Nam Ha Forest Camp Trek

Hello all,

Coming to LP in a few days. Can hardly wait. Needing to get out to the mountains for some trekking and kayaking....

Has anyone done the Nam Ha Forest Camp trek? Is it 2 days or 3 days? Any advice/recommendations? I'm mostly interested in mountains and natural wonders. Not so interested in trying to have a "humanitarian moment" in hill tribe villages.

Any other recommendations/input about good treks and/or operators is most welcome and appreciated.

cheers, m.

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The only trek I know of by this name is by Green Discovery out of Luang Namtha. If that’s the one you are talking about then yes I have. I went on four guided walks in Laos last year and in many ways this one was the best. I blogged about it here. Into the Nam Ha protected area.

I was lucky in that I had the guide to myself, the program was just starting up again after a three week hiatus. I specifically chose Green Discovery. at that time they were the only company that actually walked within the boundaries of the Nam Ha. I checked the other outfits both in Luang Namtha and in Muang Sing. The guide was knowledgeable and freely shared all he knew about the flora, fauna, and the hill tribes. Besides the main guide we also had a local hill tribe guide, on the first day a couple Khamu kids, and on the second day an Akha guy.

No matter who you go for a walk with, probably no single thing is as important as the guide. Oh, it was 3 days 2 nights, the pace was twice local time, and they started high in elevation and walked to low. Began quite a ways up the road to Muang Sing and ended at that toppled stupa below Luang Namtha

You said "coming to LP", but you do realize that Nam Ha is quite a few good hours away by bus, closer to Namtha, don't you?

And I take it you are referring to Green Discovery's packaged walks? I think they do two different Nam Ha walks one a 3D/2N and the other a 2D/1N. I did the overnight one, where we stayed at a Khmeu village. I thought it was pretty good. "Natural wonders"? Well, the forest itself is a natural wonder. Don't expect lions, tigers, giraffes and unicorns - some people are disappointed by the lack of animals. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "humanitarian moment" - you do meet people who live in the area, although it was fairly low key.

I don't really know what the difference is between the two packages.

I'd be happy to recommend GD, though, and they get good reports from other tourists, too.