After several long bus rides with stop overs in Kunming, and some other places not worth mentioning, we arrived at the Lao border. It's a walk-across-crossing, and we were detained by the Chinese border guards upon exiting for over an hour because they had not seen a version of the US passport as new as those we carried. They were, however, impeccably polite and made us a comfortable as possible. After buying our visa for Laos we hopped in the back of a pickup with seats (this is public transportation) and drove 60 km (through nothing, very striking after China where there is always something) to Luang Nam Tha, a large valley...
...that serves as the capital of this region of northern Laos. There is a large protected area of forest here that also is home to some tribal villagers. One of the highlights of our time in Luang Nam Tha was a 2 day kayak trip we took down a small river (Nam Ha) in the protected area.
It was a great way to see the forest, and the kayaking (class 2, open inflatables) was just our speed.
Our group of 8 included 6 tourists and 2 Lao guides, one of whom spoke excellent English and afforded us an opportunity to learn a lot about Laos. We stopped for traditional Lao lunch spread on banana leaves cut from the forest and ate sticky rice and spicy concoctions with our hands.
We stopped to visit one of the villages midday. It was quiet, because those not too old or young were all out working on the rice harvest.
The kids were around though, busy husking the harvested rice, but playing really. Although the food in Laos was tasty, there were some things...
...such as sun dried rat and bat, that we would not eat.
Sierra, apparently, likes water buffalo as much as me. Here's another picture for you Sierra. Very funny looking animals, but those we did eat (sorry Sierra, I hope you knew they were for food).
We stopped in another village to spend the night, where we spent some time hanging out with the locals. The kids are always very happy to have their photos taken, adults not so much.
The next morning there was a crew there to see us off as we got back in our boats and headed downstream. At the end of the float we "got the opportunity" to try some local fermented rice wine stuff.
I think our guide enjoyed it more than we (at least Jon) did.
...that serves as the capital of this region of northern Laos. There is a large protected area of forest here that also is home to some tribal villagers. One of the highlights of our time in Luang Nam Tha was a 2 day kayak trip we took down a small river (Nam Ha) in the protected area.
It was a great way to see the forest, and the kayaking (class 2, open inflatables) was just our speed.
Our group of 8 included 6 tourists and 2 Lao guides, one of whom spoke excellent English and afforded us an opportunity to learn a lot about Laos. We stopped for traditional Lao lunch spread on banana leaves cut from the forest and ate sticky rice and spicy concoctions with our hands.
We stopped to visit one of the villages midday. It was quiet, because those not too old or young were all out working on the rice harvest.
The kids were around though, busy husking the harvested rice, but playing really. Although the food in Laos was tasty, there were some things...
...such as sun dried rat and bat, that we would not eat.
Sierra, apparently, likes water buffalo as much as me. Here's another picture for you Sierra. Very funny looking animals, but those we did eat (sorry Sierra, I hope you knew they were for food).
We stopped in another village to spend the night, where we spent some time hanging out with the locals. The kids are always very happy to have their photos taken, adults not so much.
The next morning there was a crew there to see us off as we got back in our boats and headed downstream. At the end of the float we "got the opportunity" to try some local fermented rice wine stuff.
I think our guide enjoyed it more than we (at least Jon) did.
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