I spent a couple of days trekking in northern Laos from Luang Nam Tha to a hill tribe village, Ban Nam Lai, where we spent the night. There were no roads at all to the village, so not even a motorbike there, and other than the odd Man Utd item, life there seemed to our European eyes to be unchanged from what it must have been like hundreds of years ago (although the villagers may well feel differently). The hill tribe was Akha, and fortunately for us we arrived on night 1 of a 3 day wedding celebration, which we were invited to. This involved us, out of politeness, having to down shots of lao-lao, the rice whiskey here, which the groom then rewarded with a handful of sweeties and a fag. First time I've experienced
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