Into the heart of Lao
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2008
1
17
20
Trip End
Jan 17, 2009
Nong Kiaw,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, January 5, 2009
Ever since I started researching my current Southeast Asia travels, I've had my eye on the Nam Ou River in Lao PDR. I'm not sure what intrigued me. Maybe it was the description in Lonely Planet. Maybe it was its proximity to Luang Prabang, making it a realistic overnight destination. Maybe it was an unexplored place on the map. I don't know why it became a place of my imagination, but I had a ticket for a minivan trip there.
My plan was to go by minivan and return by slow boat downstream.
The boat trip was by far the most enjoyable, although it did require some flexibility and patience.
As arranged the previous day, a minivan arrived at the guest house. However, it was not the vehicle to take me to Nong Kiaw, only to the Luang Prabang minivan terminal. Good, because everyone else in that one was headed to Vang Vieng, the mandatory stop on the backpacker circuit.
Four spine-shaken hours later, I emerged from the suspension-free and muffler-free minivan at the Nong Kiaw bus station, an uninspiring stop. Crossing the bridge to the Ban Sop Houn district on the far side of the river, I hoped to secure a bungalow for the night at the highly recommended Riverside Guest House. Almost immediately views of the soaring karst pinnacles front, side and back presented themselves.
This clearly was the place I'd been searching for.
Unfortunately, the Riverside was completely full for the night, so I started the search for an alternative.
01. Van sans suspension & muffler (2nd from left)
A rough dirt road led to Sunset Guest House, a gem. (150,000 kip a night, or about $18, but I ended up paying only 120,000, or about $12, because I had only coffee for breakfast.) I was shown to a bungalow with a wooden veranda with an inspiring view across the river to the village and the peaks behind. Not the cheapest place in town, but worth every kip (over 8,000 to the dollar). Actually, for creature comforts, it surpassed the room in Luang Prabang.After dropping my day pack in the room, I took a walk to soak in the views of the sunset-illuminated mountains and appreciate the dusty village main street undisturbed by foreign visitors. Little kids consistently greeted me with "Sabaidee." People tended open fires outside their houses. Folks bathed in the river and the water flowing down the mountain and alongside the road. Men repaired their wooden boats on the bank of the river. Women collected leafy water plants along the shore.
As the sun dropped low over the mountains, I retired to my veranda with a glass of lao lao rice whiskey, a cigar purchased in Vietnam and a sunset experience I'll never forget.
My only regret, as I lingered over my little luxuries, was that I couldn't stay longer. I had to be back in Luang Prabang the next evening for our flight back to Chiang Mai the following day.
Advised that I should be at the boat landing early, I located the boat ticket office before 9 and was told that the boat would leave between 10 and 10:30. Actually, the departure time depended on when enough people showed up. The cost depended on how many decided to take the trip. If only one person wanted to go downriver by boat, that person would pay the full 1.5 million kip cost. If 10 or more wanted to go, the cost would be only 110,000 kip. Eventually 14 bought tickets.
Almost as soon as the boat pushed off from the landing, the sun broke through the morning low clouds, and the rest of the day was bright.
As the narrow vessel maneuvered through occasional rapids, around sharp rocks, under jungle-covered mountainsides, I settled into a spot at the back, above the engine, to revel in to panoramic views. People fished from wooden boats, kids paddled to school down the river, entire diaramas of village life unveiled themselves, large trees with sculptued trunks loomed out to the jungle and then disappeared.
Just before our arrival in Luang Prabang, we arrived at the clear demarcation of the green of the Nam Ou waters joining the brown of the Mekong just above the Pak Ou caves.
Sunset brought us into Luang Prabang six hours after leaving Nong Kiaw.
Comments
Lovely Laos
Oh, Ron... This is just lovely! I think that this might very well be the nicest country yet on your S.E. Asia foray... Kristi