Most people visit Laos for its peace, its natural beauty and its unspoiled traditions. By all three criteria, Muang Sing stands out.

Picture a broad plateau rich with rice, encircled by blue mountains whose bulk advances and recedes during the day as mist alternates with haze and bright sunshine. Beyond one range lies China; behind another lies Burma. For all practical purposes, communication with the outside world is restricted to a jolting two-hour truck ride along a winding road through impenetrable jungle to the provincial capital, Luang Namtha. There are few cars, no airport, no phones and definitely no faxes.

But there is a market - and what a market it is. At six in the morning, as fog swirls around the old French building with its thick whitewashed pillars and its peaked roof, the hum of commerce begins to rise alongside the smoke of dozens of tiny fires.

Thai Lu women, huddled in shawls, their heads wrapped in pink flannels, gossip and laugh as they tend pans sizzling with deep-fried dumplings, or dispense wobbling diamonds of pink blancmange to eager children. Exotic birds with luminescent plumage change hands alongside fruit bats, and beetles. Cow intestines are weighed, bagged and paid for. Bowls of noodles are slurped by shaven headed boys in broad, bright crimson headcloths and black baggy pants with handmade knives strapped to their belts.

Yao women roam the aisles attired in culottes stiff with embroidery and black tunics offset by red tufted collars, past groups of mountain-dwelling Akha, unmistakeable in their black headdress sewn with dozens of silver disks, their leggings and cuffs decorated with blue and green stripes.

Not to be outdone, the Akha men sport cream-coloured hats resembling Nefertiti’s crown, dangling with strings of beads; or pink or white rough-wrapped turbans; or in simple olive green peaked caps from China, but sewn with little strips of striped cloth like bar medals, or with flowers inserted into the band so that the petals rise above the head like pink antennae.

It’s all over by nine o’clock, 9.30 at the outside, as the patrons disperse to their villages clutching their purchases of herbs and berries, batteries and buckshot, rice wine and banana flowers. It’s time for visitors to repair to a restaurant for baguette and coffee before embarking on the next activity: hiring a bicycle and exploring the valley.

A Chinese bicycle can be rented for 2,000 kip per day, or 1,000 kip for half a day - just make sure you inspect your mount carefully before you ride off, as maintenance standards leave something to be desired. It’s also a very good idea to take food, water, and sunscreen.

The Chinese border lies about 10 km north-west of Muang Sing, along a quite good sealed road. Foreigners are not permitted to cross the border into China here, but along the way is a Thai Lu village and a new Yao village called Oudomsin, populated by former refugees who have recently returned from Thailand.

Other roads in the area lead to Hmong, Thai Dam and Akha villages. If you intend to visit minority villages, you should be aware that your visit might disrupt the villagers’ routine. Be careful to observe village taboos and do not take photographs without asking permission.

There are several things to keep in mind when visiting an Akha village. Each village has a special gate designed to keep out bad spirits. Visitors may pass through the gate, Thai Lu village. but they must not touch it. If you go through the gate, you must then go into at least one house in the village. Visitors should enter and leave the house by the same door, and male visitors must not enter the female area of the house.

If food and drink are offered, they should be taken. One particular dish that is often served when welcoming guests is wild chicken eggs. These are eaten raw, by making a hole in either end of the shell and sucking out the contents.