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Northern Towns
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We started off from Luang Prabang in a sangthaew (long open backed bus) with a few other tourists to get up to Nhong Khiaw. Luckily it had a high powered motor since the surrounding mountains climb up steeply and we only took 3.5 hours. We met a retired American couple who were interested in bird watching but should have been out spotting buterflies since they are more plentiful (the Lao eat birds). Then strangely enough they were on our next three departures, in a boat, and on the next 2 buses, Dom found the lady's feet extremely funny, size 45 but only 1m60.
Nhong Khiaw and Muang Ngoy are linked only by river so one takes a boat between them, the boat however makes such a racket that you cannot speak for the hour that the trip takes. Saying that our boat appeared to break down twice and the driver had to get us to the side of the river so as not to be swept downstream and all the way back to Luang Prabang. Perhaps the driver had been drinking the day before since we noticed a lot of merry making - especially amongst the women who were singing and dancing after drinking copious amounts of lao lao (whisky). Simon was offered (could he refuse) at least 5 glasses and Dom had to do some dancing to keep them happy. We took a quick walk around the countryside here and came across some caves which were used by the government in hiding during the American bombing. When will they learn bombs didn't stop communism and they don't bring democracy either, saying that Lao is not really communist, unlike Vietnam and China.
Nam Tha is as far north as we're going, any further and we'll be back in China, the idea was to do some trekking and see some ethnic villages. It's also a really relaxing place, popular for massage and has some good food, lao, indian and western. We made an eco-trek through the tourist office (which we cannot recommend enough) and two friends we made (Florence and Clement), it was fantastic and is what "eco" tourism should be. The villages we went through and stayed in do not appear to have been touched by tourists, nothing is for sale, there is no hassle only people going about their daily lives and us getting to participate - or at least visit the schools and eat the food. We were invited by the chief to see a real live Hmong shaman performing his ritual to heal an old woman, of what we don't know, but the chanting was fascinating if somewhat monotonous (especially after 2 hours). The sacrificed pig was used in the hope of drawing out the malicious spirits and looked like it would be eaten.
We passed a Lantern village where the women make paper all day long - 4 large sheets - it's really thin and not much good for anything so they burn it! Their origins are in China so they first write on the paper in Chinese, at least those that know how.
On the second and third day trekking we tried lots of medicinal plants and other edibal "fruits" - most of them too bitter to offer any pleasure but we guess the Lao don't go hungry for long. Every meal though was great, we did have to suffer through a lot of rice though and think we've now had enough. The Khmu brought out a 5 litre pot of rice wine which we had to drink glass by glass through a straw (at least the group was large) until the taste was no longer alcoholic (i.e. after each drinking session water was added to top up the pot).
Simon visited a Tai Dam (black tai) village on the last day of their 3 day festival, people were dancing, drinking and otherwise occupied. The childrens merrygoround was great since there was no electicity just 2 or 3 people to push it around, at 3 minutes a time it must be exausting for a whole day as Simon can attest to after just 2 minutes.
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