Luang Namtha: Life & Nature

I know that was a cheezy title, but that is the official slogan of the town we spent the last few days in, Luang Namtha. Pretty far north and almost to China in Northern Laos, the biggest thing in Luang Namtha is the area around it, which is dense forest peppered with many ethnic groups. So obviously, as soon as we got there ( more on that in a bit), we looked into some trekking, which is the official name for hiking out here. We signed up for a two day trek, with an overnight stay in a small Akha tribal village, but Jess got quite sick, so we cancelled in favor of a staying home in our so so hotel. After a day of sleeping and not much else, she was feeling much better, so we went on a one day trek, which i will explain in a moment.

The most exciting party of Luang Namtha was definately our arrival. There is only one way to get there from Luang Prabang, the infamous local bus. They claim it takes 9 hours, but those are lao hours. With either a 9am or a 530pm departure from Luang Namtha, we called ahead to a guest house in Luang Namtha and headed out on the night bus, knowing we would arrive some time around 2am. The drive wasa really something, winding through the moonlight on curving, bumpy roads, people sitting in the aisles on plastic stools, and this rude couple sitting across from us that refused to let the woman in front of them open the window, even though she clearly was about to vomit. The night got really foggy as we went farther along, really reminded me of the sunset, almost Tower Market -esque. The driver couldnt have seen 40 feet in front of him but that didnt stop him from barreling on up the hills. When we finally arrived it past 3am, foggy as all hell, and freezing. All we had to do was get our stuff off the top of the bus (I climbed up and searched with a flashlight, wake up the only tuk-tuk driver, cruise on into hopping Luang Namtha (thats sarcasm, by the way) and find our guesthouse. We decided quickly that anywhere that we could find was good enough, and the third fence we rattled led to a 50,000 kip night of "what's crawling inside the walls". I thought maybe a rodent, but Jess assured me it was a bug and I should just go to sleep. It was nearing sunruse so I didn't argue.

For your sake, we'll skip over the find a trek day and the recovery day that followed. :ets just say Jess didn't eat anything all day and I have had enough noodle soup to last me a while ( 5 meals in 2 days if you're keeping track at hame). I love me some noodle soup, but it was the other boring options that drove me to it really. So our trek was really good. We huffed and puffed over two peaks through pretty dense jungle and then stopped for a lunch we'll call the Jungle-Q. Our guides chopped down some bamboo to make skewers to roast meat they bought that morning at the market in Luang Namtha, then cut down banana leaves to create a picnic blanket of sorts. We squatted around it and ate with our hands - grilled beef (almost jerky they cooked it so long), sticky rice, and various lao favorites, all spicy, including Laap - a minced pork salad sorta thing - bamboo shoots, a sauce made out of crabs and chillis, greens, and more. It was way too much food, and the beef would have been better if they took it off the fire about 10 minutes before they did, but it was all in all pretty cool. Bananas and Jujubees (thats really a fruit and not just a nasty candy) made dessert, and then we trekked out to visit the Khmu village. The Khmu peope make up 45% of the Lao population, and we got to sit around in our guide's house, as he was from the village, and just cruise around. Kids smiled and waved, and Jess and I got a puppy to follow us the whole time, so it was pretty cool. We piled back into the tuk-tuk and went to see another village, this one of the Black Thai ethnicity. They are calle dthe black thai because they wear these black robes all the time, and they emigrated from China not too long ago. They have their own language, and the writtn form uses Chinese characters, not the sanskrit letters of Lao, Thai and Khmer (Cambodian). That village, along with Luang Namtha, really made us feel close to china, as characters were all over the place.

We decided we had definately had our fill of Lao food, and although the country is beautiful and the people are nice, we left this morning for Thailand. Well, we're back in the land of smiles, so what have we done? So far, we ate Pad Thai twice, took a nap, and had wienerschnitzel for dinner. Ok, taht last one stands out, but the guy running the place was german so what the hey. We are in the border town of Chiang Kong, and leave tomorrow morning for Chiang Mai, the second largets city in Thailand and often called the cultural capital. It will be wierd to be back in a big city but the food should be great, and then its off to Bangkok (breifly) on the way to THE BEACH!!!It sounds crazy, but only a few weeks remain in our journey, so its almost time to get the relaxation we deserve on the beautiful white sand of the thai islands. Glod to see the Niners won their first game since we left, clearly they are getting ready to roll into the playoffs with my return. Well, maybe not, but it looks like the Yorks are ready for the Shaun Hill era to begin. I know i am. All for now,
Dave