Day 7: Sunday 26 Jul 2009 Luang Namtha – Huay Xai
Jiez says
We took a local bus back to Huay Xai. It was 3-4 hours of squeeze squeeze and the manual bus did threaten a couple of times to break down/slide down the slope. I tried to engage the Lao village grandma next to me, offered her some sour orange peel from singapore, she tried it and made a sincerely disgusted face. Oh well, i tried.
Reached Huayxai the border town where there was nothing touristically exciting for Van. Felt a lil apologetic but i left her in the room to study ( more like sleep) for most of the day while I spent time with Dao. Am thankful he stayed on for an extra night after his tourgroup left to meet…Welllll yup so basically Huayxai overlooks the mekong river and you can peek over at Thailand which seemed more err vibrant. (pasture on the other side is always greener)
Luang Namtha to Huay Xai
Van says
Took some local bus to Huay Xai that was so uncomfortable, and the bus broke down once on the slope, thought that we were going to Mati! Huay xai really has nothing…I did some studying in room then fell asleep for maybe 12 hours altogether, but ate some red wine steak that was delicious but too well done lah.
Day 8: Monday 27 Jul 2009 Huay Xai – Chiang Rai – Akha Hill Village
Jiez says
That morning, we sampan-ed back to Thailand, crossed immigration and headed back to Chiang Rai.
Back to Thailand: Huay xai to Chiang Khong
Chiang Rai, Wat Phra Keow
We tuktuked to Akha Riverhouse to wait for our pickup 23km up Akha Hillhouse. Met a couple of other fellow-travellers and we stood at the back of the pickup, through uneven terrain, uphill, downhill, with the branches of trees inviting us to collide headon into them. Quite an experience i must say. Don sat himself right at the top of the front part of the pickup – basically its was totally BO LAW JUST STAY ALIVE. Hahaha, it was nice tho, we had a fun time with the 2 dutch law-undergrads, trying to converse in thai-eng to Don and Nice Akha Guide (whatshisnameagn?), holding on to our lives…
Standing at the back of a pickup to Akha Hill
Reached Akha Hill House, which was a Akha-village-runned guesthouse. The GH settles nicely among the greenery and within the local village. The rooms were simple, insect-infested no doubt, but the view was spectacular (for me, haha van is not your green person) Gave us a homestayfeel. At night, there was a campfire in the common area where every sat around for Changbeer and random socializing.
Akha hill House - Guesthouse in the Greens!
Feeling adventurous at 6-ish, we decided to go to the waterfall that was supposedly a 10mins walk away. We had some trouble finding our way there, but with some help from the villagers and the local dog, we managed.
Way to the waterfall
The fall is really one of those natural waterfalls that you need to trek deep into the forest for. But it was certainly well worth the wading in mud and climbing of rocks because it is just soooooooooo beautiful:
Waterfall in the Wild
As you would imagine, by the time we were done marvelling over the waterfall, it was getting dark. We got hopelessly lost at one point, couldnt fine the trail we came in by and out of desperation, waded into a pond and climbed up some crazy steep terrain to get back. KUDOS TO VAN FOR HELPING US COME BACK ALIVE HAHAHAHA. Well, after that, we calmed ourselves down with beer and akha dinner, settled our tour with an English duo for the next day, and went to bed. Tried to stargaze but it was too cloudy. Its a pity because I KNOW judging from how dark it was, it would look potentially like what i saw in Nan. (yes yes like polkadotted starfilled sky !!!)
