OK, just a really quick post today; just thought this was awesome! We were eating dinner and saw the plant next to us moving…. because this spider was eating a gecko! Awesome stuff. I love this country!
Spider eating Gecko
October 25th, 2011 by BrummerNam De Waterfall
October 20th, 2011 by BrummerAbout 5 minutes out of Luang Namtha town is a pretty waterfall named Nam De, meaning Good Water. It’s a popular place to visit because it’s so close to town yet so far away – once there you feel like you are a million miles from any kind of modern conveniences and you’re surrounded by nature and beauty.
Next to the waterfall is a small Lanten minority tribe village, Ban Nam De. The Lanten people here are super friendly and are always willing to have a chat with whoever passes through. (You will have fun trying conversations using hand and body movements and lots of pointing at what you might be talking about – there is pretty much no English spoken in the village but that’s no barrier to dancing around a bit and getting your message across!) They are seen wearing the traditional Lanten dress of hand woven fabric dyed with plants from the forest to a dark indigo blue, and bring pink strings tied beneath the waist. You can also stay overnight in this village, but the only way to do this is to arrange it through a trekking agency in Luang Namtha town.
Walking through the village and up to the waterfall is a scenic and easy walk; there are some well-placed, flat stepping stones across one part of the river and small bridge, and the rest of the walk is fairly flat terrain up to the waterfall.
In dry season there isn’t a huge amount of water pumping out, but it’s still a pleasant and scenic and peaceful spot to spend some time. You can swim at the waterfall too, if you want to. In wet season there is a lot more water, and the look of the waterfall can actually vary from day to day depending on the amount of rain the day before.
Some photos of the lovely Nam De waterfall are here.
Dragon Boat Racing Festival
October 17th, 2011 by Brummer
The tradition of racing Dragon Boats began when the day after the Buddhist Lent ceremony and Loi Krotung ceremony everyone would race down the river to the temple.
These days, people walk, bicycle, motorbike or travel in a car to attend the famous event. The Nam Tha river in Luang Namtha was lined with more people than we knew existed in Luang Namtha! In Lao style, everyone was happy, festive, joyous, no-one complained about anything, not even the 40 degree heat or the squeaks and super-loud feedback coming from the full-volume speakers.
Lao is such a laid back, happy place and we are yet to see anyone phased by anything! So of course the Dragon Boat Races were no different.
We were lucky enough to score a seat in the Luang Namtha Tourism Office shade tent, where we ate and drank until we could no more, and got to hide from the direct sun although the intense heat was still felt by all of us.
We got a good view of the river and the finishing line and saw many boats compete – and one boat sink! Overall I can’t think of a more relaxed crowd – in any other country we’ve been in there would be lots of security at a multi-thousand person event, but here in Laos it just doesn’t seem to be needed because everyone is so chilled out. An utterly fantastic day following the amazing day before of the alms giving and Loi Krotung & lanten releasing ceremony – a must do for next year for sure!
Our photos of this awesome day are here.
Buddhist Lent ending celebrations continue…
October 13th, 2011 by Brummer
Wow, what an amazing evening we had letting off lantens, watching the ‘rocket’ fireworks and seeing the first boats – the same boats that we put our offerings to the temple in this morning – be launched into the river for good luck. We also set banana tree & flower ‘boats’ into the water, the act which removes all of the bad from your life and welcomes good things including your wishes and dreams to come to you.
Our friends at Forest Retreat Laos were the only people in town to show tourists the way down to the river to be part of the celebrations, so we tagged along with them.
When the main temple boat came down, carried by monks and the temple carers, there was an awesome drumming ceremony as well.
The peaceful, joyous atmosphere made for one of the most awesome nights we’ve had in Luang Namtha, that coupled with an amazing morning we had made the whole day fantastic.
The community celebrate together the releasing of bad and the welcoming of good – it’s such a lovely concept and everyone seems to firmly believe that today is a blessed day with Buddha looking down and granting all wishes – it was amazing to be a part of this.
The festival is celebrating many things – the finish of rainy season, the full moon, the harvetst of the rice, Buddhist Lent finishing, and bringing good luck for the coming year.
Our photos are here – some video will follow soon. For now we are off to the Dragon Boat racing! We will update about this tomorrow.
1st morning of end of Buddhist Lent
October 12th, 2011 by Brummer
Shoes outside the new temple "Samaki Sai" (means unity)
We had a fantastic morning today for the celebrations of the end of Buddhist Lent. We got up at 5am to pay our respects at the temple, giving alms to the monks and being blessed for the upcoming year.
We started off by filling our bowls with various items to give – you must give sticky rice, money, and anything else is up to you. We travelled up to the temple and firstly went inside the temple (shown above) where we waited on our knees for our turn to get to the front, shuffling forward whenever a space became available. After half an hour kneeling we were pretty pleased to get to the front! The experience of waiting in the crush to get to the front and see Buddha was really intense – imagine hundreds or thousands of people all crushing into a space, all wanting to move forward, all carrying their “Khan” bowls with offerings inside jostling for space. And constantly inching forward on their knees.
We then lit incense and candles and placed them at the front along with everyone else’s, and made wishes for the coming year.
Really interesting, inspiring celebration
Then it was time to line up with all the beautifully dressed Buddhists and give all of the items from our bowls to the temple. It’s kind of like a procession where you give at least one thing out of your bowl into each collection bowl – there is a big line of bowls to collect money, rice and whatever other food people give.
Local families then visit the stupa of their deceased loved ones, which are near to the temple and pay respects, and then each person takes a small bottle of water, pours it on the base of a tree and sends their wishes out into the universe / to Buddha.
After that we visited the head of the temple who blessed us and tied strings on our wrists. A point to note here is that the strings are different from the strings tied on wrists in a Baci ceremony. The strings that were tied today have been made by the monks themselves who have blessed the strings for good luck and then blessings are said when they are tied on the wrists. Our photos of this awesome, inspiring ceremony are here.
Boun Awk Phansa – The end of Buddhist Lent
October 11th, 2011 by BrummerBoun Awk Phansa is the last day of Buddhist lent. It happens each year in October, three lunar months after Khao Phansa on the 15th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar.
This year Boun Awk Phansa falls tomorrow, 12th October, and one of the best places to see this festival in Laos is Luang Namtha. The whole town goes to the river to be part of the celebrations at the peak of the event, which starts on the 12th with donations and offerings are made at the local temples in the morning. Local people get up at about 4.30am to give alms to the monks at the temples, usually sticky rice and offerings of pork or vegetables. The monks play their drums, in a ceremony inviting local people to come and bring them food.
Then in the evening, candles are lit around the temples and people walk around the temples and people send small boats of banana leaves decorated with candles and flowers down the rivers.
These are said to pay respect to the Buddha and to thank the mother of rivers for providing water for life. This is believed to bring good luck for the year ahead.
The day of the boat racing festival (the 13th October this year) in Luang Namtha is extremely festive and very enjoyable. People gather to eat food lao style and drink Beerlao. We watch the boats in the river from the best vantage points in the town.
Tomorrow the festivities begin early in the morning, and so we will put up photos and a commentary about this exciting event.
More updates to follow very soon!
Hmong tribe
October 7th, 2011 by BrummerIn Laos there are many ‘minority’ tribes – so called because they are not ethnic Lao, however minority tribes make up over 55% of Lao’s population so while individually the tribes are a minority, collectively they are in fact the majority. With over 230 different ethnic tribes in northern Laos alone, I will cover first the most common tribes that you would likely encounter if you were in northern Laos.
Luang Namtha province is the most ethnically diverse region in all of Southeast Asia, so it’s no surprise that many travellers visit specifically to learn about and spend time with minority tribes people.
The Hmong tribe is one of my favourites – I suppose it’s not entirely PC to have a favourite – but still, I admit that they are.
Hmong tend to be among the friendliest people in all of Laos (and combine that with Laos being the friendliest country in SEA in my experience!), always willing to share their experiences or food or drink with anyone who is interested, and additionally often wear their tribal dress in day to day life so they are really interesting for foreigners like me to learn about their customs and beliefs.
Hmong history is marked with war – fighting against the French colonisers and then aiding the CIA in the “Secret War” against North Vietnam and Lao. When the royalists lost the war in Laos and the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic became into existence, 10,000′s of Hmong died or fleed to Thailand, France and the USA.
Hmong have many subgroups, mainly definied by their elaborate clothing embroidery which their women stitch by hand after they have handmade their fabric from hemp. Hmong are well known for their handicraft skills, in particular carpentry and blacksmiths.
Their villages are usually in the mountains, although more recently quite a few tribes have moved into the lowlands but retained their traditional housing style of building their windowless, single-r0omed house on the ground with sometimes a small area curtained off for sleeping.
Hmong agriculture is mainly rice growing, in the past they were the main growers of opium also but now that this is illegal in Laos this trade has largely disappeared with only a few of the very remote tribes still growing opium poppies mainly for their own medicinal use.
Religious beliefs among the Hmong are manly concerned with spirits of the dead, specifically their ancestors and some other supernatural visitors that they believe are connected to their house. The floor of the house is considered to be nature, the roof heaven, and in between is the man made world. They are often quite worried about witches who they believe can cast evil spells on them or turn them into werewolves.
Hmong women are well known for their exquisite funeral garments; when they believe they will die soon they set about making their outfits to buried in.
These days many of the Hmong who have moved into the lowlands now dress like Lao people, although those who still live in the hills still usually wear their beautiful traditional dress, especially the older generation.
Homestays are a popular way to interact with the local Hmong – foreigners are prohibited by Lao law from staying overnight in a village unless the village has approval and they are accompanied by a guide. There are still many villages that have never seen a foreigner, or have maybe had just 3 or 4 groups come to stay with them. You definitely can’t find tribes who are really used to tourists YET in northern Laos.
Yet another awesome reason to visit Luang Namtha! Some photos of a lowland Hmong village can be found here.
Papaya Restaurant
October 6th, 2011 by Brummer
One of our favourite retaurants in Luang Namtha is Papaya Restaurant. In fact some of the best Lao food in town is found at Papaya. Moneylin is a fantastic chef – learning to cook at her families retaurant in Thakek (southern Laos) at the age of 8 and becoming the main chef there for the following 4 years, means that Moneylin’s cooking skills are extremely advanced for her age – which is currently 18. She can certainly teach me a thing or twenty, that’s for sure.
Moneylin manages to combine Luang Namtha jungle herbs and spices together with vegetables, meat, rice noodles or rice to make exceptionally delicious dishes. She uses many different minority tribe’s methods for cooking – including Khmu, Black Tai, Ahka and traditional Lao.
Some dishes you must try at Papaya:
- Akha tomato Jeow (Jeow is a Lao word that kind of means dip – lots of veges and herbs and spices combined to make a chunky sauce for dipping vegetables and sticky rice into)
- Stirfried Bamboo
- Sesame fried rice
- Luang Namtha noodles
- Black Tai scrambled eggs – seriously you will wonder how you got through your whole life without eating scrambled eggs like this!
When you arrive in Luang Namtha all you need to do is take the first right out of town towards the old town (turning at Green Discovery) and the first thing you will find is Papaya Restaurant. A ‘must eat’ place for sure.
Some photos of Moneylin’s fabulous cooking can be found here.
Mountain Guesthouse, Vieng Poukha
October 5th, 2011 by Brummer
We recently stayed in Vieng Poukha for a few nights and after looking in every guesthouse in town, decided on Mountain Guesthouse because of
- it’s quiet location on top of a hill
- the beautiful view
- the most modern bathroom in Vieng Poukha (still not a flush toilet though, you have to scoop water from a bucket to flush the toilet)
- nicest, large room
- large balcony to hang out on overlooking the view
- individual bungalows for privacy
So yeah, it has quite a lot going for it. The bed was comfortable and a good size (some of the guesthouses we looked in had sort of like a king single bed and called it a double). Vieng Poukha has really only become a place that a few people stay recently. It has just 5 small guesthouses, limited water supply (where the water is only available from the tap at certain times of the day), and limited electricity. That said, if you’re looking for somewhere to get away from it all, and be very close to the Nam Ha National Protected Area like we were, then Vieng Poukha is perfect. They don’t even have internet so it was just us and nature. Awesome.
The owner at Mountain Guesthouse was super friendly, bringing her daughter ‘Fanta’ to play with us falang once a day. There is also a cool walking path behind the guesthouse that takes you through local land down to the Nam Chouk river with great views along the way.
Overall this is our top choice for somewhere to stay in Vieng Poukha if you’re looking for serenity and some comfort.
There is currently no way to book in advance – if this changes in future I will update this page.
To have a look inside the rooms and see the view at Mountain Guesthouse, click here.
Phagneung Phoukulom Waterfall
October 4th, 2011 by Brummer
About and hour from Luang Namtha by road which winds through the beautiful National Protected Area is Phagneung Phoukulom Waterfall. The walk into the waterfall is just under 1 kilometre and is mainly a level easy walk, with some small inclines and a few stairs to nagivate. This is the only place where you can enter the fringe of the National Protected Area without being on an organised tour.
There’s lots to look at on the walk to the waterfall, of course the river is beautiful and is always different depending on whether it has rained recently or not. There are many small animals and spiders to see along the way and interesting plants too.
The waterfall itself has quite a lot of force in wet season, and of course is slower and more gentle in dry season, but still definitely worth seeing. You can swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall if you’re brave enough – the water is cold and the falls are strong but around the edges you can still chill out and cool down if you want to. To see some photos of Phagneung Phoukulom waterfall click here.
