Alison: The bus to Muang Sing was a lot more bearable than the last journey though like last time every hitch hiker was picked up. It seems pretty much the norm in Laos. Nigel had to sit next to a farmer and a live chicken. Muang Sing is a very small place which is close to the border with Burma. There is one main road with a few restaurants and shops. If you go beyond the main road, you can see all the locals homes which are very basic wooden shacks. We managed to find a nice quiet guesthouse which was definitely the best of a bad bunch. It had really good views out over the rolling fields surrounding the village.

The main reason people go to Muang Sing is to see the tribal people that descend from the hills and gather at the morning market to sell the things they have grown or made. There are many different tribes in the area and they can be distinguished from each other by the type of clothes and head gear they are wearing. We arrived at the market about 6am to see the main action. Muang Sing is pretty quiet in the day but it is heaving at this time. The first thing you see when you walk in to the market are ladies selling Lao Lao whiskey which they have brewed themselves. People were sampling it at that time of the morning! Beyond these ladies, is a pretty huge market selling mostly fresh food. There were all sorts of things we didn't recognise. It was really good to see all the different people. Some of them looked like they were from the stone ages! During the day, some of the tribal ladies hang about and pester the tourists to buy bags, jewelery, hats etc We bought a few things from one old dear. She kept trying to sell me a hat (see pictures!!) but I wasn't having any of it. We were a bit surprised when she kept whispering something to us and trying to show us down her skirt...it sounded like catcha but we soon realised she was saying ganga! Maybe not such a sweet old dear but she was the sweetest drug dealer I've ever seen!  

There's not an awful lot to do in Muang Sing so to amuse ourselves one day after a few beers at lunch, we decided it was a good idea for Nigel to get his haircut. There was much laughter walking to the ancient looking hairdressers but it soon wore off when the lady started hacking away erratically with a large pair of scissors. She didn't do a bad job though considering it cost 70p!

After Muang Sing we headed to the border town of Huai Xai for a night and then got a boat over the river and crossed into Thailand.