weds day 110

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With Guillaume joining Hayley and I for breakfast we decided that we would spend the day together as long as it didn't involve anything too strenuous! Popping out along the high street after breakfast we stocked up on some much needed provisions. While there we bumped into a couple of travellers we had met on the boat - a man from Australia and a lady from France who had been travelling together for the last week or so. Chatting with them about the day ahead they decided to join us. Finding the head boat man for the village and doing a bit of bargaining we got a good deal to get a boat for the day. Deciding to travel up the Nam ou river to visit a couple of villages and kayak back, we headed off in a longtail boat about lunchtime. An hour later of being driven past beautiful scenery of limestone karsts, lush green hills and all manner of activity going on in the river we made it to the first village. With a short but steep walk up we felt a bit like we were on display. The village is very remote and I guess they really don't get that many western visitors. So after a 10 minute walk around the village and not taking too many photos we headed back to the river and got into the kayaks. Sharing a kayak with Guillaume we weaved our way down to the weaving village - try as we may we just couldn't go in a straight line! Again the village being very small but probably about twice the size of the last one we went for a walk around to see what was what. Making our way through bamboo huts and friendly locals, past dogs and chickens we made it to the school. We had a peek in but sadly no classes were being taken. Turning round and heading back past women weaving we stopped off for some lunch at the local restaurant. The only thing on the menu was cabbage soup - not quite as bad as it sounded and being in a remote village you eat as the locals do. Round 2 with the kayaks was as bad as round 1! However hard we tried we couldn't get it to go straight!! Hayley hadn't gone far in the longtail boat, so when we caught up with them I handed over the oar! And after a bit of a tutorial from the local they were off steaming along down the Nam ou. I climbed in the longtail boat and was taken for a nice leisurely sail back to Muang ngoi. Sitting by the shore waiting for the return of the others I sat and watched the locals come down at the end of the day to do their washing and take a bath. A couple of kids came down and were having a fab time playing in the river. Not too long to wait before the others returned and we headed back to our prospective guesthouses. We all met up later for dinner with a lady travelling from Russia alone, so it seemed apt to finish off the night with a white Russian.

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