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Muang SingNov 29, 2006
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A road in Muang Sing
Young girl in Huana
Spirit gate outside Huana
When I left Muang Ngoi I took the boat back to Nong Khiaw and then a truck (a truck with benches in the back) to Udomxai and then a bus to Luang Nam Tha. It was a long day of travel, but I was so glad to be able to do it all in one day.
I left Luang Nam Tha the next morning for Muang Sing. I was a little disappointed with Muang Sing because it is such a small town, but the reason that I went there was to go trekking. I went to the tourism office to get some information about trekking. There was a guy there, Josh from England, and we both signed up to do a three day trek.
The trek was so awesome because we were in such a remote part of Northern Lao (we were about 10 km from China). It was also really nice because it was low-impact. It was nice to walk into a village with just the three of us (our guide's name was Ketkeo) because it felt so much less intrusive. In both of the villages we stayed in there was no electricity and they got their water from wells. At night we just had candles for light and slept on mats. In the second village we stayed in, Ketkeo came back with a live chicken, which was dinner!
The trekking we did was really difficult, especially the second day when we were walking along the ridge, but it was nice because we were so far away from everything. The last day we saw some Akha women walking back from the market in Muang Sing. Ketkeo told us that they left at 3:00 am to get to the market by 6:00 am and when we saw them at 11:00 am they were already on their way back!
It was amazing to see the villages and the Akha people going about their daily lives. In fact, Josh described it perfectly when he used the term "culture shock", which is what it was. To see these people living in such a remote village was so cool and was such a unique experience.
