North Laos, Part 2
After Luang Prabang, we headed north towards the border with Vietnam. On the way, we visited Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi. This is a more rural area, and ideal for lovers of nature and silence.
Boat docks 
The kids gave Wout a racket so he could play with them 🙂 
Me and the giant!
In Nong Khiaw we spent a couple of days, where we found the hostel of my dreams, with a beautiful view of the river and the mountains, and a hammock! I could spend a week like this!
But Wout had other plans… we got up at 4 AM to climb to the Padeng peak viewpoint to see the sunrise. After a heavy, sweaty climb in complete darkness, the summit greeted us with a thick fog. we spent a couple more hours there, hoping the fog would clear up, but to no avail. It was a bit painful to hear the stories of other tourists who saw the sunset that day… a very different picture!
Laos was heavily bombed during the Vietnam war, as part of the Ho Chi Minh trail passed through it. More bombs were dropped on Laos during that time than all European cities during world war II combined. It’s surreal. They place warnings everywhere that you shouldn’t stray off the path.
On the way down the fog began to disappear. 
Lianas 
Catching some sleep at the top
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
To have a bit of rest after our failure, we decided to go the cave, the fog can’t follow us there!
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
At the entrance of the cave we were shown a map, handed lanterns, and wished good luck. It was not a trip for the faint of heart, I can say with confidence that this is way more creepy than doing a parachute jump, climbing in small cracks and low passages in the rocks. I don’t suffer from claustrophobia, but your imagination begins to work against you in these kinds of places. And when we turned off the flashlights for half a minute I regretted that I had watched so many horror films in my life. We did not reach the end, our self-preservation instinct forced us to go back half way. But I had had enough adrenaline for a while.
30 x 70 cm passage 
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The next stop was the village of Muang Ngoi. From Nong Khiaw this place can only be reached by boat. This inaccessibility makes it charming, with just one real street, mainly oriented towards tourism.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
Muang Ngoi brought us much better weather, so we decided to make up for our failure and climb to another viewpoint.
View of Muang Ngoi and the Ou river 
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
About 5-6 km deeper into the mountains there are 3 villages (Houay Bo, Ban Na, Houay Sen), which are the main attractions of this place. If you want you can spend the night in one of these villages and get a feel for the local life, which we did in Ban Na. The nature on the way to the villages, just indescribable. Perfect silence, mountains, perfect night star sky!
We expected to see life in the village without electricity, gatherings around the campfire, but at 6 PM the lights turned on and people ran away to watch satellite tv.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
Extraordinary landscapes 
On the way we saw some less beautiful places as well… 
In some places the road ends and you have to wade through the river, 
just perfect in this heat! 
Village kids playing football 
The area is famous for weaving handicraft 
Transporting bamboo for construction 
Piggies everywhere! 
Our VIP room in the village: a mattress and a mosquito net. 
Moo-dy cows
Walking under a starry sky:
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The next morning, we found the source of the electricity. The locals make dams in the river, and tie cheap electric generators with propellers to the construction. That’s progress for you! We really liked this place, and it’s really very natural and not spoiled by tourism (yet).
local hydroelectric power station 
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
From Muang Ngoi, we took the boat to the rather uneventful city of Muang Khua, because buses go from there to Vietnam. I enjoyed the boat ride a lot more than the slow boat tour – 5 hours along the turbulent Ou river, with rapids and rocks, with a quick stop to avoid a dam, comfortable seats, fewer people, and cheaper!
Crossing the dam by tuktuk 
Very wobbly wooden bridge 
While passing the dam we met this sad little buddy
Muang Khua woke us up at 5 in the morning with a speaker at full capacity broadcasting local propaganda of the mayor and some music.
Early bird gets the worm apparently, the monks are lining up in the morning for the alms giving ceremony. At 5-6 am in several cities in Laos the monks go out to beg, give prayers, and they are given rice, vegetables, fruits etc. Buddhist monks only eat once per day, thanks to donations like these.
And now let’s go to Vietnam!
One Reply to “North Laos, Part 2”
Goedenavond Wout en Alena,
Eerst en vooral onze beste wensen voor 2019 ! Een jaar dat jullie niet vlug zullen vergeten.
Ik verslind gewoonweg jullie reisverhaal. Meer dan grootse natuur. Groot gelijk dat jullie die tocht in de grot afgebroken hebben (best griezelig, brrr !); wees maar voorzichtig.
En nu maar wachten op de volgende mooie foto’s en spannende verslagen.
Lieve groeten vanuit O.T., België, T. Chris en N. Luc