Drum Roll...

Photo op. with one of the guides...

Kids (brothers?) in the second village we visited...

Part of our trekking group, just arrived at first village

Mud-wall house in the second village

Daniel helping load a bike, Jorn just lovin it
(click on pictures to enlarge)

The Trek in Luang Nam Tha was beautiful. There were eight of us (plus two guides), two couples, an english teacher, and the three of us (Jorn, Daniel, and I). The first day we hiked for four hours or so before coming out of the forest into this surreal little Hmong village. It reminded me of MYST (the computer game) in that you didn't see much of the villagers, there were the huts with smoke rising from the leaf-thatched roofs, there were the animals, chickens, pigs, dogs, goats, a couple cows, one horse, the kids weren't as shy, and would come about curiously only to run off laughing in mock-fear. I kicked a ball around with one little guy for a bit and a few other children looked on but didn't want to join in. It's hard to explain but it was a great experience. I didn't take that many pictures of the kids, or the few villagers that looked on from their doorways, my fellow trekkers were shooting away, but it just felt strange verging on disrespectful, and the camera stayed in my pocket most of the time. At dinner the village chief came to eat with us, and after dinner our guide translated our questions to him. There were around 160 people living in the village, they were completly dependant on thier crops, animals and forest for food. Trekkers started coming to the village in 2005, and the money goes to the village bank which, we were told, went straight to improving the education system, books, pens, etc. Most of us also brought a few childrens books to give as thankyou's. The next night we slept over in a village that showed some modern influence, a generator, a road connecting them to the rest of northern Laos, and villagers that would approach with handmade things asking for a dollar or two. This night was different in that the lady that came to dinner brought a bottle of lao lao (rice whisky) it is strong...it twists your face and makes your stomach cringe...and it gets the job done. Well most of us were drinking it, the bottle was finished and then there was an awkard translation from one of our guides, that we should all share the price of drinks or something to that effect. No one really understood, but we all pitched in a dollar (10,000 kip), for what we thought was the bottle that we just drank. Ten minuets latter booze arrives, another bottle of lao lao and five or six beer lao's. Eh nobody saw that one coming, things went on for a while and we were having a great time. This old lady was very persistant in giving out shots around the table and then saying Ok? Ok? Ok? She was showing the booze more than the rest of us, and after a few enthusiastic high-fives toppled backwards off the bench...oops. She was fine, our guides cut her off from the booze (well we had to hide the bottle under the table). After we got back to Luang Nam Tha the trio of us took our guide up on an invitation for a dog barbeque (don't tell Sparkey). It was really chewy, good flavor I guess, not something I'll search out in the future.

And now I'm the proud owner of a Merida mountain bike...purchased in Laung Nam Tha for $120US, it seems like a good bike. Daniel Jorn also bought bikes, and we brought them down to Laung Prabang yesterday (via 9hrs on a mini-bus) and plan on leaving here tomarrow morning. Were sending our backpacks ahead, bringing only a small bag. Should be three days to Viang Viene where we'll meet up with our bags, spend a few days floating lazily down the river on innertubs before resuming our journey to Vientiene... It's going to be great.

Your probabley tierd of reading, I'm tierd of wirtting =], so check back in a few days for an update from Vang Viene..

Adios for now,
Adam