Luang Nam Tha is a town in the north of Laos visited by tourists looking for trekking and opportunities to see some ethnic minorities. When we got there we found all the tours to the national park seemed like manufactured "experiences" where the ethnic minorities were treated like zoo exhibits made to perform their "traditional" handicrafts, weapon making, food preparation and whatever else would please the tourists. On top of this, the weather made a turn for the worse on the night of our arrival and torrential rains were intermittent and unpredictable.

Instead of a trekking trip we chose to hire bicycles while we were there and visit a waterfall and some outer villages of Luang Nam Tha. We found this to be a very rewarding experience and actually feel like we got a glimpse of the daily life of the Laotian people. We even got invited to join in with some midday drinking, when questioned about their reasoning all they said was "because it rained." We still don't know if they were drinking in celebration or because they couldn't work after a big downpour but they were definitely enjoying themselves and really got a kick out of us joining them.

Luang Nam Tha is much less touristy than most places we've been to, this was instantly clear when we got off the bus, at 4am, and we were not hassled by a barrage of pushy tuk-tuk drivers. One man stood back, let us sort ourselves out and then took us into town for a very reasonable price. Arriving at stupid-o'clock in the morning came with its own set of issues as none of the guest houses were open yet so we had to hang around on the wet roadside, with a group of four others, for a few hours. When we finally got a room we more or less passed out for most of the morning.

Another notable difference is the touts, instead of the usual tuk-tuk drivers and street food vendors Luang Nam Tha has its very own annoyance - Akha tribeswomen. Tribeswomen, selling very unattractive hats, bracelets, belts and drugs walk up to tourists and just don't leave them alone. They are very passive and will happily stand next to people while they chat amongst themselves gently trying to get some attention and show off their goods. Sonja had a lot of fun with this and always pointed them in Jansen's direction filling them with false hope and Jansen was too polite to be tough enough to get rid of them.