Laos/Luang Nam Tha Province

After riding for three and a half hours from Jing Hong, we got to the border of Laos. Crossing the border is easy if you have a photo and a valid passport. After crossing the border, we continued another hour and a half to the town of Luang Nam Tha, which is known for its trekking, kayaking and rafting. Laos is so different from China and Vietnam. I didn’t see people rushing all over. For example, in Luang Nam Tha, people were more relaxed and they seemed to enjoy their daily life. Luang Nam Tha hardly has traffic, and people don’t seen stressed out and working so hard like in Vietnam and China.
The next day we went for a walk in the afternoon to a water fall near Luang Nam Tha. We passed through many small villages. It was interested to see how minority groups live in their wooden and thatched houses on stilts, and I was shocked to see how they lived with no running water, and no sewer system. They are poor, but they seem to be coping with their situation. I liked to see the women bathing in the river without a bra, and some families were working in the mud picking up some kind of shells, perhaps snails. I thought it was interesting to see most people coming back from work carrying loads of wood, and some baskets with different kinds of vegetables. I could see a whole family even with small children coming back from work looking tired. I was amazed to see that women wear their black traditional outfits with some jewelry, but what impressed me the most was to see the families together bathing in the small river which was coming from the water fall. These families seem to be enjoying themselves after a day of hard work. They were laughing and jumping into the small creek.
I am very sad about the deforestation that we have seen in Laos, I am concerned about the debastation of mother earth. I am scared that if the forestation doesn’t stop the consecuences are going to be horrible. I remembered in my country where I grew in small town full of trees and a beautiful river in the outskirt of San Salvador. I enjoyed the river which is now gone.
Before I came here, I didn’t know much about the history of Laos. For example, I didn’t know about the secret war in the 1960s in which the U.S. dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos trying to halt the flow of soldiers and arms on the Ho Chi Minh trail and to prevent the Communist Pathet Lao from taking over. Up to one third of the population became refugees. And even today, many people, especially children are being killed or maimed from the remains of the bombing.