Muang Sing Things to Do

Hire a delightful chinese bicycle in the town, and cruise around the roads. As Muang Singh is situated on a broad valley floor, most of the roads are flat, thus ideal for cycling. The ancient bikes we hired had only one gear and primitive brakes, so a lack of hills was essential!! Nonetheless, it was fun to ride around, taking in the sights at a slower pace.

Places to cycle from Muang Singh:

-the chinese border
-around town, taking a massage
-up towards the hills on either side of the valley
-the half pipe in the middle of town (joking ;)

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Find a guide and trek up into the hills around the town, staying overnight in a hill tribe village. See Accomodation - Adima tip for more info..

I stayed in an 'Akha' tribe village, walking up for a few hours, stopping for a delicious lunch the guides had bought from the market before we left. As we ascended into the misty jungle, the guides pointed out wooden talismans left to ward off evil spirits. Eventually we arrived on the top of a ridge and the village emerged out of the mist. As it was late afternoon, and very damp, there was not a soul in sight. An eery and atmospheric place to arrive! But from each bamboo hut we could hear lots of chatter and laughter. These people love to laugh!

Our guides took us to the guest hut, lit a warming fire and prepared a delicious dinner for us. Later some villagers came to see us, and we each received a (fully clothed) massage from the unmarried girls of the village. This was a surreal experience as we lay in a row with the girls chatting and laughing amongst eachother as they pummeled us by candlelight! We wondered what they were saying?

Afterwards the men passed round the Lao-lao (rice whisky) to welcome us, before we retired to bed under blankets. Bring warm clothes if you visit earlier in the year as it was very cold at night!

Next morning the cloud had lifted, and we could see the whole village, with it's plethora of animals. Cows, goats, pigs, chickens, cats and dogs roamed free, sleeping under huts and rice barns. As the womenfolk left to work in the fields, carrying bamboo baskets, the men and children remained behind chatting a laughing around fires. Some of the men smoked cigarettes made from graph paper and tobacco!

Later we descended from the hills, passing through other villages, shouting 'hello' and having lunch in a dry rice padi.

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On your way to the Chinese border, there is a small town where Guesthouse Adima is. Here starts a nice walk to several Mien and Akha villages and a superb view over the area. To my personal opinion, one of the most beautiful views I've seen in Laos, even when it was raining a bit and not fully clear. I'm not sure if there are any maps available for the hike, we actually took a picture with a digital camera of the map that hung on the wall in the guesthouse and followed the route on that one. If you get lost, just ask "Adima" to the locals and they'll point you into the right direction.

In one of the villages there was a little "hospital", interesting to see!

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There are hundreds of trucks loaded with sugar cane heading to China everyday, and if you wander off of the main road you will see the locals loading the trucks by hand.

Muang Sing museum is in the main street, which contains many local artefacts and costumes. The building is interesting too!