Day 60

Although it was sad to leave quaint little Nong Khiaw so soon, I was excited about the boat trip ahead so we went down to the boat landing at 8.30am to book some tickets. They don't really do tickets and bookings or leaving at set times in Laos. The ticket seller told me his boat was in Mong Ngai or somewhere and wouldn't be back for another hour or so. Even then the price would depend on how many punters would finally get on board. So for the next two hours I quizzed passing westerners in the hope that more would be heading south to Luang Prabang. Most seemed to head North including the Austrian guys we had met the night before. Eventually we got on board with two Americans and a quiet Swiss guy who went to the back of the boat to sleep.

1 The Boat Landing at Nong Khiaw

The river we were on was the Nam Ou river for the first few hours which feeds into the Mekong river at the famous Pak Ou caves. I didn't know much about these caves but there were tourists walking around them as we passed by.

2 Our guesthouse in the morning

The boat was small but comfortable, with the motor at the back and the driver at the front. It was covered but had no windows so it reminded me of boat trip I did in Thailand a few years ago. The Lonely Planet was right - the trip was really enjoyable. The river is busy with locals and the scenery is great. We got chatting to the Americans and the 5 hours passed pretty quickly. We saw a couple in a row boat and the driver told us that they would be on the river another two days if they wanted to get all the way to Louang Prabang.

We arrived in Louang Prabang around 4pm and the boat dropped us off on a sandy bank walking distance from the centre of town. Louang Prabang didn't look like much as I looked up the bank but first impressions can be deceptive. Louang Prabang and its surrounding area is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site and those people are usually right when they something is good! As we wondered around the old town looking for accommodation I bumped into a Dutch guy Frank who I had last seen in China. He recommended us a place to stay and the three of us (Bjorn, Susan and me) walked down to it to check in. It was a bit of a dump and we couldn't understand why he was speaking so superlatively about it. We checked in anyway and went to a nearby restaurant to meet up with Frank and an English couple he had invited along. During dinner we quizzed Frank about his recommendation but he insisted he had a great room with fresh flowers and fruit each day which seemed a far cry from the place we were at! At the end of dinner we all walked home and realised Frank had got the name wrong and sent us to a different guesthouse. Great!

3 Our guesthouse from the boat landing

4 On board

5 The river-side scenery

6 Kids on the river side

7 Limestone cliff faces and locals on boat