In a short space of time, MUANG SING , located some 60km northwest of Louang Namtha, has progressed from a quaint, middle-of-nowhere Tai Leu village to a talked-about-on-three-continents backpacker haven, and the explanation is simple: opium . Just five years ago, barely a trickle of travellers made it to Muang Sing, but since then its residents have opened guesthouses and restaurants to cater to the opiate-seeking visitors. Opium addicts hover around the restaurants at a discreet distance, stoically waiting to be noticed by their potential customers. Travellers tend to ignore their desperate stares until well into the evening, when, alone or in groups, the curious leave the restaurants to follow one of the addicts to an impromptu "den" in the dark.

In the first half of the twentieth century Muang Sing was a weigh station and market for the French government's opium monopoly, Opium Régie, which suppressed cultivation of the poppy among local Hmong and Mien tribals in order to tax and control the supply of opium to the licensed dens of Indochina. By the beginning of World War II, taxes on the sale of opium throughout French Indochina made up fifteen percent of the colonial government's revenues. When global war disrupted the traditional maritime route of opium into Indochina, Opium Régie started to encourage local Hmong farmers, resulting in an 800 percent increase in Hmong opium production within four years. Two decades later, America's CIA operatives trained the Hmong guerrillas that had previously sided with the French, using their cash crop to fund their operations. A Byzantine alliance between the Royal Lao Government, opium warlords and the CIA was formed. The CIA co-ordinated the collection of opium, which was transported to refineries in the Golden Triangle , the resulting heroin eventually finding its way to markets all over the globe. By the war's end, the production of opium in the Golden Triangle, which overlaps into Burma and Thailand , had reached epic proportions. While eradication programmes in Thailand have had limited success in curtailing cultivation of the opium poppy there, Burma and Laos continue to produce significant amounts of the crop. Cultivating, trafficking and using opium is illegal in Laos, but the authorities have so far chosen to ignore the present state of affairs. If you have come to indulge, you should be aware that this situation can change at any time. It's also important to realize that by partaking you are also encouraging a vice that creates poverty and shortens lives.

Although Muang Sing has recently started attracting increasing numbers of tourists, it is still an agreeable and friendly little town where great, sway-backed sows drag their teats down the main road and young novice monks play kataw and ride bicycles around the monastery grounds. The ancient-looking Wat Sing Jai , hidden behind the Muangsing Guest House, has a wonderfully rustic sim (temple housing the main Buddha image) that has recently been painted in festive Caribbean hues. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit or GTZ , a German non-govermental organization which runs an opium detoxification programme for local addicts, has its headquarters on the western edge of town. A small, but informative, free exhibition there (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm) documents their efforts. Muang Sing's morning market is well known for its colourfully dressed vendors and shoppers, yet nowadays the camera-toting tourists almost outnumber the locals. If you want to take a photo of a vendor, it's only polite to buy something first and try to have a little conversation. The market convenes very early, just before sunrise, and winds down by seven, though a few stragglers hang around until mid-morning.