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It was a pretty easy border crossing into Laos, a two hour (130km) bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong 65 baht each. Then a two kilometre tuk tuk to the friendship bridge, which they wanted to charge us 50 baht each for - it is a truth universally acknowledged that taxi drivers are a bunch of scheming, scamming rogues. (Oops, except for our friend Brian). Anyway we haggled it down to 3 for 100 baht (£2) as we had met a lad called Ian from Cumbria on the way. We had heard tales of chaotic queuing at the border, but we were the only ones there. Ian was held back as he had lost his departure card. It was then a 20 baht bus through no man's land to the Laos border checkpoint. We sailed through and met up with a couple from Australia and we joined forces to get a cheap tuk tuk. Again we were asked for 100 baht each to get us to Huay Xai, haggling wasn't working. Then some locals got in the tuk tuk so we thought the price would go down - it didn't. We started walking and further up there was another group of tuk tuk drivers - they also wanted 100 baht each. We told them we would rather walk, they laughed and said it was 10 kms to Huay Xai. Another 200m along and an air con minivan stopped and we eventually got in for 300 between the four of us. Good job really as it was 10kms away! Huay Xai was a small border town with a nice relaxed feel, guesthouses and restaurants line the main road that runs parallel to the river. The main reason for stopping here is to catch the slow boat south to Luang Prabang. We had decided to take a bus to Luang Namtha a northern town near the national park. We got a cheap room 100,000 Kip = £8 at the same guesthouse as the Australians. Paul caught the sunset at the town temple with views across the Mekong - see photos. The prices at the local restaurants were a bit dear though, baguettes (French colonnial influence) and curries seemed the typical Laotian fare and noodle soup was the cheap option at 20,000 Kip (£1.60). The next day, we discovered the real price of a tuk tuk to the bus station, which was half the price being asked the day before. The bus journey to Laung Namtha took us through the Nam Ha national park and so it involved a lot of bends. I was desperate for a toilet stop but the only one made was a squat in the bushes type affair, which I was not going to do. I had to endure 2 and a half hours of bladder bursting bouncing along the not-so-smooth roads. At last we got to Luang Namtha bus station and a half decent public toilet! Our hotel was about 2km outside of town, Namtha Riverside Guesthouse it was a nice setting by the river and the omelette and baguette breakfasts were lovely, but we decided to move to Zuela guesthouse right in the centre of things. For 80,000 kip per night (£6.35) it was a real bargain. The food and cakes at the restaurant were lovely and cheap too. We were able to hire a scooter for 30,000 kip per day and bicycles for 10,000 kip per day from a hire place nearby. Zuela's restaurant is a hot spot for H'Moung tribeswomen selling "old" French coins and locally crafted bracelets. You are also often accosted by women selling turnips, although what the hell we were going to do with half a dozen turnips, I'll never know. Luang Namtha is a tiny town, but it still has an airport and and huge dual carriageway running through it. At this time of the year, the temperature drops to as low as 8 degrees at night, but rises to a clear and sunny 27 in the day. There were lots of bike rides that we could do out to hillside temples and waterfalls. On one of the rides there is a six foot wide bamboo bridge that the locals race across on motorbikes. We got off our bikes to walk across it as it was a bit precarious and with no sides, it was easy to fall off it. Our bike ride had taken us out through villages to a waterfall (which was marred, visually, by a huge waterpipe running down the length of it). The guy at the waterfall directed us on our bikes along a narrow dirt track which hugged the side of a hill. The track overlooked a narrow valley with stretching rice fields and rolling hills backdrop. We were on the cheap city bikes, as opposed to mountain bikes so we had to occasionally walk up or down the hilly path. Another cyle ride north of town took us through H'Moung villages where the villagers wore their tribal dress. The towns were often signposted as cultural villages, but this seemed to mean abject poverty, a central waterpoint for villagers to use and barefoot children trying to sell you bracelets. Paul caught a shot of a guy smoking an enormous bong too. Opium farming was once the main occupation of some of the villages, but a tough government crackdown had all but wiped it out. On our ride, we saw a couple of guys ahead hurriedly collecting stones and looking animated and anxious. When we arrived on the scene there was a five foot long snake in the road, it was in a state of panic as it tried to ecape towards the grass. Paul jumped off the bike and quickly snapped it. Seconds later, a local with a machete (you often see them carrying one) whacked it on the head. Very sad. We chatted with an American in town who happened to be a published herpetologist and had his own show on Animal Planet "Pets that kill their owners", he told us that the snake was a Krait, highly poisonous. I still haven't spotted anything like it on Google yet though. We also hired a motorbike, the dirt tracks, being too dangerous, we stuck to the main road north towards Muang Sing, a tribal trading town, close to the Chinese border. The road was quiet but dusty, it followed the river for a distance and wound through rubber tree planted hills and past roadside villages. Each turn lured us towards the promise of better views further on. We had read that Muang Sing was once a bustling trading town where villagers from the surrounding areas collected to sell their wares. We decided to spend a few days there. The 9:30 bus, set off on time (Lao time) at 11:00 and was filled with fast-talking, high spirited villagers. The woman in front of me troughed on tangerines and turnips throughout the journey; ripping off the peel with her teeth and spitting it out of the window, which often blew back in my face. There was one toilet stop on the journey, another roadside bushes affair. The rubber tree hills on the way, soon gave way to primary rainforested hills and the beauty and variety of trees were wonderful. Such a pity that they are being slowly burnt down for Chinese rubber planting. We had researched a place to stay in Muang Sing, it overlooked a plain of rice fields and range of mountains. We stopped the bus nearby, Google Maps and GPS being invaluable. The guesthouse, however, no longer had a sign in English, it was Chinese and Lao only. I popped up to see the room, walking past a beautifully coloured dead game bird lying in the stairwell (ready for the pot presumably). I passed a room with what looked like an opium-whacked Chinese guy lying on the bed. The room was fine and the views were spectacular, we somehow reserved the room for the night, despite the language barrier and headed out for dinner. The town was pretty weird, all signs were in Chinese and Lao. We were chased away from one restaurant, which was bizarre and were told there was no food in others. The tourist information place was locked up, as was the bike hire shop and the tour places - oops! We finally spotted a young Isaeli guy who had found a noodle place, so we sat with him and sampled the greasy "meat" noodle dish. He was staying at the only western friendly guesthouse in town. Muang Sing was once a big opium town and has clearly been killed off. It seems to still exist as a trading town and as a stop for the Chinese. It used to boast morning and night markets that were a colourful array of tribal village trading, but the night market was now a few pitiful noodle stalls and little else. Without the benefit of a bike or scooter, we walked out towards the hills to explore the villages beyond.
It was clear we were not particularly welcome, so after a brief look at the morning market the next day selling herbs, vegetables, fruit, grasses, dead birds and squirrels, we headed out on the first bus back. Luang Namtha and Zuela guesthouse were a welcome sight, so we decided a couple more days here would be a treat before heading to Luang Prabang.
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