Laos forum

We stayed in Attepeu for a few days and wanted to go for a trekking to Nong Fa. It turned out to be little difficult.

There is no travel office any more in the Attapeu Palace hotel and Mr. Ngai did not replay to our emails. The "official" tourist-information office is difficult to find and not helpful at all. The Information from there: "To go to Nong Fa is no longer allowed."

Finally we found a local guide who promised us to go to the lake with us. It is not any more a 5 day trekking through a unspoilt jungle but a 2 - 3 day motorbike ride along a new built dirt road. It is still a wonderful surrounding but we saw also a lot of destruction. The reason, that "it is not allowed to go there anymore" seams to be a huge goldmine 20 km before the lake. Our guide arranged to get a "permit" (a hand written piece of paper for 30'000 Kip each) and the lake itself is still very beautiful. He also arranged a improvised home stay for us in a village 30 km before the lake.

The Name of the Guide was Noon and his telephone number is: 5146230

At a boarding school 20 km before the lake (the place we got our "permit" we met a teacher, who would also like to guide people in this area. His Name: Mr. Keolaphanh and his number: 629528