From China to Laos; A World of Rice and Leeches.

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From Kunming in Southern China, we took a sleeper bus to Mengla (even southerner China), then a regular bus across the Laos Border to Luang Namtha (details below). The enormous bus from Mengla into Loas contained just the driver, Alex, myself, a Chinese woman and a massive amount of vegetables. It felt fitting. I entered china in a crowd of Trans-Siberian tourists headed for Beijing, I left in a crowd of cabbages headed for the middle of nowhere. And almost nowhere it was. But it was nowhere with sticky rice and that is all I cared about for a long time.

Sticky rice is amazing. In Laos it is the main variety of rice grown and is eaten as a staple with every meal, as an alternative to white rice. In order to cook it, it must be first soaked then steamed and what you end up with is a somewhat gluey fragrant mound. To eat it you break a bit off with your fingers and roll it in your palms into a chewy bite size ball, ideal for dipping into sauces and curries. Now, as a food obsessive, I have long been in love with sticky rice, it is found in Chinese cuisine, where it is used to make a leaf-wrapped dumpling filled with red bean or meats. It is also cooked with sugar and coconut for a south south east asian desert or served with barbequed meat in Thai cuisine. The sticky rice in laos however is the stuff of dreams. It is something I now long for. As a westerner, I have never been too discerning about rice- the way it's cooked yes, but not the grain itself. I was a fool. I can honestly say that I have never tasted such good rice as that produced in laos. It was naturally sweet and rich, the flavour; indescribable. It just tasted of more than the rice I have had before. Even the smell was wonderful, and when you went through rice paddies, you could smell the same mouthwatering sweetness in the fresh plant. Luckily, it was available everywhere. In the morning the street sellers would cook up great baskets of it and then spoon it out throughout the day. Unlike steamed white rice, the later in the day, the better. Sitting in its humid pot, it seemed to mellow and mature and the texture just gets better and better. It amazed me. Even cold it was lovely- it didn't go dry and hard, just more chewy. Mmmm.

In Luang Namtha, apart from rejoicing in our discovery of sticky rice, we also decided to go on a jungle trek. Laos has an astounding amount of jungle, some of it primary forest, however much of this is in danger as it developed to provide agricultural land, and thus money. In the 1970s laos had a peaceful revolution in which the monachary was disposed and the communists siezed power. Since then China has been a firm friend and much of the north has large Chinese settlements. The Chinese have also struck deals to use Laos resources, for example, the Chinese are sealing the main highways in exchange for use of much of the viable land in the northern provinces. This land, after being cleared of jungle, is largely used for rubber plantations, in a way in which the Laos do get some profit but the Chinese more. It is obvious that a certain amount of land needs to be cleared to sustain the population, but deforestation is a problem. The Laos government does vaguely recognize this, and so has established several (critics say not enough) protected areas. If you hire a compulsory guide and buy a permit, you can venture into these areas.

The trek operators we went with were slightly budget. It was obvious that our guide, a nice chirpy 24 year old, had never walked the route before. Luckily an elderly villager was to accompany us most of the way. He was a worn old man, about 70 years old who spoke no English but had a big smile and an even bigger machete. In battered flip flops he sped along the jungle paths while we, in hiking boots spluttered and puffed and slithered around trying to keep up. The forest was steaming, lush and beautiful and tramping along the narrow trail, we passed all manner of spiky plant and giant centipede. For lunch we stopped in little clearing and our guides made a small seating area of banana leaves. We each got another leaf as a plate and rolling rice in our hands, we tucked into a delicious picnic of egg, pickled vegetables and curry. When there was little danger of us getting lost, our old man darted off and we carried on with our guide. We were scheduled that night for a home stay, which from the company write up had been made to sound like a wonderful engaging experience in an isolated village. After 6 hours of walking, the village was in sight, on the other side of an apparently unexpected wide river which we waded across.

Around 80% of laos 4 million people live in villages, and these are poor villages. Wooden huts, often on stilts, surrounded by pigs and chickens and ragamuffin children. Like in China, a village usually had a single main profession. Unlike western villages where you'll have a mixture of jobs being done, Asian villagers tend to learn a set of skills such as pottery, weaving or papermaking and go into community wide production. Any time not spent on day to day living (and sleeping) goes to making money from this trade.

We were tired and filthy and wet, as we walked up the river bank onto the main road which apparently connected the village to Luang Namtha, with a regular tourist bus service. The villagers looked at our muddy clothes with amusement, obviously thinking we were insane for walking through the jungle rather than taking a bus 20 minutes down the road. We felt rather silly and our guide who felt like he'd done his bit, sent us out to have a look around the village. An experience that might have been interesting if we'd had a translator. A thunderstorm rolled in and we retired to our hosts house. They seemed kind, but too shy to try and communicate and the guide once again couldn't or wouldn't translate. We were given mats and mosquito nets and exhausted from the walking had no problem falling asleep to the lullaby of thunder.

The next day was much the same as the first, we passed through some low areas of crops and rubber trees before venturing into the jungle. There was some primary forest and we were both pleased by the enormous trees and massive twisting vines. The forest floor was dotted with lovely mushrooms and occasionally we passed colonies of insects which vibrated in synchrony when we went close. It was slightly cooler as the thunderstorm lingered around us and ir rained on and off throughout the day. Once again we had a wise local but for some reason he left us early in the day. Then chirpiness of our guide got slightly annoying as at every fork in the path he would walk away from us and try to slyly call his boss to check we were going the right way. It wasn't sly and we would much rather he had told us that he didnt know. Eventually we ended up, once again with a river between us and our destination. This time, it was quite deep and fast flowing so much harder to cross. As it turned out it was also home to lots of leeches which, once in the tuk tuk home we spent much time picking off. Back at the guest house we showered fully clothed and washed the remainder of the leeches down the drain. There was still one in my shoe the next day which says something about either my washing skills or their agility.

Rather naughtily, we scuttled away from Luang Namtha without filling in our trekking feedback forms. How do you tell someone really nice that they are a Muppet? Tourism is a relatively new business in Laos, especially in the north and lot of these guys are still learning. For the most part, they mean well and are not trying to rip you off or piss you off, though they may succeed at both. The moral is maybe to not take the cheapest option and to research where you are going!

Travel Information:

Travelling from China to Laos at the Boten border crossing, we took the following transport:
a)Kunming (south bus station) to Mengla (north bus station) departed at 16.30. Y296 10-14hr, we were allowed to stay sleeping on the bus until around 7am.
b)Mengla to Luang Namtha (Y45) a few buses leave the north bus station from around 8am. This bus dropped us off at the china exit point where we were stamped out of china. We then got back on the bus and drove to the Laos entry point. Visas on arrival were $25 from the first window, (this price is perhaps variable, you need a passport photo and its worth noting that euros not accepted as payment). These then needed to be stamped at a second window and checked by some men at a table. After the border it was around another 3 hours to the Luang Namtha bus station.
c)As in most towns in Laos the bus station is a long way from the town (in this case 10km), so finally you need to be ripped off by a tuk tuk, for us it was 5USD.

As of 25/09/10, there are buses from Kunming to Mengla at 10.30, 16.30, 19.00 and 19.30 daily. There are hourly buses from Kunming to Jinhong and 1 bus daily to Luang Prabang (Y350) and Vientiane (Y400) respectively. When we were there, there was no direct bus from Kunming to Mohan. Buses in both Laos and China make regular toilet stops and also break for meals.

Accomodation:
Kunming- Hump Hostel. Big and sociable. Dorms from Y35, doubles from Y80
Luang Namtha- Manychan. Nice rooms and good restaurant. Double 50,000 k

Tours:
Luang Namtha- 'Along the Namtha' tour company. 2 day trek 389,000 k pp, all inclusive. Fun but definitely a budget option. Guide slightly clueless!

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Photos

Magic plant
It closes when you touch it!