We left China on a rickety old bus headed for Luang Namtha. After a relatively hassle free border crossing we entered into the countryside of laid back Laos. There were rolling hills covered with vivid green vegetation, much the same as there had been in China. However, there was even less development and everything just seemed a little more serene. It was a peaceful and sunny afternoon when we arrived in the small town of Luang Namtha.
The view from our hotel balcony.
The pothole filled road wound its way through endless hills, densely covered in jungle vegetation.
We bought two pineapples from this lady for about 25 cents, which made her very happy.
These old ladies were very persistent in trying to sell us their various souvenirs. After some firm 'no thank you's' they left us to our lunch.
The ride back went smoothly and we arrived in Luang Namtha just as the mosquitos were coming out in force.
The we signed up for a 2-day trek through the Nam Ha Protected Area. When we awoke in the morning it was pouring rain but we set out on our hike anyway. With us was our guide 'wood' and two other 'faleng' (meaning foreigners). The journey involved many stream crossings and a lot of dense jungle, filled with fascinating organisms.
After about 7 hours of trekking through the pouring rain, we arrived, completely drenched, to the village where we would be spending the night.
For dinner our guide cooked us up some tasty Laos food, with buffalo meat, tomatoes, and wild mushrooms he picked in the jungle.
The next morning we were relieved to find that the rain had finally let up. Before we headed out into the jungle we wandered around the village. This lady was doing some weaving.
This man is filling up his machine with fertilizer for the rice paddies.
This lady is making an intense blue dye.
Our last view of the village.
We were soon on our way again through the jungle.
This was where we were supposed to eat our lunch. However, moments after this photo was taken I sat on the bench and the whole structure collapsed, because the wood was rotting away!
On the next section of the trail there were more leeches than I ever thought was possible. It did not help that we were wearing sandals with many gaps in them. Even though we were moving quickly we still had to stop every 10 minutes to pull about 5-10 leeches off of our feet (slightly horrifying!). The leeches thinned out after about an hour and by this time we all had numerous bloody splotches on our feet and legs.
We were all happy to catch a glimpse of civilization once again.
We were extremely muddy, tired and full of leech bites.
But the sun peeked out and made for a pleasant conclusion to our trek, through the rolling hills.
Our chariot was waiting to whisk us away to hot showers and soft beds.
The view from our hotel balcony.
For dinner we went over to the town's night market where there were all kinds of exotic delights to try. This lady is making a green papaya salad using an enormous mortar and pestle.
The next morning we decided to rent a motorbike and ride over to Muang Sing a small village about 30km away.
The pothole filled road wound its way through endless hills, densely covered in jungle vegetation.
We passed through many villages along the way.
We bought two pineapples from this lady for about 25 cents, which made her very happy.
These old ladies were very persistent in trying to sell us their various souvenirs. After some firm 'no thank you's' they left us to our lunch.
The ride back went smoothly and we arrived in Luang Namtha just as the mosquitos were coming out in force.
For dinner our guide cooked us up some tasty Laos food, with buffalo meat, tomatoes, and wild mushrooms he picked in the jungle.
Our village accommodation.
The next morning we were relieved to find that the rain had finally let up. Before we headed out into the jungle we wandered around the village. This lady was doing some weaving.
This man is filling up his machine with fertilizer for the rice paddies.
This lady is making an intense blue dye.
Our last view of the village.
We were soon on our way again through the jungle.
This was where we were supposed to eat our lunch. However, moments after this photo was taken I sat on the bench and the whole structure collapsed, because the wood was rotting away!
So we made do without it. For lunch we had more buffalo, eggplant and tomato that our guide had prepared earlier. And of course it is all eaten with traditional laos style sticky rice.
On the next section of the trail there were more leeches than I ever thought was possible. It did not help that we were wearing sandals with many gaps in them. Even though we were moving quickly we still had to stop every 10 minutes to pull about 5-10 leeches off of our feet (slightly horrifying!). The leeches thinned out after about an hour and by this time we all had numerous bloody splotches on our feet and legs.
We were extremely muddy, tired and full of leech bites.
But the sun peeked out and made for a pleasant conclusion to our trek, through the rolling hills.
Our chariot was waiting to whisk us away to hot showers and soft beds.
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