Muang Sing Photo Walk

Muang Sing map

Muang Sing still holds a unique place in my memory. This is not only for the news I received just prior to arriving, nor the stray people I met in the town.  There was something about the locale itself.  At the time, it was the furthest I had ever gone and it was the first truly small Asian town I had been exposed to. Surin may have served as a dry introduction, but I felt I was thrown all-in in the mountainous fringes of Muang Sing.

By no means is it the most gorgeous or exciting place in the world.  And admittedly, I only explored the town when there was a vast area of hiking and nearby villages to explore.  However, it was a tangibly old place, contained still within its dilapidated city walls.  There was something about the atmosphere of people simply going about their daily business, acknowledging a traveller but still indifferent to them, near the looming edges of the giant that is China . . . this may well be the closest thing I have yet seen to the frontier.

Town road to people’s homes.

Town road to people’s homes.

The single public school – one long building of open-air classrooms.

The Muang Sing Tibal Museum. Closed the entire time I was in town.

Muang Sing’s government office?

Drinking with Chinese tourists who crossed the border for fun. We couldn’t understand each other, but were still a novelty to each other.

Another town street.

Early morning road in town.

Daytime at Muang Sing’s night market.

Stray cow feeding in the trash pile.

One of the old-style teak houses .

The incomplete base of someone’s home.

Unloading at the town bus station.

The Muang Sing police headquarters.

Busy morning on the street on the way to the Morning Market

Laotian trucks: a lawnmower engine attached to a trailer which holds cargo and passengers. They move about 5 kph.

A newer-style, and much mroe expensive home.

Muang sing road on a sunny day.

Stray dog and chicken.

Sunset from my guesthouse over the Muang Sing mountainscape.