Toad shamans trapdoor

Question two for today...
After not knowing where to do the Toad Village quest I had a look at a Walkthru and it said that the trapdoor near the Shaman is the entrance to the Quest.
After several fruitless attempts to enter it or find an alternate entrance to the Quest I am now asking all of you;
Is there something wrong with the game?
Should the chat with the shaman have triggered the door to open?
uh, what is supposed to happen?
Throw me a frikken bone here (Dr Evil voice)

on another note is it actually possible to descend a ladder instead of falling on our heads?

[Davros]

Was just there this morning on my second play. Say Ukabu to Shinwiki - toad shaman is wise, and will open trapdoor when he has finished his reply. Try to ensure you don't stand on it (the trapdoor) while talking to him. I assume you are still on speaking terms with the toads, and haven't killed our good friend the blocking toad.

Incidentally, playing with patch installed this morning, and the toad that is supposed to be fixed was worse than ever. Saying goodbye didn't get him walking this time. Ended up pumping my best guy to the eyeballs with frenzy and bloodlust and exterminated the poor bugger in one swipe when no one was looking.

Ladders - you won't care at all when you get a little stronger about the lemming aproach of throwing yourself off great heights. If you do a search on ladders you will find a method (something like edging over backwards and being prepared to press the keyboard forward arrow to arrest your slide) that works 50-75% of the time. Me, I am well in tune with the Geronimo, Splat method, and couldn't bring myself to use anything else these days.