Laos: Beautiful Luang Namtha and Nong Khiaw, colorful ethnic peoples

Laos July 2011. Traveling in Northern Laos on public transport can require patience and be a crowded experience. One 4 hour journey I did, for example, from the remote Northeastern village of Nong Khiaw to the famous world heritage city of Luang Prabang, illustrates the point: My best choice at the time was a small flatbed truck with benches in the back, called a tuk-tuk (usually used only for local transport). We started the trip on the tuk-tuk with 14 people, plus luggage, crammed into a place designed for 10. But, by picking up more people along the way, we eventually had as many as 21 people jammed into the small space!

Adding to the fun noted above is the poor quality of most roads in Laos, many unpaved, the regular delays due to landslides and roadwork, and the weather, which makes some areas impassable at times during the rainy season.

But the effort is worth it. Laos is a beautiful country. Very friendly and laidback, its people are amongst the most endearing and easy to get along with in Asia. There is a large variety of still traditional-living ethnic minorities, and the scenery everywhere seems to have some notable aspect: Lushly covered hills, serene irrigated rice paddies being worked by hand and water buffalo, or river lined endless forest.

But this is changing rapidly as Laos is slowly opening to the world and adopting a more market oriented system. So, I figured it would be worthwhile to travel it for my Disappearing World project. This short photo essay gives a glimpse of the beauty, lushness and diversity of this rapidly modernizing country.

My two week trip focused on northern Laos. I started the journey in the sleepy capital of Vientiane, and then traveled by land to the famous world heritage city of Luang Prabang, onto the remote northwest province of Luang Namtha, known for its colorful variety of indigenous ethnic groups and then eastward to the very isolated and serene mountain village of Nong Khiaw.

Vientiane and Luang Prabang are both pleasant cities to visit. Vientiane is more like a big town then the capital of a country. Laos is overwhelmingly Buddhist and there are a large amount of Buddhist temples throughout the city. A residual French influence is seen in some of the old colonial buildings leftover from the days of French rule. Unlike Vietnam, its neighbor to the east, Laotians seem intent on knocking down these vestiges of a hated colonial past, rather than maintaining or renovating as they have done in Vietnam. A growing designer restaurant scene features some good quality French style food at very reasonable prices, which I personally enjoyed.

From Vientiane, I took the bus to Luang Prabang, the most famous city in Laos. Getting there was my first long haul in Laos by bus. It came complete with an hour or so delay midway due to a landslide along the route. Luang Prabang sits between two rivers that surround the town and is built around a hill with a large temple on top. It was the former capital and historical religious center for the country and has the country's most impressive temples.

The most interesting part of my trip in Laos was Luang Namtha. This is a province in the Northwest corner of the country, covered with thickly forested hills, mountains and rivers. It is a very rich bio-diverse area. Here a number of ethnic minorities live, many with still fairly intact and colorful traditional.

Getting to Luang Namtha is a bit of a haul by bus. No flights from Luang Prabang go there. Since the trip is along the usual poor condition roads normal in Laos, we had the inevitable delay on the way due to road repairing. The scenery is great, with almost constant forested hills and valleys during the ten hour trip.

Luang Namtha is the name of the main town in the province of Luang Namtha. It is a bit of a rustic place, with a few main streets that have some sort of modern low rise buildings. These include various provincial government buildings, a section of small hotels and hostels for the small but growing number of tourists?mostly backpackers, along with stores and shops. The town backs up against low rising forested hills, surrounded otherwise by villages with thatched roofed houses and huts and large rice fields.

I spent 5 days in Luang Namtha riding a bicycle or motorbike around the various ethnic villages in the region and hiking to some that were out in the forest. There are numerous ethnic cultures in the area. The ones that I saw the most were Lanten, Black Tai and Kmu along with some Hmong, White Tai, Lowland Lao and Akha. Most of these groups are not primarily Buddhist, instead practicing forms of animism. Some, such as the Black and White Tai were forced from their homelands in the past and emigrated here. All of these groups live mostly by farming and subsistence agriculture supplemented by weaving, basket making, bamboo paper production, embroidery, silk cloth and other textile handicraft production, some of which is sold in the nearby towns and villages.

The Lanten people originally emigrated from China and settled in Luang Namtha and some other areas of Laos. They are associated with living by rivers and streams and recognizable by their dark indigo clothing which is produced in the village. The women tend to wear striking silver jewelry. Lanten women wear their hair swept up in a traditional style seen in the picture here and shave their eyebrows.

The Lanten language is still widely used and the written form of it is based on Chinese characters. I believe that only males are taught to read in the more traditional Lanten villages. The Lanten practice a form of animism religion that has Taoist influence. It is focused on village spirits and in common with many Chinese based cultures, also focuses on the lineage of ancestors. Some Lanten now also practice Buddhism and a few are Christian. In traditional Lanten rituals, wooden masks and handmade bamboo-fiber paper is used. The bamboo fiber paper is made in the villages.

I had a strange experience on one hike I did in the hills near Luang Namtha. I went "off-trail" to an area that apparently does not get many (or any) foreign visitors. I followed a path starting by a waterfall near a Lanten village I visited. I asked the ladies in the shop shown in the earlier picture where the path went. They indicated that there was a village called Sida about 4 km up the path. So, I decided to venture down the path and check it out.

Along the way, I found many beautiful butterflies.

After a while, I started encountering some people from the village who were out harvesting timber. They all seemed very welcoming and would motion to me to continue along the path and indicated that there was a village coming up. But when I got the village, I saw this type of "gate", which should have tipped me off that maybe I was not supposed to go further.

Nevertheless, I continued on. As I approached the village, I began to feel that this would not be a friendly reception. Usually when a stranger approaches a village in the forest, it seems anywhere I have been in the world, some kids will notice and soon they be running in your direction. But here, just outside Sida, no kids came running, even though several saw me. Instead they kept a wary distance.

I stuck to the main path which skirted along the outside of the village as I didn't want to barge in uninvited. Finally at about the halfway point along the village perimeter, someone finally motioned to me. I went over to say hello, but it was awkward at best. Of course, there was no common language. Kids finally started to gather, but kept quiet and at a distance.

Soon, it seems the entire village had gathered around me. All kept quiet and kept their distance. Finally, one teenager, holding a rudimentary Lao-to-English translation book asked me where I was going. I indicated I had come to see the village. Someone offered me a small cup of tea, which was polite. However, I figured it was best for me to move on. There was something wrong with my being there and I knew I was not welcome.

The lack of welcome in Sida was a contrast to the generally friendly people I met in the several days I passed through the other villages in the region. In one, a group of village ladies that were working the nearby rice field were on lunch break at a little corner cafe. As I rode my bike by, they all waved to me and motioned to come over and join them.

So, I did. It was fun. There were eight of them, mostly young, along with the early middle aged owner of the cafe. One lady spoke a bit of French and a few words of English, enabling us to communicate a bit. Since they were all sharing a large bottle of beer, I bought a couple more bottles to share. The cafe only had two drinking glasses, so everyone passed around the glasses and took turns drinking the beer. The beer and time spent there could have been a good investment: I got two offers of marriage. One lady was even willing to go back and live with me in the USA!

From Luang Namtha, it was yet another long bus ride to get to the remote village of Nong Khiaw in the northeast. From Nong Khiaw, I then took a two hour boat ride up the Ou River to the small isolated river village of Muang Ngoi. This village of Muang Ngoi sits in a very beautiful location surrounded by jutting forested limestone-formation mountains, some with a similar appearance to the famous limestone charts formations of Guilin, China. Until recently Muang Ngoi was probably just a sleepy little river village that only interfaced with those plying the river or traveling on it from neighboring Vietnam. Now it is becoming "discovered" by the Lonely Planet backpacker set that seems to be a growing presence in Laos' tourism.

In this area, I also hiked some ethnic villages, featuring the Hmong, Kmu and Lowland Lao groups. Two villages that I passed through, with some photos here, were Hmong and Kmu villages sitting next to each other. Although they were neighbors, the two groups are quite different and it is easy to tell the villages apart. The Hmong build their huts on the ground, while the Kmu build them on a platform standing on stilts. The Hmong are also quite lively. They are known to be drinkers and very social, and they have an interesting courtship ritual. This involves the prospective groom to "kidnap" his bride and bring her away from the village. Negotiations are held between the families involved. When an acceptable bride price is agreed upon, then the couple returns to the village and is married.

The Kmu are more reserved, not big drinkers and using more "normal" traditional courtship rites that have the families choosing prospective mates for their sons or daughters.

The area around Muang Ngoi is quite lush and pristine looking. As in Luang Namtha, there were a lot of pretty butterflies.

Surprisingly though, unlike most tropical pristine waterway areas, there was almost no visible birdlife. I could not get any answers from my local guide as to why. The Ou River used to have crocodiles in it, but now they are gone as the villagers eliminated them for security reasons.