Text and photos : Meike Mumm GTZ and Bill Tuffin
Luang Namtha Province is home to one of the largest populations of the Akha Tribe. It is here that the Akha culture is best preserved and best experienced. The Akha Experience is an experiential tour which takes the participants on a 3 day learning experience into the culture and daily life of 8 Akha villages in Muang Sing where they have personal interactions with the villages they visit. The tour participants have the opportunity to experience first hand from the Akha themselves the Akha culture and way of life. The villagers share their life in the forest, their life in the fields and their life in the village with their guests. Visitors are not observers but participants, joining the Akha in collecting bamboo in the forest, harvesting upland rice or spinning cotton.
Each tour is led by two village-based guides, who have received training in eco-guiding and English language.
During the overnight stays in traditional Akha-style houses in Ban Lao Khao and Ban Tamee, the guests are received and taken care of by village hosts.
Before setting out on the tour the visitors are informed about the trail, the activities and about how the tour program benefits the villagers, what is done to make the tour environmentally friendly and how to visit the village in a sensitive manner.
Vientiane Travel/Exotissimo and GTZ have combined their resources in a unique effort to provide the tourist and the village with a quality meaningful exchange, giving ownership to the villagers. The villagers sell their tour on a contractual basis to the tour operator.
The Akha Experience motivates the Akha to preserve and share their traditional culture while at the same time gaining new skills and income generating ability.
Contact
Exotissimo Laos
Pangkham Street, Vientiane LAO PDR
Tel. :( 856-21) 241 861-2
Fax :(856-21) 262 001
Email : laosales@exotissimo.com
Internet : exotissimo.com
GTZ-RDMA
Meike Mumm
Tel. :( 856- 20) 5785881
Fax : (856-81) 212383
Email : mmumm@gmx.de
Recommended Tours :http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/activities/akha_experience.htm