The first attraction we visit are the waterfalls of Tat Kuang Si, near Luang Prabang, praised as a natural wonder, but unlike many of the world’s spectacular waterfalls, we are surprised by the turquoise green water created by the minerals that give it this colour. Over the years they accumulate at the edge of numerous pools, forming natural dams.

We leave the misty valley of Nam Ou to go trekking in the mountains north of Luang Nam Tha. In addition to our Laotian leader and two men from the Akha tribe, an Austrian, a Frenchwoman and an American have joined us, so we are a group of five nations.

We experience up close the fauna of the forest, hungry leeches, motorway termites, fighting ants, nervous butterflies and a large poisonous black scorpion. A chance encounter with a bear is hardly likely here, and pandas are only much further north, although their favourite food, bamboo, abounds here. There’s rich flora, lichen and the multi-coloured tree sponges that grow on rotten tree trunks. There are also wild bananas. Unfortunately, in spite of nature conservation, many trees are dying due to strangler figs. These parasites cling with their aerial roots to healthy trees in order to get to the light quickly and with ease.

For their livelihood, the Akhas are self-sufficient, they breed pigs and dogs, and especially young dogs are a delicacy for them, but to obtain cash, they make paper - from bamboo - whereas in the past they simply used dry sheets of it to write on. Also the rubber plantations bring in a modest income, and baskets are woven by the local people. Their main activity, however, is the collection of reed for broom production, which is then exported to China.

Finally, we reach the Mekong, whose brown water can rise up to five metres in the rainy season. We pass the famous Pak Ou Cave, where hundreds of Buddha statues are stored, and while we enjoy the last sunset, the circle of our round trip in the north of Laos closes, and the view from the aircraft makes us understand why a specific way of life has been preserved for longer than usual in this remote mountain world.