Easing into Laos life in Luang Namtha

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We crossed over the Mekong River from Chaing Khong in Thailand to Huay Xai in Laos. After getting through immigration we started the five hour bus journey up to Luang Namtha. We immediately noted the difference between the countries. Firstly, the scenery was much less spoilt and more dramatic than in Thailand. Less forest has been destroyed here, the hills are higher, the valleys are deeper and the whole landscape is more pristine. The road over the mountains gave us amazing vistas of this untouched area of the country. Secondly, Laos, in most parts, is much poorer and less developed than Thailand. Instead of driving through towns with seven-elevens and Tescos (yes Thailand has Tesco) we drove past tiny villages of bamboo huts where people were washing there clothes and there children in buckets. The lifestyle and the povety seemed similar to that of the hill tribes we'd seen in Thailand but whereas that lifestyle is that of the minority there it is of the majority here. They live hand to mouth and most people work in the fields, relying on the growth of the crops and the health of their livestock to survive. There is no progression for most people here. In the west, for most, it is a given that we will progress, earn more money, have a bigger house etc as we get older. The people living in rural Laos, which is most of it, will do the same thing from the day they are old enough to work until they are unable. They will live in the same place and never have more money than is needed to survive. It must be a tough life when the only thing you are working towards is basic survival, something we take for granted in the west.

We arrived in Luang Namtha after a scenic but rough ride, the locals dont have the stomach for the windy and bumby roads and many were vomitiing into little bags which wasn't so pleasant. After checking into a nice hostel we went to try and book a trek into the Nam Ha protected area which surrounds the town. Unfortunately the prices were way to expensive for us so we decided that the following day we would just rent some bikes and explore for ourselves.

So the next morning we picked up our bikes and hit the road. We first cycled through some small villages, the locals were very friendly and they shouted Sabaidee (hello) as we shakly made our way along the dirt paths. We decided to go and visit a waterfall which was four kilometers down a rough track. It was tough on the bum but the views were good. Bright green rice paddies and fields of crops being ploughed by water buffalo stretched into the horizon where they met the mountains. When we got there we had to pay a few thousand Kip to get in. They charge for everything in Laos, it even costs to cross over some bridges, and foreigners always have to pay more. The waterfall was very underwhelming, it was dry season so it was just a trickle and was a complete waste of time. We had to then cycle the four kilometers back along the track to the main road.

We cycled along the main road for a while admiring the beautiful countryside, in one direction the road eventually led to the Chinese border but we went the other way and turned off down a dirt track back towards town. We cycled through some more villages and then about seven kilometers from town my tyre burst. This was rather annoying to say the least and we walked for quite some time, passing friendly locals on there way to work the fields, before luckily finding a guest house who mended the puncture. We then headed straight back to town to drop our bikes off before we had any more bad luck.

We spent another day in Luang Nam Tha doing absolutley nothing. We basically couldn't be bothered to get up the day we were meant to leave so we spent the day watching films as our room had cable TV. We also bumped into a French couple, Anna and Nic, who we had worked with months back at the animal sanctuary in Bolivia. So we spent the evening reminising about South America which was nice.

The following morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for the nine hour bus ride to Luang Prabang.

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