Luang Nam Tha

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Keen to get off the typical tourist route down the Mekong river, I headed up north on a bus filled with locals, to go treking in Nationally protected Luang Nam Tha park. As it was low season, when I arrived, there was only one trek in town that had people going on it scedualed for the next day. So keen as ever I set off with 5 other lovely girls on a 3 day treck through the dense jungle, rivers, farms, hills and mountains. We stayed at a hilltribe village full of baby goats, piglets, chicks and puppies as well as many cute excited kids who loved to get their photos taken so they could see themselves on our cameras . On the second night we stayed in a village just off the side of the road. We bathed in the river with the geese and joined in a local christening party with lots of lao lao whiskey and dancing with the locals.



After the trek we headed up north to a small town called Mung Sing for the day. It wasnt long before we arrived in the dusty, almost empty town and questioned our motives for being there. We followed the sound of some music and found ourselves sitting on a deck with some locals drinking beer lao and eating sweet sticky rice in bamboo leaves. Drenched and covered in paint and power we ran back to bus station to catch the last bus back to Luang Namtha. Who would have thought we could join in the celebrations of the Sonkron Festival in a small town up north? The trek and this day were deffinitly a highlight of my trip so far.

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