Trekking in Laos

I took a 3 day trek into the mountains with 2 french canadians, and a girl from Holland. Our Guides were local, one spoke French, the other english, and between them a smattering of Laos, Hmong, Kamu, and a few other local languages which was essential for the villages we visited. We hiked thru jungle, all of which has been cut at some point in time. The local people who don't live too far from the road cut and burn the hillsides, plant rice the first year on the very fertile soil, then rubber trees. Farther back into the mountains, they plant rice, and subsistance crops like corn, bannana, cabbage, pumpkin, onion, and ginger. Entering the villages is quite interesting. You are hiking along in the forest then suddenly it opens up to a large cleared packed dirt area covered with thatch roof bamboo houses, with pigs, cows, and chickens everywhere, along with the village people and lots of children. It really does feel a bit like a national geographic special, the women in one village carry huge loads of firewood with a strap that is held across their forehead as the walk. Children sometimes clothed sometimes not, and the business of everyday life everywhere. Gathering wood for fires, children catching fish in the creek, washing clothes in the river, weaving baskets. So much going on. We stayed in "guesthouses" which the villages had built, basically a thatch roof building with mats and thin matresses on the floor and of course a mosquito net. Trekking groups have been visiting these villages for 2 years now, and the people have become fairly accustomed to it. Some of the children are still very shy at first, but they warm up. They love to see their pictures on a digital camera, so it is a fun way to play with them.