Nong Khiaw

Friday the 13th!

The bus company quoted a journey time of 4.5 hours - we didn't leave Luang Prabang until 11.30 with luggage strapped to the roof. The minivan was full of young French backpackers. I have a theory - from my experience - it seems whenever I go to a really nice place there are always a lot of French tourists - as if they know all the nicest places to go in the world. So I was excited for Nong Khiaw. 

The road was absolutely hideous - the poor driver (who looked about 15) could hardly drive in a straight line, in order to avoid the extremely large potholes all over the road. At times the bus was tipped over as he drove down a bank to avoid the holes and other vehicles.

The driver also kept stopping and getting out to check the luggage. I was thinking that I hope, if my bag falls off, I will see it fall past the window.  

The journey took 6 hours - which I didn't mind - I just wish they'd be honest about the time. I listened to music on the second part of the journey and managed to 'zone out'. I'll never complain about Oxfordshire's roads again!

Nong Khiaw is in a beautiful setting amongst the mountains and my hostel wasn't bad at all - extremely cheap - and I had the dorm to myself the first night.

14th March

Saturday I hiked up to one of the many viewpoints

You had to buy a ticket to go up - 50000 kip - but it's not too expensive and they maintain the path a little. Here in Laos, it really is dangerous to stray off the path for fear of un-exploded bombs. This was the sign at the entrance to another viewpoint:

I crossed the river - over the rickety bridge 

- and hiked up to the top which took 1.5 hours. It was the middle of the day so I was sweating buckets and there were a lot of flies and mosquitoes. It was a tough hike - very steep - but the view was worth it.

There were so many butterflies too

This place is quite rural and although partially set up for tourists, there are places, a little out of town, where people are living in a very basic way. They have small breeze-block and wood houses with corrugated iron roofs and do a lot of stuff, like cooking, out on the street. A lot of the ladies still wear the traditional Laos skirts and there are chickens running all over the place and people making baskets out of bamboo. They use scooters to carry stuff a lot of the time including their baskets of goods suspended on the ends of a long stick they carry over their shoulders when walking.

There are lots of small restaurants just run by families who make everything fresh. The food is great and the curries are delicious. When you order you can see or hear them chopping the vegetables and then they fry it all up in a big wok, and serve it up. Sometimes it takes a while if the place is busy, as they only make one dish at a time in the small kitchen. It always tastes amazing.

Sunday 15th

I had booked a camping trip over night and to be honest, I was regretting it all morning, but when I arrived at the meeting place I got talking to a lovely girl called Ilse from Holland. She was only 19 but very mature for her age. The other people on the trip thought we were mother and daughter. The viewpoint called Pha Nang Aua, was only 400 m and the hike was hard but easier than the one I had done the previous day. at the top there were tents and we had to choose one - two sharing - so I shared with Ilse.

(apologies for my finger in the top right hand corner - again!)

We sat around chatting and watched the sunset. The young guide - who does this trip every day (in flip flops) - was grinning and announced, "I have Beerlao! So many beer"

There was a large group of German lads we got chatting to and a couple of English guys and an Australian who had a speaker with them - playing music which was a pretty good playlist. Also a girl from New Zealand who was half Maori and a girl from Hungary. I abstained from the beer, for fear of needing the toilet all night, but I felt happy and a little lifted by the conversation & mood of the group. 

I was a bit of a novelty - the Mum of the group - and they wanted me to pick out some songs for the playlist. The English guy was into Arctic Monkeys which reminded me of Archie. In fact they were all around that age.

The stars were amazing but it clouded over and eventually everyone went off to bed.

In the night there was a thunder storm - you could see flashes through the tent and the thunder was so loud, echoing around the mountains. The guide came round and put tarpaulins over some of the smaller tents - not ours - and told us to turn off our mobile phones. Then the rain came. It was heavy and the tent leaked from the top. The wind was flapping the sides of the tent and it kept wobbling my sleeping mat and kept me awake.

In the morning, we couldn't see the sunrise but the cloud was very pretty

Then the walk down. It was so slippery with mud, wet leaves and soggy logs - we had to go very slowly.

I tried to have a sleep back at the hostel, but I couldn't so I went out for food and then a walk to the Cave and Museum.