The ladies fishing on the Nam Tha River. I was never sure exactly what they caught--I think maybe freshwater crayfish. The boat in the foregroud is the one I took with Antoine, another traveller from France. We hired the boat for a 2-day, 100 mile trip down this river to where it joins the Mekong. You can see the river's quite high. August brings the beginning of the monsoon season, and along the way we saw ample evidence of the incredible power of rivers in this country, and also the vital lifeline of commerce and communication they provide to villages for thousands of miles throughout Asia.
Looking West into Myanmar (Burma)
Along the northwestern boundary of Laos lies the mythical land (to me anyway) of Myanmar. Recently opened to tourists, I heard a few traveller's tales of remotes villages, wild rivers, and loads of wildlife. It will have to wait until the next trip...
Huts and rice, huts and rice. It just goes on and on. This is a huge plain outside of Luang Nam Tha in north central Laos, where I spent a couple of days. Time was short--getting anywhere is usually by bus, and it seemed anywhere you wanted to go took at least a day, sometimes more.
