Kim and I are lying on a bamboo floor, suspended over a pig sty, in a tribal village, home to the Akha people. Girls from the village enter our "lodge" and select their subject. We undergo 30 minutes of a groping type of massage on our backs, buttocks, and legs……..what a surreal experience and needless to say we were trying not to giggle for the majority of the time.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia; it is landlocked and is around 85% hills and vegetation. The bus journey over the border to Luang Namtha was straight forward and we put our watch forward an hour. We found a guesthouse and spent the next day relaxing and enjoying the very laid back town. We had read that Laos is the most laid back country in South East Asia, and it seemed to be living up to its name, people got up later and restaurants were quiet when we went in.

We went hiking for 2 days, and our meet was at 8.30am. We waited for 15 minutes and no one arrived. I thought everyone was just lazy, but it dawned on us our elementary mistake. On entering Laos we had put our watches forward one hour when it should have been back! So for the last day and a half we had been in our own time zone, 2 hours ahead of Laos!!

The hike was through the National Protected forests, of which Laos has a few. The government protect these regions from logging and have tried to stop the tribes from doing their "Slash and burn" farming. On one hand it's great to see a developing country not trying to make profit from destroying its forests and on the other the changing of tribal routine seems a bit unfair.

The hike itself was great, we had a great, knowledgeable guide and a good group. He showed us lots of different medicinal plants and some wildlife. But the highlight was walking out of the forest into this remote, highland tribal village. We learnt about their animist beliefs (believing not in God but in spirits, that all living things have spirits, good or bad), some of their traditions and their independent lives. A couple of examples: When the boys in the village reach the age of 14, they can build their own little house, a 5x3x3ft hut, and if they have a girlfriend they can stay together in this little "love nest". If the girl becomes pregnant, they get married. There were a lot of kids in the village!

There were also a lot of animals in the village, goats, buffalos, pigs, chickens and puppies and dogs. We even saw 2 dogs chained together and we only realized after why this is. The tribe sells dogs to the market for meat! Kim's face was a picture.

From Luang Namtha we had our own minibus to Huay Xia where we caught a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong River. The other option was a speed boat which takes 6 hours but there is risk of death as the Mekong has a few sneaky rocks. So we thought we're not in any rush. Our boat was rammed with tourists, they mainly crossed the river from Thailand in the morning so it was a real surprise to see so many. Within 5 minutes a New Zealand guy whipped out his guitar which definitely helped the journey....