A beautiful place to relax and unwind

---

(The following are excerpts from our journaI as there was no internet access from the village of Muang Ngoi).

I write this as I lay in my hammock over looking the Nam Ou river. Children play on the steps leading down to where fishermen work on their long boats and fix their nets. Steve is helping another backpacker (Eduard from France) to carry bamboo poles up from the river to behind our bungalow where they are helping to bring materials for a restaurant that is being built by one of the villagers.
We arrived yesterday after a 3hr drive up from Luang Prabang to Nong Kwai followed by an hour on a slow boat up river to Muang Ngoi. As we arrived we saw bungalows that looked right over the river so while Steve collected our back-packs from the boat I arranged for the best bungalow over-looking the river, all for US$2 a night. It is a basic room with a bed, mosquito net and a light bulb (electricity is from 7pm - 10pm). The balcony has two hammocks on it. Perfect.

The view itself is worth a million dollars. The mountain range is extraordinary and our photos do not do it justice. The mountains are tall and steep and "overlap" each other giving the appearance of 5 different colours (purply-bluey-green). Under the sounds of kids playing in the water, I can hear the "oo-oo" of the gibbons in the forests.

Last night we ate BBQ fish at restaurant across from our bungalow. We met a French American who has been living in Laos for 2 years and is married to a Lao. He was a lot of fun and told us some interesting things about Laos. The population of Laos is only 6 million, partly because the child mortality rate is 25 % (0-2 years old). Only 1 million live in the cities with the remainder living remotely in villages in the hills. There are between 68-200 dialects so communicating when providing medical assistance is difficult, even when the assistance reaches the villages. However, we have seen that there are many NGOs her (non-government organisations) so there seems that assistance is reaching Laos in some form or another.
Steve has now gone for a swim in the river. There are boats practising for the boat races in a couple of days as part of Pi Mai (New Year). Just below me on the banks leading down to the river, a lady is picking herbs for dinner tonight. Other ladies from the village are making their way to the river in their sarongs for their daily wash. I think I'll go and join them.

---

Photos

Muang Noi scenery 2
Steve looking very relaxed after climbing the mountain in the background

Muang Noi scenery
The mountains around Muang Ngoi are just breathtaking

Muang Noi scenery 3
This is the view from the front door of our bamboo hut on the river

Stef in a hammock
This is what Stef saw for most of the day she spent relaxing in the hammock catching up on some reading and planning.

What an advertisment
We are starting to see more and more of these around Laos. I guess they have so many of these thanks to the US (up to 20% of which never exploded) that they may as well do something with them.