Trekking in Muang singh

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Sabaidee everyone!
Ok this is how i am going to play this travelblog thang!
It takes soooo long to do. I really want you guys to see what i am up to but i dont want to bore you with endless details..you guys have lives, right?! Jobs, responsibilities, children etc etc! ok well I am going to post up a load of photos with captions instead and see how that works for us. Give us all a little more time.
I went to Muang Sing with some peeps I met in Luang Namtha. It is a really small town with no internet and hardly any travellers, set in the middle of the rice fields and surrounded by mountains..so picuresque! After a few days of local trekking I decided to join the guys on a three day trek up into the mountains close to the china border ( at one point we were just 3km from china walikng along a secret opium smuggling footpath) visiting tribal villages on the way.
I am regrouping myself back at the border after saying goodbye to my lovely friends thinking of heading down to Luang Prabang tommorrow by two day slow boat.
I will update you all again soon
Enjoy the blog!
xxxxxx

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Photos

Akha Woman at the local market
I gave this woman 1 thousand kip (about 10p) to take this photo as I felt bad, but isnt she stunning!

My lovely trekking pals
Matt, Dan, Dave ( all from america who i met in Luang Namtha ) our guide, Dee and a local from the village.

Mountain view 7km from china!
We trekked for 3 days up and down mountains, stopping at Akha villages for the night and sleeping in with local families. I think the highest point we reached was 1800m!! What a view! Unfortunately due to the time of year the view was a bit hazy at the top but still amazingly lush!

Akha village
Excitement when someone comes back from the town to collect supplies for the village.

Town Kids in Muang Sing
Children ran from all directions calling 'Sabaidee' which means hello, they were so excited to see us and so sweet!

Sifting Rice Akha stylee
We woke to the sound of pummelling, happening in every direction from our bamboo hut. Thunderingly loud and extremely rhymical evry morning at six the Akha people pummel the rice they have picked and then sift it through. Every part of it gets used, the rice for the local families and the husks for pig food. It is really hard to sift the rice , its all in the wrist! I don't have the proper skills, I was dropping it all over the floor!

Dinner!
The Akha people keep all kinds of animal for food,pigs, chickens,cows and sadly dogs. There were loads of puppies everwhere but hardly any larger ones :(

Spirit Gate
Akha people are animists that believe in the spirits of nature. The spirit gate protects the villagers from evil spirits. They said if we touch it the spirits will visit us in our sleep and give us nightmares. It is also a swing at new year which the children can play on..when we first saw it we thought it was something much more sinister.

Akha kids
These children had hardly ever seen white people before and most of them had never ventures out of the village. They just stood and stared at us..it was really odd. I showed them the photos and they laughed, but would they smaile in a photo? Not at all!
Also all the kids in all the villages had the same design of top on! A yamaha design with a motorbike on in varying degrees of dirt and wear and tear! Madness!

Children cleaning dung off the football!
So funny we were playing footy with the local kids and they the ball kept getting kicked into wet dung! It would fly everywhere and all the kids would crack up. Eventually an adult got the kids to scoop up the poop and move it out of the way!