Blogs from Muang Ngoi Neua, North, Laos, Asia - page 3

As i still was in the travelers trail and so far every economy of every village i've visited comprised out of a variety of guesthouses and restaurants to support the mostly young visitors from other countries ... as was this tiny little river town, thus after my difficult hike and two cycles of sleep ii ventured out to some local hill villages ... just when i was about to decide which road to take leaving town, i saw a couple walking ahead of mi ... i thought this can't be ... those long legs belong to Chantal, the dutch girl i shared the 'bush' toilet with when the slowboat stopped to let off some locals at a small village on our way to muang ngoi ... and so another chance encounter in the middle of the ... read more

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 ... read more

by Jan Its our last day in Laos, but I am just getting around to write our first blog post about this forgotten country. We spent almost a month here and there is a lot to write about, but let's take it one step at a time and start at the beginning. From Thailand we crossed the mighty Mekong river and once on the other side we were in Lao PDR, which is now the official name of the country. The old, original name is Lan Xang Hom Khao (Million Elephants, White Parasol). If we didn't know that the river was also the border between the countries we would probably just walk straight from the pier without passing all the border formalities. By the looks of it you would never guess you are at the border ... read more

After a few days in the ‘big city’ that is Luang Prabang, we decided to head four hours northeast, to the riverside town of Nong Khiaw, where we planned to spend a night before furthering our journey upriver to sleepy Muang Ngoi Neua. Arriving into Nong Khiaw was the perfect tonic following another nerve shattering minibus ride. A meandering twenty minute walk from the bus station took us through this dilapidated village, where the only commerce shops of any sort appeared to be pharmacies. After a while we happened upon an aging bridge, hanging high over the Nam Ou river and it was on the opposite side of this bridge where we found our lodgings for the night – Sunrise Guesthouse, which given its perfect location on the banks of the river, with obligatory limestone mountain ... read more

Ein Stückchen weiter flussaufwärts von Nong Khiaw liegt Muang Ngoi (Neua), ein winziges Dörfchen direkt am Fluss, das lediglich aus einem Weg besteht, für den die Bezeichnung "Hauptstraße" schon eine Übertreibung wäre. Hinter den traditionellen Häusern am Hauptweg liegen dann noch ein paar andere mehr oder weniger ordentlich in der Gegend verteilt herum. Ein kleiner Tempel und ein Schulgebäude runden das Bild ab. Muang Ngoi ist lediglich in einer etwa einstündigen Fahrt mit dem Boot von Nong Khiaw aus erreichbar. Keine Straße führt in den abgelegenen Ort, was zur Folge hat, dass die asiatische Freiheit auf zwei Rädern, das Motorrad, aus dem Dorf verbannt ist. Die einzigen Motorengeräusche, die man zu hören bekommt, sind das gelegentliche langsame Vorbeituckern eines Motorboots und das allabendliche Rattern der Generatoren, die das Dorf lediglich von ca. 18 bis 22 Uhr ... read more