Most travelers heading north to Muang Sing via Oudomxai and Luoang Namtha begin their journey in Luoang Phabang and head up route 13 to the junction town of Pakmong. Here, a change of vehicle takes you northwest along Route 1. West of Pkmong, the forest becomes dense and reverberates with the sound of unseen insects – rhythmic rasping and shrill whistling like angry tea kettles. The majority of villages along this stretch are located far from the road, but periodic glimpses of the people who inhabit them reveal something about the labor – intensive lives they lead. When not engaged in cultivating their teetering hilltop gardens, the highlanders spend daylight hours  hunting and gathering in the forest.