Interlude at Nam Dee

Nam Dee resident wonders whether to smoke it or blow it

Half a dozen kilometres outside of Luang Namtha in northwest Laos is the Nam Dee waterfall. It isn't one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Laos by any stretch of anyone's imagination as the picture below shows, but it is a nice diversion on a bike ride around the town and the people we met there were ultra-friendly. Fifty cents got us past the gate-keeper and a nice walk through the woods brought us to the quietly cascading waterfall, which probably becomes a raging torrent at the height of the wet season. The villagers there are from the Lanten ethnic group and the village itself is known for its bamboo papermaking. We carried on cycling through more Lanten, Khmu and Tai Dam villages and crossed the Namtha River via a wobbly bamboo bridge that was more difficult than it looked, before getting closer to the river with a mini kayak expedition.

The Nam Dee waterfall cascades gently into the forest setting below

Welcome to Nam Dee waterfall and the usual dual-pricing structure for 'foreigners' found all over Asia

Our guide Mr Tid and myself, with the Nam Dee waterfall and forest setting as our backdrop

Still some indecision on the face of our former train conductor as to what to do with his bamboo pipe

This shy Nam Dee resident gave me a beaming smile every time I put my camera down!

Tim poses on the wobbly bamboo bridge across the Namtha River, watched by some frolicking boys