Meeting The Locals

Today we enjoyed a similar trek to yesterdays (only in dry weather and on the other side of the valley) along vertiginous tracks, through rice terraces and forest. Occasionally we would come across locals, like this mother, with her winning smile,  and her baby, looking less happy(!) keeping an eye on the animals in the rice paddies and doing a bit of embroidery at the same time.

 Once again we had lunch in one of the local houses and, once again, a lot of rice wine was involved. For some reason, the grandmother and matriarch of the household seemed to take a shine to me and insisted I model the male tribal headdress. She was in hysterics as she wound it round my head and then went off to fetch the rest of the costume. Before long, several of our group were dressed in the traditional outfits and having their photo taken with grandma and her youngest grandchild (see extras with yours truly far left)

After we'd said our farewells, it was more steep ascents and fantastic views. At one point we had to take our boots and socks off to wade across the top of a waterfall, with the steep drop just yards away. Just as we got across one of the locals came through on his moped (see other extra).

It was a fantastic walk but we were all pretty much exhausted by late afternoon when we staggered in to the village and were relieved to see the tables and chairs from yesterday were already set out and the cold beers waiting for us.