Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi (29 October - 1 November 2007)
The Lonely Planet for Laos warns against the dangers of bus route 13. But we were not afraid at all, as the guy sitting in front of us was armed with a HUGE automatic fire arm, ready to protect us!
I know I said that we were used to a seven hour bus ride. But when it comes to a 12 hour bus ride, with locals stuffed into the bus on seats ‘created’ to accommodate them and the locals puking their lungs out into small plastic bags as far as we go - I humbly submit! This was the longest 12 hours of our lives! As if this was not bad enough, we met a Swedish 60+ idiot in Sam Neua who were tailing us and pressing on ALL the wrong pressure points. He is an archaeologist who wanted us to share a taxi with him to a ‘mini Stonehenge’ called Suan Hin in Sam Neua. Eon was tempted, but my female instincts thought otherwise and I politely declined. Unfortunately, we could not shake him as we ran into him at the bus station again. I don’t think I have ever met anyone as annoying as him! We all had to cram into the bus to make space for who ever else the bus driver picked up on the way, but not the Swedish guy - NO! He just sat there on his double seat with his bag next to him. I am getting upset all over again!
Arriving in Nong Khiaw at 20:00, we had our ‘friend’ following us in the search for a guest house. The first place was full; the second place had one room available. We went to look at the room (Swedish guy still on our heals) and as we walked into the room and the guesthouse owner switched on the light, I heard Eon yelling “Snake!”. The next thing I remember was standing about three meters from where I previously was and Eon still yelling snake. As I peaked into the room, over Eon’s protecting shoulder, I saw that the guesthouse owner was standing deadstill, looking around the room for the snake. And when I looked to where Eon was pointing, I saw the guesthouse owner was standing right on top of the snake’s head (I just have to mention that he was wearing flip-flops)!!! The guesthouse owner jumped into the bed, grabbed a wooden thing and went chasing after the snake. He eventually managed to kill it and then Eon asked me: “wil jy hier bly?” We gave the room up to the Swedish idiot and went on searching for a room. We found a nicer room than the snake-room, and at a cheaper price!
The next morning we took a boat to Muang Ngoi, about one hour’s ride north of Nong Khiaw. Now this is how I thought Laos would be - quite, beautiful and lush surroundings, Eon and I lying in hammocks - just doing nothing! Muang Ngoi is so remote that they do not even have roads or cars! We stayed at Riverside Guesthouse, run by a lovely old lady who we now know as Mamma. She is so friendly and the best cook in Laos. When we left, she even gave us a whole bag of oranges for free.
There is nothing in Muang Ngoi. There are no roads, no outside communication and there is only electricity from 18:00 to 21:00 by generator. The accommodation is very basic bamboo huts on stilts (most Laos houses are built on stilts to keep out dangers like snakes and other animals) with no hot water. The water comes directly from the river, so the locals just bath and do their washing directly in the river. So everyday at about 15:00, we took a cold shower before it became to chilli in the evenings.
Besides just sitting on the deck, drinking beer and reading, we went for a short hike in the forest to a cave and local village. From Muang Ngoi, it is about a 40 minute hike to the cave. Eon said it felt like he was in an Indiana Jones movie - exploring the deep dark cave with a stream flowing through it. Eon went into the deeper part of the cave, with the water up to his head. I found a bullet in the pool running out of the cave - this was a surprisingly nice cave! We hiked further into the bushes until we came across a huge open rice field tucked away between forest covered mountains. As we started through the rice fields, it became muddier and wetter. After I stepped into a huge mud pool, I had a little moment, through a tantrum and debated if I should turn around or not, I decided that I need learn to relax about these things. So we took our shoes off and completed the hike to the village barefoot through the mud. It was worth all the muddy-barefoot suffering as the village was beautiful. We had a simple lunch at a small restaurant on stilts at the foot of the mountain, overlooking the village and the multi-coloured rice fields. We ordered a vegetable curry and sticky rice - we received morning glory (a veg here!) in a sauce that was everything but curry! We rolled the sticky rice into balls and dumped them into the morning glory sauce - delicious!
If I knew how fabulous the visit to Muang Ngoi would be, I would have come here earlier and spent more time here. But we took the boat back to Nong Khiaw and caught a bus to Luang Nam Tha.
Click on image below to view Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi gallery:
