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Published: January 16th 2012
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A minibus picked me up at the guesthouse and then drove around picking up a few more passengers before dropping us off at the minibus station where I found the vehicle that was headed to Nong Khiaw. It was a very nice 3 and a half hour trip and surprisingly we didn't stop at a restaurant for lunch, which seems to be the norm in this part of the world. Once at Nong Khiaw we had just enough time to have lunch before hopping in a boat bound for Muang Ngoi Neua up the Nam Ou river. This trip took just over an hour and had some very nice scenery along the way.
Muang Ngoi Neua is more or less a village on the banks of the Nam Ou river that is set up for foreign tourists. There are about 15 guesthouses that you can stay in and most have river views as well as restaurants. We had a bit of bargaining power seeing that 5 of us foreigners were on our boat, so we ended up getting 4 rooms with views for $5 each. The only downside was cold water showers(standard for this town) and electricity from 6pm to
9.30pm. We ended up eating dinner at our guesthouse or the one next door each night and the standard was fairly high. For breakfast we went a little away from the river for $2.50 all you can eat buffets. I ended up staying 3 nights here and enjoyed it immensely. On the first full day I walked to a small cave and then across some rice fields to a small village where I had some lunch and took a couple of photos. While eating I saw 3 teenage boys walk past carrying small calibre long barreled rifles. About a minute later I heard a shot and turned to see one of the boys holding up a snake a little over a metre long. He quickly rushed it back to the village where I presume he gave it to one of his family to prepare for the evening meal before rejoining his friends and taking off across the ricefields. The next day I was joined by Nina from South Africa and Jasper from Holland for a walk to another village and a small waterfall. It was a very enjoyable walk with some nice views along the way and a more interesting
village than the one I had visited the day before.
Monday myself, Nina, and a Belgian couple Bjorn and Ellen hopped on a couple of boats for the 5 hour journey up the Nam Ou river to Muang Khua. Again the scenery was very nice passing some traditional villages and being surrounded by hills as the boat made its way up the river. Once in Muang Khua we checked out a few guesthouses before settling on a simple place overlooking the river for $4 a night. I had a walk around town and especially liked the suspension bridge situated over a smaller river which only allowed pedestrians and motorcycles.
The next morning the 4 of us plus about 8 locals caught a boat that would take us upriver to the small town of Hat Sa. This trip took about 6 hours and was quite interesting dropping off and picking up locals from the small villages along the way. Also the boat had to battle against a lot more rapids than the previous journey and one time the boatman and a couple of passengers were drenched by a wave of water caused by the bow of the boat fighting
through these rapids. As we approached Hat Sa the river narrowed and the banks became a little greener due to the rise in altitude. We disembarked at Hat Sa and after having a coffee caught a songthaew for the 45 minute trip to Phongsali. This was quite a rough and scary ride with the driver racing up the side of the mountains on an unsealed road whilst we had a crazy truck driver up our arse. Unfortunately the songthaew dropped us just outside town so we had to walk about 1-2 kms into town. We had a look at a couple of guesthouses before choosing one for $9 a night which I shared with Nina. It was very nice to have a hot shower and just relax after the last few days. My one day in Phongsali was spent just walking aroung the town which has a Chinese feel to it, and booking a 3 day ethnic hilltribe trek for the next day.
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