Scorched Laos Policy

Mr Mai explaining about some bamboo
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We had decided on Muang Sing because it looked to be a bit off the normal tourist trail. Along the way we looked in wonder at the villages with homes made of bamboo. On arrival, it looked like what we had asked for: a frontier town with cellphones. The tuk-tuk from Louang Nam Tha cost us K20,000 and took 1.5 hours but we were happily entertained by the windy roads and lush scenery. Unfortunately, one of the locals wasn't enjoying the ride and once at the Muang Sing market, he promptly deposited this mornings noodle soup onto the ground.

Inside of the Muang Sing wat
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The closest guesthouse (Champadang) was a steal; K30,000 for a brand new room, when the other places were K40,000 plus for old places.

Adrienne's masseuse was one of the topless women!

There isn't much to do on a Sunday, in fact not much in Muang Sing except for trekking or visiting the surrounding villages. The tourist office only opened for a couple of hours in the morning and from 3-5pm, so we wasted as much time as possible till then. Once opened we organised our trek, which meant hunting down a few Whiteys to make it affordable. James, Kate and Maurice agreed to join us for a 2 day, 1 night trek at the handsome sum of K300,000 pp. We were stoked since it would have cost K450,000 for only two of us.

Our mint as hotel
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9am was the start time for the trek and we had our bags securely stowed under the guesthouse "managers" bed. The only problem was that Sean forgot to return the key and delayed everyone 20 minutes! Tut tut! The trek involved us visiting 4 villages and staying the night in another. On the first day we visited a Hmong and an Akha village. They are what you'd imagine; beaten, dirt paths with rickety buildings, water buffalo, chickens and the odd pig crossing your path. The children were the highlight because they loved saying "hello" (sabaidee in Lao) and playing up for the farang, particularly if there was a camera. Our lunch was at the Akha village (their houses are built on stilts, whilst Hmong build on the ground). Our hour there was taken up by delicious food and showing kids photos.

We visited some classes at a school on our trek
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The trek proper involved walking for 7 hours (not including lunch) with the occasional 5 or 10 minute break. For about half the trek there were constant reminders of the cost of development. Slash and burn was being practiced across the hillsides, preparing the land for planting rubber trees to fee the maw of Chinese industry. At time we had to cross close to fires, that made us sweat more than the already hot air. Our talks were dominated by how horrible this wanton destruction of the environment was. Of course we were talking with the benefit of hindsight, since our own countries had already been raped like this (England's forests gone to geed the Industrial Revolution, NZ to develop our farms). Sadly, we did realise that it's an economic reality because the farmers needed to survive and tourism doesn't bring in enough money. Also, our increasing consumption of Chinese made products just feeds the very flames we were complaining about. Time to stop ranting.

Fun for the whole family - slash 'n' burn
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We were far happier once we got into the bush/jungle. The sun didn't reach us as easily and the stunning mountains enthralled us. Mr Mai (our guide) is an awesome cook, in fact it's worth going on the trek simply for his food. As we ambled along, trying to conserve our water (2 litres is NOT enough, do what we did and get an extra litre on top of what they supply), Mr Mai and his two helpers collected mushrooms and bamboo stalks for dinner.

Relieved to be at the third and final village for the day, we had a refreshing "shower" under the communal tap and under the curious eyes of a few local kids, before dumping our gear in our hut. We were immediately surprised to notice that many of the women in the village wandered around as the men did - topless. When we asked why, we were told "because it's hot!". Duh.

A girl at the village we stayed in
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Once again we were treated to the children larking around for the camera and Mr Mai's cuisine. This was another Akha village and called Sapoekao. It had about ten families and, surprisingly, a kiosk-sized store for the necessities of life: beer, cigarettes and sweets.

Again lots of animals roamed the village. It was sad that even the puppies ran away from us, obviously kicked one too many times in their young lives. Laos, as all other SEA countries we've been to (ex. Singapore) has many dogs roaming the streets.

Mmmm.... food!
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We made use of the villages toilet (i.e. the forest: no.1 at the edge, no.2 further in) before we set off the next day. We had been treated to an Akha massage the night before (Adrienne's masseuse was one of the topless women!) and we felt limber until Mr Mai gave each of us a bottle of Red Bull concentrate, "for the hills". WTF!? An ominous sign.

More forests greeted us and to some dismay, more hills. From one hilltop we saw into China! Not too different to Laos as far as we could tell. We walked for about the same amount of time and visited two final villages. In the first village, Maurice discovered a leech had been happily feasting on his ankle. Kind of gross. A quick check showed that no one else was as tasty.

The weary travellers resting before the final leg
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We were shocked at the last village when the normally friendly children hounded us, putting their hands out in the standard begging fashion. We have a policy of never giving money to beggars, they should at least entertain us for the money! And giving to kids starts them off on a terrible life-long journey. As it turned out, Mr Mai told us they wanted our water bottles. We gave all of our empty ones, but they even wanted our full ones.

Back at the office in Muang Sing, Mr Mai gave each of the girls a scarf, and the boys a shoulder bag made from locally dyed and weaved fabric. Very nice. We were buggered and all agreed that it was very worthwhile, even seeing the scorched Laos policy in action. All of us had to move guesthouses. The place we ended up at was clean and newish but had a horrible number of mossies. The view was spectacular as the sun set. We looked over rice fields with silhouettes of mountains fading away in shades of dusky blue.

Sean, Mr Mai, Maurice, Kate, James and Adrienne
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Okay, so you've finished a relatively taxing 2 day walk, you're tired, what is the best thing to do the following day? I know! How about waking up at 6am to catch a bus to Louang Nam Tha, but actually get a tuk-tuk and takes 3.5 hours instead of 1.5? Brilliant! At least the bus we were intending to take didn't pass us.