Lapping Luang Namtha

“Where are you tak­ing me this time?” I asked Som­savath at Luang Namtha’s air­port. The year … 2012.

I’ve toured with Som­savath, who runs Phou Iu Travel, sev­er­al times. He is forever dig­ging deep­er into the moun­tains of Laos’ north­west­ern-most province. His itin­er­ar­ies make “off the beaten track” look like Main Street.

“We’re try­ing some­thing new.” Somsavath’s ver­sion of “some­thing new” is like sail­ing with Magel­lan. “We’re going to circle Luang Namtha, and vis­it all five dis­trict centres.”

The inside track

A long term res­id­ent of Laos, Bernie Rosen­bloom brings more than 20 years of exper­i­ence in copy­writ­ing and journ­al­ism to the Lao travel & tour­ism trade as Co-founder and Dir­ect­or of WeAreLao.com.

The map showed roads south to Nalae and west to Vieng Phouka, and then just moun­tains before Long Town over­look­ing the Mekong. Som­savath hustled the 4WD pickup over a 75-km twisty, bumpy dirt road that fol­lowed the Nam Tha River to Nalae Town and a bed.

Thoughts of my impend­ing roller­coast­er ride van­ished the next morn­ing at the river­side. We joined boat­men, huddled around a fire, cook­ing fish. Som­savath worked a deal for a 90-minute long­boat cruise to Khone Kham, a pleas­ant side trip along the Nam Ha Nation­al Pro­tec­ted Area.

A small party wel­comed us to the 100-year-old Tai Lue vil­lage. The community’s stil­ted houses climbed a cobble­stone-layered hill, with women weav­ing under many homes. A simple river­side tour­ist lodge over­looked rapids.

I soon dis­covered the vil­lage dis­tils lao khao rice alco­hol. An eld­er said, “One for a greet­ing, and more to relax.” He mixed the moon­shine with Coke and wild chick­en eggs. After a few, we moved on.

The 76-km drive to Vieng Phouka star­ted decept­ively smooth. We passed Khmu vil­lages, and eyed the approach­ing moun­tains. Potholes deepened as the dirt road star­ted tra­vers­ing the mono­liths. We reached Vieng Phouka at 19:00.

After din­ner, Som­savath scoured the town to dis­cov­er if the road went all 84 km to Long Town. “Half said, ‘Yes,’ and half said, ‘No,’” We decided to go for it …

… and imme­di­ately got lost. A wrong choice at a “Y” in the rut-filled trail was head­ing to a dead end. We met a hunter 30 minutes in; he set us straight. We tried again, and though the road resembled a cart path, Som­savath recog­nised some of the villages.

We crossed rivers via bam­boo bridges. A broken tree blocked the way, but I man­aged to pull it back enough for him to pass. We finally reached Long at 15:00.

We could have con­tin­ued on Route 17B North for 45 km to Sing Town, the fifth and final des­tin­a­tion. But Som­savath insisted on the Xieng Kaeng Region for sun­set over the Mekong and Myanmar’s mountains.

The trail crossed rivers and passed poin­ted peaks. We hit series of switch­backs, and the road ruts grew deeper.

We made it to the 1,800-metre-high view­point just as the sun hit the hazy hori­zon, a vic­tim of slash and burn. Baw pen nyang (nev­er mind), we agreed, and closed the day with the 36-km down­hill run to Sing.

The next day’s 40-km drive on a paved road to Luang Namtha Town was a walk in the park. Mis­sion accom­plished. We had lapped Luang Namtha, though the trip hasn’t made Pho Iu’s tour board … yet.

Where is this?

To really explore the under­belly of Luang Namtha, drop Som­savath a line:

Phou Iu Travel & Eco­tour­ism
Phonexay Vil­lage, Luang Namtha, Postal Code: 03000, Laos
Tel: +856 – 20-2881 9198 | E‑mail: phouiutravel@gmail.com

Where next?