Laung Nam Tha - Biking to Villages, Waterfall, Industry, and Walmart

After a leisurely morning, we went forth to try a motorbike. Given what we had heard, splurging on the Honda ($6) instead of the Chinese cycle ($4) was a good idea. Unfortunately, the Honda was a manual, and Josh quickly showed his lack of proficiency, such that they wouldn't rent us the cycle. They suggested an automatic, but Mary was freaked out, so we opted for pushbikes.

Our first destination was Nam Dee waterfall, some 5km out of town. After the first kilometer, the road became a hellish combination of cobble/dirt that was exceedingly jarring. The views along were pretty sweet: verdant hills, bamboo huts, rice paddies, and of course the ubiquitous chickens. The villages along the way are composed of ethnic minority peoples, frequently refugees from some war or another. Somewhere along here (around 1pm), Josh's watch stopped working. :(

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

The waterfall itself was ok (it's the dry season here too). There was a reservoir dam upstream of it, with a pipe leading down to the closest village.

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From Drop Box

Next we biked up to a stupa on a hill over the town. The statues were interesting for representing the diversity of the local peoples. Also liked the fountains of women washing their hair. There was a small shrine set into the hill behind the stupa.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

After a lunch and rest, we started out toward Muang Sing on our pushbikes. The terrain was pretty hilly for a single speed bike, but we caught some nice views along the river. We stopped and took some pictures by the dam (appeared to be hydro-electric), but we were shooed away. Also passed a lumber mill and what appeared to be a query and brick oven.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

We returned and perused the market. The market was completely free of tourist trinkets and was actually quite a lot like a Super-Walmart, with its huge selection of imported cheap stuff China to fill virtually any need (though we couldn't find a sink plug). There was also the grocery section with lots of fresh vegetables, dry goods, and dead meats (including something that looked like a rat), along with the requisite live chickens, and fish jumping out of their cement holding tanks. You know, the usual. We picked up some razor blades for Josh and a pocketknife for Mary.

(You may notice a conspicuous absence of photos of villages and the market, this is because the local people here are not generally okay with being photographed.)