Up The River

Okay, so technically we went down the river before going up the river. After the Gibbon Experience Darren, myself, and our adopted Swiss Andy, all jumped into a large long-tail boat to make the infamous journey down river to Luang Prabang. It was a beautiful boat ride taking about two days (6-7 hours the first day and 7-8 hours the second day). The alternative to taking the boat is to go by bus, on roads that are not very reliable, for 16 hours. Travelling by boat on river is wonderful! It may take an extra day but it’s such a relaxing day that you can’t really complain.
After spending one night in Pak Beng, we spent one night in Luang Prabang before leaving the Mekong and taking a bus to Nong Khiaw. Now, after just arguing for the boat over a bus it seems strange that we would then take the bus instead of the boat to Nong Khiaw. We though that since the trip to Nong Khiaw is up river it would be wiser to take the bus. Always go with your first instinct. Take the boat! The bus wasn’t actually a bus, it was a sawngthaew (which literally means two rows), a pick up truck with a canopy and two benches in the back. There were approximately ten of us squished into the back of that sawngthaew. Take the boat!
Once we got to Nong Khiaw, we did eventually take the boat. We went up the Nam Ou river for about an hour to the village of Muang Ngoi. You can only get to the village by boat and it’s absolutely wonderful. All that’s really here are some locals, their guesthouses, and a monastery. It’s such a beautiful, peaceful place on the river that it’s sort of hard to leave. Although it’s been raining a lot, a covered hammock right on your front porch overlooking the river makes up for the lack of sunshine. (At this very moment, I’m laying in said hammock writing this blog and watching a lightening storm brew in the distance).

The river and the village has quite a bit to offer. Today, we took a boat up river to a couple of the minority villages. The first village seemed a little put off by our presence. It was a cheap tour and no one accompanied us into the village and so we arrived to aimlessly wander and observe. I felt a little bit like I had been dropped off at a zoo. Not because the people were like animals, but because I felt like I was imposing on their village to just watch and stare at them. While I was extremely interested in observing their culture, I usually prefer to do so by taking part in it, not just walking around staring. That being said, it was a lot of fun playing with and watching the children. There are so many kids here in Laos, especially in the villages. Kids are everywhere, and they do everything. Most of the time you’ll see six or seven year old girl with a three month old baby on her hip. Today, we also saw a nine year old girl washing laundry, including the clothes on her back. Everyone takes part. Everyone works, no matter how old or young you are. It’s astonishing and fascinating. The second village we went to is known as the “weavers” village. All the women weave their own textiles and scarves to sell to the tourists who come through their villages. Again, even the children take part in the weaving and selling to help support their community. Some of the younger kids just run around butt-naked. When we first passed the area there were a bunch of children seemingly bathing in the river. When we left that same area there were two naked boys paddling around in a canoe. Oh! To be so free! Ha ha ha!
With lots of karst mountains there are apparently a lot of caves in the area as well. After the village we took a short, albeit muddy walk to one of the local caves. The guide didn’t even seem to know how to get there and I don’t think it’s one of the more popular caves but it was pretty cool. It wasn’t a long or deep cave, but crawling down into a dark hole is definitely a little nerve racking, and the stalactites were very interesting.

Most of us made our way back down the river on tubes. It was raining (of course) and a little cold, but very relaxing. Once it stopped raining and warmed up, it was perfect. In fact, after we finished tubing, there was the biggest patch of blue sky any of us have seen in over a week. We all even got a bit of a tan! Drinking coffee and sipping beers at the cozy Riverside restaurant, watching the sun go down was the perfect way to end a pretty great day.