We spent six days in total between these gorgeous little towns. Most of the time was spent taking in the views of scenery from the comfort of our bungalows and hammocks making the occasional venture further to enjoy the surrounding villages and to grab a beerlao before returning to the same position. A 5 am wake up in Nong Khiaw found us with our hiking boots on and torch in tow to make the one and a half hour climb to the top of the Nong Khiaw view point. We arrived at the top just in time to enjoy the sun rise waking up the town below ( although I think the crow of roosters since 4 am may have already succeeded in that).
We hired mountain bikes and rode to a few small caves a couple of Km away. The caves were nothing spectacular, then again we didn’t venture very far into them. I don’t think I’m cut out for caving, walking through pitch black narrow rock walls with only the view of small man-eating gremlin creatures jumping out and grabbing me pictured in my mind or the more realistic idea of snakes and spiders terrifies me. So while brett was there raring to delve further into the unknown dark caves, he was held back by my fear of it. The caves were used during the war as a hiding place for the Laos people. A few children followed us up to the cave, they seemed really cute, picking flowers to give us, holding our hands and showing us the way until they started begging for money and made us feel terrible for not giving them any.
We returned back to our hammock in the afternoon to enjoy the sun setting over the Nam Ou river.
The following day we caught a slow boat up the river to Muong Ngoi. A similar town to Nong Khiaw but slightly smaller and more remote. Until recently they didn’t have road access, power or Internet access, but now it is equipped with all.
We parked ourselves in a bungalow by the river. Bungalows ranged between 50 -100 thousand kip/ night and all seemed pretty similar. You obviously pay more being right on the river.
There are a few villages near by which you can walk to. We walked out to one one village which took about an hour and a half. There is nothing out in the villages but a couple homestays and a local restaurant or two. To stay in the village was a mere 10 thousand kip/ night.
Muong Noi is made up basically of one dirt street, there are some great places to eat and drink and because it’s so small it is really easy to meet other travellers.
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