2/26 Biking Luang Nam Tha

Riding past the rice paddies

Local woman, Ep and Connie perusing textiles in village

Resting is a farmer's shelter at the hottest point of the bike ride

21 miles of this kind of road. Sweet! Were we ever dusty!

At the local market. That's rice in those sacks

Our cabin to the left at The Boat Landing Guesthouse

Monk in the tamarind tree

We spent our day with a wonderful guide named Ep. We learned that the white patches we’ve seen on village people are medicine for headaches. We also learned that there are two types of tamarind: one sour, one sweet. A monk had climbed a tree and was picking sour tamarind when we visited a temple; he gave us some to try. We spent seven hours biking on dusty, rocky roads for a distance of 21 miles.

Ws stopped for lunch in a nearly empty night market. We ate several new Lao foods: Bamboo shoots (which we peeled down to the good stuff), rattan, 2 types of bamboo salad, one plain and one fermented and steamed river algae. We next rode to where the big night market will be tonight. Saw quite a bit – it’s huge. Lots of meats we don’t see in many strange forms (with flies).
Next, on to Phoum Phuk Stupa that was twice destroyed by American airplanes during the war. The old stupa is still there and new one that was erected in 2003 is behind it. On the way to the stupa, we rested in a farmer’s shelter, surrounded by rice fields. The road was very hot and dusty, the shelter stop very serene. A friendly gecko was right above us on a piece of bamboo.

Finally a stop in a huge Black Tai community (1,000 people) where we bought fabric pieces, one piece in silk and the other in cotton. The owner had just returned from a wedding party along with many others in pickup trucks. All dressed in their nice skirts.

Tribes visited today: Lantaen, Black Tai, Akha and Khamu tribes. We saw bamboo paper being dried, indigo dying of fabric and Lao Lao (like moonshine rice wine) in many vats.

Ate another wonderful Lao dinner at the hotel and spent all of our remaining Lao Kip. Our scheduled pickup tomorrow is at 8:00 a.m. for a transfer by car to the border of Laos and Thailand. A short longboat transfer across the river to a Thai customs office follows. Hopefully, we will meet the driver to take us to Chiang Rai, Thailand. We have a sign already pre-printed from home with our names on it. The driver is supposed to meet up with us just outside customs. If all goes well, 4 hours to the border and another 2 to Chiang Rai gets us to our hotel around 2 in the afternoon. Stay tuned…….