Entering Laos

View our location map in Luang Namtha

Yesterday we walked down to the Thai Border, got stamped out of Thailand, and got a tiny boat across the Mekong river to Laos.  We got our visa’s for Laos and organised transport and then proceeded to wait for our van to arrive to take us to Luang Namtha, in northern Laos surrounded by National Park.  Once we all bundled into the van, we met our travelling companions, an American girl Tricia and a Brazilian couple, Eric and Emma.  Over the 4 hour journey we all got to know each other, and then parted ways when we arrived at Luang Namtha.  The journey was really amazing, with tiny villages and so many rice terraces and mountains.  After lunch we decided to go for a walk around town and to the national park and then spend the afternoon chilling – once we’d walked a while though we ran into the other 3 and decided to walk up to the temple.  From up there we had the most amazing view and complete silence, it was one of the most amazing experiences of our entire trip so far.  We didn’t have our camera and loved it so much that we will most likely go up there again for an entire afternoon and take some photos.  When we came back into town we discovered the most awesome night market right across from our guesthouse (we are just so lucky with things like that on this trip!!) and tried heaps of food we have never seen or heard of before – black nuts, small fruits, blue vegetables, we watched them making fresh rice noodles and then ate them, all in all it was just a fantastic afternoon and evening and has made us totally love Laos already.  The view up at the temple was like nothing we had seen before, it was just so perfect.  We can’t wait to back up there and see some more of Luang Namtha.