Luang Nam Tha

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Up at a reasonable time and out to breakfast and discuss the day. Lots of organised tours, but x6 is always expensive. We got a map and hired bikes and set off. We rode through some villages that were quite interesting, I think they thought six Aussies on bikes were pretty funny, and we meandered our way along. Harry can sit on the back of some of the bikes with seats and footrests. I took him for a while, but was pretty sore after the bus trip, then Christine took him for a while, then Corry took him, so that lightened the load somewhat. In a Black Thai Village we stumbled across a wedding, and the groom invited us to join them. Unfortunately Corry wouldn't, and although everyone else would it was not possible to stay.

The area is pretty flat, surrounded by mountains and forest, and each village has it own rice field. The houses are generally woven wall panels on stilts, some with weaving looms underneath. We watched one woman weaving silk, it could have been one of those timeless moments except for the Warner Bros cartoon theme from the tv upstairs.

The Lao are heavily reliant on the rivers, and the villages are always on the edge of a river. The vegetable gardens are fabulous, and we saw them collecting soil from the river bed, presumably for the vegetable gardens. In late afternoon, the town, like every Lao town or city fills with smoke. They all still cook on charcoal pots, first steaming the sticky rice, then cooking what ever over the same fire. Only large restaurants use gas for cooking, with the smaller ones still using wood. In the markets they will bring a lot of the food hot, and it is not reheated in any way after that. Meats are cooked over coals at the markets.

We continued our way around and back to town, about a 20k ride on pretty bad seats. We went to a market and some of us had noodles, Harry had fruit and a waffle, and then back to the guesthouse.

That night we went to a buffet, the kids thought the curry tasted like Grandma's, so hoed in and went back to watch a movie at the guesthouse. They hadn't seen tv in 3 weeks, so were really excited.

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