – one of the largest salt licks in the National Park. The guides will inform you about the species of animals they may see and explain the rules and expectations for spotlighting.
It’s important to follow the introduced rules, such as: no talking, no eating at the salt lick observation tower. You will stay at the observation tower for a few hours (depending on your curiosity and patience) until no later than 11:30 pm.
The most common animals that you might spot include Sambar and barking deer (AKA muntjak) and various species of civets, although, if lucky, you may see also other protected animals such as bears, dhole, several species of wild cats and others.
Overnight in The Nests (two people per Nest).