In the end I decided to stay an extra day in Luang Namtha and do a one day trek despite the weather. Afterwards I found out, that that really was a pretty good idea since I wouldn’t have been able to catch a bus to Oudom Xai anyhow. There weren’t enough people, so the bus didn’t go – and this is between two regional capitals!

The trek was nice, but nowhere near as special as trekking in Kalaw. The guides spoke hardly any English and in the village we visited I had a feeling of simply being the umpteenth tourist to stare at them. Which is, of course, exactly what we were. Besides I think that the trek was quite expensive: 11 USD per person. With me were three Dutch and two English. The dutch were slightly irritating and insulting, the English were really nice.

The national park itself is very pretty: Dense, primary forest and a lot of hills. I suppose I should have been happy about it being overcast during the day - but some sun would have been nice. As the day went on I was very happy that I hadn’t gone on the three day trek that would have been available: It got even colder and I could see my breath even in broad daylight. I don’t even want to know how cold it got in the hills that night. The next day quite a few people decided to leave – it was either that or buying winter clothes.

That night I fortunately had dinner with the people I had been trekking with. Fortunately, because there was an “accident” in my guest houses kitchen that could have ended quite ugly: apparently a bottle of oyster sauce fell into one of the pots and shattered there without anyone noticing. As a result everyone in the restaurant was served food with shards of glass inside. Fortunately the shards were so big that no one swallowed them. That could have been ugly.