Trekking, and nothing else

Indochina Trek sells one kind of trip: walking for three to five days through farmed hills or forest, sleeping in village houses, with a guide who speaks English and a guide who knows the paths. Five fixed routes, in Sa Pa, Hoang Su Phi, Pu Luong and Mai Chau, Luang Namtha and Mondulkiri, plus Phongsaly on request. Every trek is private to your party.

We do not sell hotels on their own, city tours, cruises, cycling, kayaking or jeep trips. If a trek needs a hotel night before or after, we can add it, but the trek is the product.

• Large groups. Our treks are built for one to eight walkers. A group of twelve would be split into two parties with separate guides and houses.
• Comfort-first travel. We do not use lodges with pools on our trek nights. If a private bathroom every night matters more than the village, we are the wrong company.
• Languages other than English. Our trek guides work in English. For other languages, ask; we cannot promise it.
• Last-minute border routes. Hoang Su Phi needs a week for paperwork. We cannot shortcut that.
• Multi-sport trips. No bikes, no boats, no off-road vehicles. Others do that; we walk.

Trekking here means walking through someone's fields and sleeping in someone's home. A few rules we ask every guest to follow:

• Ask before photographing people, and accept a no.
• Do not hand out sweets, money or gifts to children on the trail. If you want to give, ask your guide about the village school or the host family.
• Shoes off at the door; feet not pointed at the family altar.
• Dress modestly in villages, especially when washing at shared water points.
• Take your rubbish out. Villages have no collection for wrappers and batteries.

In Laos, the Nam Ha trekking model was built around exactly this kind of agreement between villages and visitors, through a UNESCO-backed project from 1999. In Mondulkiri, the Bunong community at Andoung Kraloeng holds legal title to its land; visits run on their terms.