29112010 : Sabaidee!!!

The roads in Laos especially in the north are so dusty it's like as if a volcano just erupted and spewed tonnes of ash all over. It's a real adventure to be on local buses when you have poultry, rice, groceries and bicycles hauled onto the roof and loaded into the bus. Passenger capacity limit is unheard of and a 13 seater mini van i was in from Luang Namtha to Vieng Phouka had 24 people.

crossing the mekong to Laos with this onboard

Everything goes up.

Met an Israeli guy and a Dutch girl at the bus station with the intention of sharing a tuk tuk in Luang Namtha and we decided to go to Vieng Phouka the next day to arrange our trek instead of booking with the overpiced and over crowded agencies in Luang Namtha. Vieng Phouka is 60km away from LNT and it's about 1.5hrs away, depending on how many stops the driver makes to pickup and drop off other people along the way. Not forgetting the toilet breaks because the kids had to take a dump.

Empty Streets!

My mini football team ready to take on the rest of the world

After we arranged our trek we took a walk into the villages and i saw a bunch of kids playing footy. Of course I couldnt pass on the opportunity and damn could they run. We were all barefooted and the field was strewn with sharp rocks and beer bottle caps. But apparently they're oblivious to them. The town also only had electricity between 6pm - 10pm and that is the time when the streets become empty too. At that moment of time it was just us and 4 other french who would be joining us on the trek. It was good to be away from the tourist crowd. The buffalo meat here was also superb.

Guesthouse with brilliant star gazing views at night

poking and picking at some fruits

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