HANGIN' WITH THE HILLTRIBES IN LUANG NAMTHA

8am and there we were hopping onto a boat to take us across the Mekhong River to Laos on the other side, needless to say we were two of the happiest boys on the planet. Just a couple of hours later and we were aboard a very speedy bus to Luang NamTha. The scenery was amazing all the way but a litle hard to enjoy when you're imagining rolling down the side of a mountain to your death. We made it safely to our destination, however, and immediately set about finding two places on a trek for the following day. Mission accomplished, we ate some very good Indian food and had an early night.

The trek had an eight persons limit and one guide. We arrived at the office in the early morning to be greeted by Ponsak - our guide, another guide from an Akha village, and the other six trekkers who turned out to be a great gang. A stop at the market on the way made us really glad to be vegetarian as we passed some, not very mouthwatering, animal appendages on display along with some freshly pinned down live frogs and various edible bugs. Thankfully the veg section was much easier on the eyes and the stomach.





Back to the jungles once more, we're becoming regular Tarzans these days! The heat and humidity meant that you were soaked in sweat from the get go, but I suppose that's the jungles for you. We trekked for maybe three hours through forest and over hills, stopping for breaks along the way and receiving titbits of interesting information about the forests from Ponsak, who also provided much of the entertainment for the trip (can that boy climb a tree!). We came to a clearing with a small bamboo shelter for our lunch where our Akha guide lay out huge banana leaves as a table cloth and produced banana leaf parcels of the most delicious food, served with sticky rice, which we tucked into using some chopsticks made on the spot from twigs, or else just with our hands like the locals, when in Rome wha?!





Onwards and upwards with full bellies we got back to scaling mountains, taking in some incredible views whenever we reached a clearing. The hill-top Akha village eventually came into view and a path became more evident before us. We were soaked in sweat as we entered the village but they didn't seem to mind. This was one of the most spectacular sights of our trip so far. This village was literally on top of a mountain and the Akha people live like they've probably lived for generations. This was proper tribal living like we had never seen, nor did we expect to see it here. Women were using old weaves to fashion some fabrics to sell, many of the married women go topless by tradition. Kids run about everwhere, some naked others in muddy clothes, playing with puppies and piglets, some shouting "Sabaideeeeee" to the strange looking white-skinned trekkers, other smaller kids retreating in fear, there were even a few tears! Dwellings are one room bamboo huts on stilts with animals living in the space below. Pigs and water buffalo chill out in the shade and chickens just run everywhere. There is one water pump in the village centre and this is where the entire village washes. Two dwellings have recently had generators installed, the first lights in village, nobody else has electricity. We were shown to our lodgings, a large one room bamboo structure created specifically for treks to the village. As light faded we sat outside and were served some more great food as some of the village kids watched warily a few metres away. After dinner Ponsak produced a bottle of Lao Lao, a locally brewed rice whiskey, to share around the table which succeeded in loosening everybody up before some Akha ladies came to give us traditional massages before we retired for the night.







We awoke to the sound of the village animals at first light and sat ourselves down for another feast before embarking on our trip back to Luang NamTha town. The second day's trek proved not quite as strenuous as the previous. We arrived back to our pick-up point in the mid afternoon and were back to the comforts of town life shortly after that. We celebrated our mountain conquest with far too many Beerlaos at the Many Chen Guesthouse for the whole evening. Hi to Sanna, Magnus, Chloe, Sylvain, Martin, Lucas and of course Ponsak, thanks for an incredible experience.