Trekking in Nam Ha NPA

Waking up was very very difficult. We were pretty achy from the trek and cycling but spirits were high and I decided to just forget about my phone. It was cold and very foggy... the advert for the trek said "You will see sunset, sunrise and lay asleep to the stars at night". We didn't even see the sky!

The journey started with a trip to the market to collect the food for the whole trip and then the steep steep steep incline through the jungle began. Although cold and foggy we soon got very warm and sticky. We stopped to have lunch at the water fall where Khong, our guide, prepared yummy vegetables with sticky rice served on a bamboo leaf table. It was about a 6 hour trek on the first day which was tough but really worth it in the end when we reached the Akha Village where we would be sleeping for the evening. The village children were super cute and welcoming with a strict boys only football game started up very quickly. Just for a bit of background the Akha tribe are still living in authentic living conditions with no running water, no electricity and living in wooden bamboo huts. Instead of using a football they used plastic bags wrapped in more plastic bags that were left by tourists. All the children were playing in odd flip flops and one even had an evening dress shoe on one foot and flip flop on the other. It was great to see Will have so much fun playing football with the little kids and guys from the trek. He really loved it! One of the girls tried to join in but was quickly shouted at by a little boy who sternly said "no girls" in Akha.

Dinner was quickly prepared and served,sticky rice with stir fried vegetables and stewed tomatoes. Simple but so tasty, fresh and so much of it. 2 of the village children cleverly came back to help and soon cleaned up any remaining food. The rest of the evening was spent chatting, drinking Beer Lao and shoting the local Lao Lao, whisky, at the campfire.

The next morning we woke up in absolute fog and couldn't see further than a couple of meters. Will and I got up early and stood with the kids at the campfire. We shared with them sunflower seeds, looked through our pictures of our trip so far and played pokemon on Wills phone. The second day was much easier with a stop for lunch half way were we made another another campfire as it truly was cold! When we got back to the town we joined Khong and some other locals for Beer Lao which was really fun. We then got back to the hotel and were gutted to find the bedding was quite damp. Luckily the owner said he would upgrade us to the deluxe room. Ah whay heaven! A bed that was actually soft, a room that felt warm and a kettle to brew up! Absolute luxury!!

During the night I was pretty ill and spent most of the night in the toilet so in the morning we tried to extend for another night but couldn't. I was gutted. It was the perfect room to feel ill in! So we packed up and left our bags at reception and went for some breakfast where we met Sunil and Jeni. We were told there was a local festival in a neighbouring village which only happens every 5 years and the plan was to cycle there. As I wasn't feeling well we decided to hire a scooter and Sunil and Jeni taught Will how to ride and joined us for the trip to the festival which was so nice! It ended up being such a lovely day, even if I was ill. We drove past vibrant green rice fields and the weather was absolutely lovely compared to the 3 days of fog we'd had previously. We ended the day watching sunset and then eating a whole duck and papaya salad for only £3, perfect. Tomorrow we are going to begin travelling down south to Luang Prabang.Read more