The trip was supposed to be three hours but turned into four and a quarter, door to door. It was a winding road through the mountains, with rice paddies and other cultivation in the valleys, and small villages every few miles. You could guess at which ethnic group lived in the village by whether the houses were on stilts or not, whether you saw a spirit gate indicating animist religion, or the tribal clothing hanging on the line. We were dropped off individually in reverse to the amount of fare paid. So we saw some interesting sights driving through the town and it's suburbs.
Luang Namtha is the name of one of Laos' most northern provinces, which is named after the town we are going to first visit in this province. We will later travel further north in LNT province to Muang Sing. Laos shares a 140 kilometer land border with China and its northwest frontier with Myanmar follows a 130 kilometer stretch of the Mekong River, which we crossed to enter Laos.
"Luang Namtha’s main industries are agriculture, wood processing, lignite and copper mining, handicraft production, transportation and tourism. In 2005 per-capita GDP stood at US$ 280 per year and was growing at an annualized rate of 7.7%. In terms of employment, most people are engaged in agriculture, planting rice, corn, vegetables, cassava and peanuts. Other important agricultural products are buffaloes, cattle, fish, chickens, rubber, teakwood, watermelons, sugarcane and peppers. Forest products such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms, rattan, cardamom and ginger are also key sources of income for the rural people."(tourism website"
Since the guest house we had reserved turned out to be a good 500 yards off the main drag down an unlit dirt road, we turned around and went back to the downtown Zuela Guest House. This is considered a budget place at about $10 for a room with fan and private ba, $14 with AC. We are in a fan room since the AC rooms are full until tomorrow, when we will try to move. It is not hot, but leaving the windows open lets in the noise, which is substantial as they are celebrating Loy Kratong here a month earlier than it is celebrated in Thailand. Luckily they do not seem to have as much fireworks as Chiang Mai or we would get no sleep even with sleeping pills and ear plugs!
All restaurants in town but one seemed to be closed at lunch time; we learned they all were watching canoe paddling races on the river, but we had a simple Laos meal for about $3 each including the Beer Laos that we have taken to. We finally located a travel guide and explained that we wanted to visit a number of hill tribe villages, particularly those that our friend Victoria Vorreiter had filmed some six years ago. He will arrange a tuk tuk to take us and a guide tomorrow. In preparation, we rented bicycles and rode down to the market to buy gifts to take to the village, including both dried and fresh chilli peppers, fresh limes, pencils, erasers, and notebooks for the kids, and a soccer ball for each village. We ended up walking the bikes back as the baskets were so full and heavy that the bikes were unbalanced. We also have some Big Brother Mouse children's books to give away that we had bought last year. That should lighten our backpacks a little!
The Lao language is very similar to the Thai language so we can communicate without too much problem in the market place. Many programs on TV here are broadcast in Thai so that also helps as many of the Lao people understand Thai.
We found an excellent Indian restaurant up the street owned by a young Indian married to a Lao lady who both run the place and do a booming business. We had an excellent chicken biryani, garlic nan, stuffed nan and chicken khorma. We will try and get back there again tomorrow night as we don't expect to get Indian food on the rest of this trip! After a quick laundry, we only have 2 sets of clothes, we set the alarm for early rising for tomorrow's adventures.
