By continuing to north, we reached the area of the Golden Triangle on the borders of the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos along the Mekong. This legendary mecca of opium on the Chinese caravan routes, is now supplanted by the Afghan production. We crossed the Thai border on a boat. At Huai Xay we watched the sun set on the banks of the Mekong River while enjoying a memorable Lao melted.
The objective here was to get lost in the jungle that covers this region of steep Ha Nam. A Poukha
Vieng, we discovered the limestone caves in the cliffs that pierce camouflaged in the jungle. A guide to authentic national party led us through the dark galleries in the dim light of our headlamps, not without having taken the precaution of making offerings to entry ... the most beautiful effect!
Through a project supported by UNESCO, it is possible to explore this protected area with local guides to meet the tribes in the villages. So we left the jungle for three days, first in the thick forest and across rice paddies and villages Khamu. The Khamu have their own languages and are animists, worshiping in the majority of forest spirits. They grow rice in the few spaces on the plans and hillsides. It's very heavily on subsistence agriculture, few imports arriving in the villages ... if this is the board of international assistance ... The children are educated locally until the primary.
This project has been less than 2 years this region, the rainy season requires, we were the first tourists to return more than 3 months. The track was so often invaded by the jungle and we have advanced with a machete. During these three days we walked these jungle covered mountains which rise to the clouds, eaten with the hands specialties of the jungle, served on banana leaves and served with rice and glutinous slept in bamboo huts and listened to the rain. We also discovered that there was worse than mosquitoes: the leeches!
In the villages, we played with the kids (we could not do otherwise with two leaders of the entertainment center!) and shared an evening with a family still around the Khmu sticky rice drizzled with local alcohol. 
We are all delighted with the four returning this trek in the jungle, with the feeling of being left far from the madding crowd. This
experience has left us an image of a reasonable and responsible tourism much more successful than the vastness of the organized tours offered elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
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