Where'd All the Damned Tourists Come From????

Room With A View--Dan Neau 2 in Muang Sing

All Kinds of Food on a Stick in Lao

Had Never Seen A Turkey in SE Asia--Happy Thanksgiving

Pretty Nice Room for $8

Top of the Valley by Bicycle.  Just a few miles to China

Now This Made Me Feel a Lot Better

Back in Luang Namtha after my journey to the far West.  Due to a lack of a fixed, or even semi-fixed bus schedule, I decided not to go to Xieng Kok, but instead headed back N to Muang Sing, a town whose most prosperous days came during the height of opium cultivation in the area.  While it's still cultivated (Lao is #3 behind Afghanistan and Burma), everything's on the hush and the days when tourists crowded the town to seek out opium dens are long gone.  Sing was a bit of a disappointment, with aggressive hawkers and trash everywhere.  I did manage to escape to the countryside on a bicycle for half a day and that surely improved things, but this is a town I couldn't recommend.   Food at the old night market was pretty good, at least, especially after sitting in the Tai Lu restaurant with about a dozen other foreigners with no sign of service.  I left, came back an hour later and still no one was eating.  Later found out that they'd sold all their food, but didn't bother to tell the customers, instead selling beer after beer.  Happy to jump on a super-crowded mini-van back to Luang Namtha with a nice French lady and a couple of Spaniards, but a bit less happy to see that the tourist population seems to have doubled in Luang Namtha in the three nights I was gone.  I saw a couple of large tour buses, so guessing that this place is rapidly becoming more and more discovered.  The Minority Restaurant was closed, so joined the hordes at the night market where I had an entire spit-roasted chicken (they're pretty small free range birds here) for around $3.  Looking forward to another day of cycling tomorrow, then it's off to Oudemxai.  My impressions thus far are that I really like Laos and its people, but travel here comes with a price which includes numerous power outages, crowded buses and slow travel due to an evolving road system; if I had to pick one favorite thing, it would be the food.  While the cuisine shares a lot with Northeastern Thai (Isaan), there are quite a few dishes that seem unique to the country.  I didn't realize just how many different soups there are here; a good menu will list at least a dozen.  Loads of great greens and, of course, sticky rice and various dipping sauces.  A shame there are so few true Lao places to eat in the U.S. since I think this is a food that would be embraced if available.  Might make for a great specialty food cart