Not quite a slow boat..

So motorbiking it was.. I met a great Dutch guy called Pieter who had been here for a couple of days and we got some bikes and checked a local treking company maps before heading off to find some waterfalls. First we headed about 20 kms out of town and then hit a dirt road for around 30 mins. We left the bikes at a river crossing and walked into a local village on foot. I was quite surprised to be greeted by a number of topless women with black teeth and lips from chewing beetlenut... Whoa - the villages here are a lot less developed than in China and we were made to feel quite welcome most of the time - including being offered Lao Lao (local rice whisky), but chose to leave after 20 mins or so. Whilst there we met some other Dutch people returning from a trek and they explained that the waterfall we were looking for was 3 hours walk, so Pieter and I got back on the bikes and headed back to town.
After lunch we headed the other way out of town - into the NPA protected area. It was great riding through the villages - the children were always running out and yelling hello and waving. We didn't have any luck finding waterfalls but had a great day exploring the local area around Nam Tha.
The next day I decided to head for a slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. When I got to the bus station the bus was already full so my plans quickly changed and I decided to head further North to Muang Sing, where the trekking was reportedly better.
I wasn't in town long before I booked onto a trek for 2 nights into the mountains and villages around Muang Sing and the Chinese border.

We started the next morning and visted a Mong village first (Ross?). Not long after that we left the tuk tuk and headed off on foot. The first village we got to was celebrating Buddist New Year so we had lunch in the Head mans house. It was a bit different and thankfully we left after a while and eventually enjoyed a great lunch with our guides.

That night we stayed in an Aka village that was really interesting. Again it was much less developed than any I visted in China including having no power. After dinner the local women came down and gave us a massage - as per their tradition for visitors.

I had a bit of an upset tummy the next morning but that cleared up by lunch which we had in a different Aka village, before heading to the place we would spend the night.
This was a young village and had recently broken away from a parent village in the area. There was a school there and lots of young families and kids. We arrived mid-afternoon so I ended up playing Kratow with the locals - something that I haven't done since Thailand 7 years ago. It provided lots of laughs for the locals and we had early dinner before another local massage. We were staying in the head mans house and later in the evening he turned on a generator so the local kids could come in and watch some TV. I had a few drinks with my Takraw friends and the next morning we headed off through a few more villages before stopping for lunch.
Where we stopped for lunch there was a new house that had just been built and we were invited into the housewarming for lunch. The locals were extremely friendly, and a little bit drunk and they forced quite a few drinks on us as well. It was good fun and I don't think I ate all that much but we had a great time meeting all the people in the village.

Eventually we had to leave as we wanted to get back to Muang Sing to catch buses back to Namtha..
We're made it and after a hot shower I'm back on-line checking emails before I head to Luang Prabang tomorrow..