Luang Namtha

---

Today I tried Kayaking for the first time. The kayaks were inflatables for two people. Fortunately I was sharing with Someone more experienced (if not we would probably have gone round in circles!). I found it quite hard work for the arms and shoulders because I am not used to it. The countryside around was lush vegetation, bamboo and farming land. We had two stops to visit villages in the area. The houses are very traditional with the walls made from bamboo and the roof from rattan (which looks fairly similar to a thatched roof). The villagers mainly live from agriculture and fishing. There were piglets running around. There is also very small scale silk manufacture. I saw the raw silk threads. The lunch stop was by the river and our guide cut banana leaves to act as seats and as the table for the food. Back on the river there were some gentle rapids to contend with, nothing too much, but we did need to bail the boat out after one section. The ride back to the guest house was by tuk tuk, with one muddy section where we jumped out to reduce the load. Supper was from the night market. It included a dish called laap which is a minced meat or fish with lots of coriander served cold like a salad.

---