Blogs from Louang Namtha, North, Laos, Asia

ooh...a traffic light! I was wondering why our bus stop before entered the town center, seem like Namtha took another step further to became a city! but look around the surrounding...well...the road work from the airport is almost finish, town still expanding and more houses, but the town still the same...quiet! wondered where the economy come from? where are the money? there must be something behind the scene! for us tourists...those bunch of trekking agency, guesthouses and cafe around the night market is the business center. not much had been change from my last visit 2 years ago. but room rate along the main street seem to be unified to 70000kip for the same old room and same old service. lucky there still couple of places offered room for 50000 that I could afford to lazy ... read more

Hello Everyone, I’m writing this blog post from an airplane enroute between Luang Nam Tha and Vietenne. We’re heading south to visit the Plain of Jars, then back up to Luang Prabang where we’ll meet up with April and Kyle again. So the Gibbon Experience. . . What to even say besides it was incredible and most definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We didn’t see any Gibbons, we heard some, but it was still likely the best thing we’ll do all trip. We left Huoy Xai in a pickup truck with 4 other people, all Americans. Us girls (4 of us) got to sit in the cab of the truck and the boys got the back which was quite cold and apparently scary as part of the road was nothing more than a track ... read more

I arrived in Louang Namtha on Dec 1 around 2 pm. I was hot, tired and a little stresed by my experience on the bus from Jinghong. I went to the bank, exchanged $80 US for 643,000 kip, found a hotel, had a long shower, walked to a restaurant, had a Lao chicken salad dish (quite tasty) and crashed. It was later that eve that I started to try to arrange for a kayak trip of 2 or 3 days into the Luang Namtha NBCA, a national park, at the local guide shops. You can travel alone, but need a permit and some Lao to get around. Unfortunately, not alot of people are arranging kayak trips - the rivers are all exceptionally low - they say it is the dry season but the rough guide says ... read more