Dre decided that we’d go back up to Muang Sing for his birthday, and for something a little different we stayed about 7kms out of town overlooking some ponds and rice paddies.  Our first stop was some new villages we hadn’t been to before, and we bought some local handicraft to hang up in the shop upstairs.  We finally managed to find Elu’s village too, but didn’t go in because she was in Luang Namtha so we thought we might as well wait until she’s there to visit.

We rode around for a while, and went up a steep-ish hill to check out the view up there.  On the way back down the steepest part, a large rock rolled away as our tyre went over it and we fell off the bike!  Neither of us was badly hurt; Dre had a scrape on his leg and a small burn from the engine, but we both felt really lucky for having the best textbook fall possible.

Then it was time to stock up at the Chinese supermarket – pretty much all you can buy there is junk food and alcohol, so it suited our requirements well.

Needless to say the alcohol wasn’t the best idea we’ve ever had; but lots of food to go with it seemed to work.  We also spent time in other villages, saw cool sunset with a flock of birds flying over it, and just generally relaxed.  It was a great time away and a perfect prelude to New Years Eve.  Our photos are here.