Highlights: Overnight Riverside Camp & Khmu Homestay, Hiking, Khmu Tribe, Bamboo Cooking, Nam Ha River & Green mountains, Hidden of big trees, Jungle and rain forest, Nam Ha National Protected Area- an ASEAN Heritage Site, Join tourism activities as local foods, traditional performant, rice husking, bamboo baskets, bamboo cup, blacksmith, archery and etc.

Day 1: Nam Ha Village-Nam Ha NPA-Riverside Camp. Approx. 5-6 hours

Departure is at 9:00 AM. From the office to Nam Ha, a Khmu village, which is roughly 30 km from Luang Namtha town. The local Khmu guide with expertise and knowledge of the rainforestwill join you on your trip and lead you through rice paddies and deep into the mountains of Nam Ha NPA. Along the trail if you are lucky and treading carefully enough, you may spot some rare birds and other wild animals occasionally seen. Your guide will teach you how to make birdcalls, do some deer barking and mimic squirrel sounds. As you go, you will see many types of NTPs (Non-Timber Forest Products) and your guides will share some of their native experience about traditional medicines. Lunch is served in the forest shade near a waterway; we will arrive in the riverside camp late in the afternoon. Next the guides will show you how to stay in the forest, teach you how to cook rice in vessels made of bamboo, and how to make tea from cardamoms. You may choose to participate or just sit back and learn from them. After dinner it is bedtime in the riverside camp.

Day 2: Riverside Camp-Nam Ha NPA-Khmu village. Approx. 5-6 hours

In the early morning you will many an animal scream from the higher mountain and nearly the camp. The guides will encourage you to take part in the preparation of breakfast, show you how to craft simple coffee cups, bamboo toys, spoons and chopsticks from bamboo and leaves. They will also brew a medicinal tea from wild plants, collected along the way.After breakfast we trek deep into the heart of the Nam Ha NPA to explore untouched nature. Picnic lunch will be prepared en route with the natural food collected along the way such as: mushrooms, cardamoms, rattans, bamboo shoots, wild bananas stalks, etc…After lunch we continue walk toward Khmu village, located on the bank of Nam Ha River. On the trail the local guides will demonstrate some of their ancestral skills they use when hunting wildlife.  You will arrival Nalan which the village awarded ASEAN Standard of Community Based Tourism 2018. After check in your homestay you have time to walking around the village and learn about their lifestyle, culture and traditional. After dinner on local food you will enjoy tourism activities offered by community.

Day 3: Nalan Village- Chalernsouk or Nalue Village. Approx. 3-6 hours

In the morning you still have time to visit the village and test Lao Coffee by bamboo cups. After breakfast, on this day we have two option as:

The first option (3-4 hours hike) by hike uphill through forest. Traditional lunch will be prepared end route on the forest path. Thereafter, you will have an easy two-hour hike down the mountain slope until you arrive at the Chalernsouk village, where your driver will be waiting for you and shuttle you back to Luang Namtha.

The second option (5-6 hours hike) follow the Nam Ha River through the village of Nalan Tai Village and on through the open cultivated areas of the Lanten people, who are local village residents. We leave the Nam Ha River as the trail steadily climbs for a couple of hours. This is the most challenging section of the trail, but also the most beautiful, as it passes through stands of ancient trees, some five hundred years old, that create a high dense canopy rich in birdlife. We need only pause quietly to hear the forest come alive with a mixed chorus of birds and insects. From the top of the ridge, spectacular northern views lay before you, with Luang Namtha visible away in the distance. The final descent takes the group past upland rice fields and cultivated areas tended by the people of Namlue village. The trail steepens here and can be slippery after rainfall.  But a careful pace with sound footwear will get you down safely to the village of Namlue village where Lantan and Khmu people live together. And that is where you end your trek, returning to Luang Namtha by Tuk Tuk late afternoon to round off a journey we trust you will fondly remember.

Price Includes:

• English speaking tour guide
• Local guide from the Khmu village
• Transportation from your hotel & back to hotel
• Accommodation (Riverside Camps & Khmu Homestay)
• Meals (7 meals covered) “Local food or Jungle style”
• Drinking water during the trip
• Nam Ha National Protected Area Fee
• Community distribution
• Government Taxes and charges

Extra info:
More Information about Treks:
Do I have to be very fit to do a trek?

For the first day we have to trek 4-6 hours include relaxing along the trail. No transfers for pick up who can’t trek. If you can’t trek on the second day that we can use kayaks travel along the Nam Ha River. For the longer treks you need to be reasonably fit, but a lot depends on your own flexibility. You will not sleep as well as usual because of the primitive way of sleeping and the sounds of the village.

In the jungle
During the trek there will be hardly any flat parts. All the paths are used by the local people. Sometimes the path is overgrown, and the guide has to use his machete. We walk through dense jungle of Nam Ha National Protected Area, before arrival village we will walk through open areas, plantations of the hill tribes and sometimes along or through rivers. If you want, you can hire a porter to carry your luggage.

Riverside Camp

Built up by local people of Nam Ha & Nalan Village (Khmu tribes) who will serve your service when you stay overnight there. The camp very basic made by woods and bamboo located on the bank of Nam Ha river. The camp will provide sleeping bag and mosquito net.

Nalan Homestay

All Khmu homestay in the village have been passed Luang Namtha Homestay Standard and ASEAN Community Based Tourism Standard. Homestay design look same Khmu’s house style some made by bamboo and woods. Each room in homestay include mattress, blanket, mosquito net, towel, pillows with clean toilet in outside.

Village Passing

Nalan Village the village award ASEAN Standard of Community Based Tourism 2018, where your will learn about Khmu lifestyle, culture, and traditions. The village started tourism since 1999 that you know Nam Ha Ecotourism the first project in Laos PDR. In the village they offer homestay, local foods, local guides and many activities as traditional performant, rice husking, bamboo baskets, bamboo cup, blacksmith, archery and etc.

When is the best time to do a trek?
This is very hard to say. During the Laos winter, from November to February (the high season), the weather is the best (not to warm in the daytime, no rain and cool to cold in the nighttime). During the summer (March to May) it will be very hot in the daytime but there are few tourists. During the rainy season (July to September) the nature is at its most beautiful with green forests and beautiful natures. Walking can be hard sometimes after or during a tropical shower.

What you should bring on a trek
Sleeping bag (in winter) or sheet bag (in summer), mosquito net (only for sleeping in the camps the local guide will bring for you. No need if you overnight homestay in the village), small backpack, T-shirt, short pants, long pants, towel or sarong, pair of socks, long sleeve shirt, pair of slippers, pair of shoes, swimsuit, soap, shampoo, toothbrush /toothpaste, mosquito spray, sun cream, flash light, 2 liter drinking water for the first day (buy at day 1 first stop), hat or cap, first aid kit, toilet roll

Extra in Rainy Season (June-October) = Raincoat and Hiking Boots
Extra in Cold Season (November-February) = (Jacket and Warm Pants)

The luggage you do not take on the trek you can leave in the store room at your hotel or our office as well as passport, ticket and travelers cheques which they will put in their safe. Good hiking boots are essential in the rainy season but also very handy in the other months. You can buy water in the villages.

In the mountains it is a few degrees cooler than in Luang Namtha town. During winter it can even be cold, a few degrees Celsius above Zero. Please remember this when you do a trek during this time.

What you should NOT take on a trek

Passport, Flight ticket and Travelers Cheques. Whenever you lose your passport you have to go to Vientiane to get a new one. Also, a tropical shower can reduce your precious papers to something else. At the safe in your hotel your belongings will be safe!

Make sure that your photo or film camera is packed water proof, nature here is unpredictable

Candies for the children would be nice but they usually can’t go to the dentist easily. A donation for the village or village school is a better idea.

Bank notes in high denominations will be a problem changing them in smaller ones.

Optional:

• Snacks, fruit, your own bottle of water
• Your own medicine if you need it
• Sandals
• Flip-flops

Other:

• Please let us know in advance if you are vegetarian
• Please be at our office at 8:00 am
• You are welcome to contact us beforehand if you have any questions

Important Do’s & Don’ts:

• Do not give individual gifts of sweets or money to children
• Ask before taking photos of people or spiritual items
• Help keep the trails clean by not littering
• Please purchase handicrafts but do not purchase antiques
• Do not remove any archeological remains from the site of the ancient temples
• Always stay with the guides
• Do not use drugs