Blogs from Nong Khiaw, West, Laos, Asia - page 2

25 to 27 Dec: Messing about in Nong Khiaw (note: a number of photos appear towards the bottom of the page). Nong Khiaw is such a restful and relaxing destination you can help but slow down and take it easy. I’ll leave my photos to capture some of what I saw and did. Highlights of this time included: 1. I completed two full books during this time. Reading either on my bungalow’s balcony or at the local eating/drinking establishment. 2. I met a number of fascinating people and had a number of interesting conversations. One particularly memorable individual was a guy named John and his wife Maggie, who live in Korea (teaching English), but was originally from Newport, Oregon. John was a character and was well known by the locals as they had spent three months ... read more

I get a cramped and hot minivan up to Nong Khiaw which takes 3 hours. I wanted to get the boat – as the boat ride on the Nam Ou river is supposed to be much more beautiful than the ones on the Mekong – but unfortunately the boats will only go with a minimum of 8 or 9 people and so far i'm the only one that is interested. The minivans are cheaper and cost around 70,000 kip which is a fiver. I arrive into Nong Kiau which is a tiny little village set around the Nam Ou River. The minibus arrives in and everyone staggers off it and into a tuk tuk. But its says its only a 2k walk so I heave “The Bastard” onto my back and set off. The heat feels ... read more

this town exist of one main street with bunch of guesthouses and restaurants, again geared towards tourists (as the tourist industry income is so much more than any of the prior existing jobs, like farming and fishing ...) ... a bit a pity, however totally understandable everyone in town who can work in this service industry does ... Anyway the second day Pheng (who lives up north) joined mi with a young friend Phick and together we explored the Poktha caves, a hideaway for the governing body of Luang Prabang province during the heaviest time of the secret 'unofficial' war with inwhere almost 3,000,000 bombs were dropped in Laos ... now having travelled around here for bit and spend some time with the locals it has become even a bigger question to mi that the international ... read more

So, on the morning of March 2nd we headed to the bus station with our tickets for the public bus to Nong Khiaw. The public bus turned out to be a large tuk tuk (sawngthaew). So, with almost 20 of us crammed into the back we set off on a dusty and cramped journey to Nong Khiaw. Four hours later we had arrived at the bus station in Nong Khiaw where we got a lift to the river for our boat ride up the river to Muang Ngoi Neau. Ngoi Neau is 25km upstream from Nong Khiaw. It's a small village perched on the banks of the river in a beautiful valley where the river winds its way through the limestone karst landscape. On our arrival we found a place to stay and I had to ... read more

16/01/2010 - 18/01/2010 From Namtha I took the bus to Nong Khiaw. Arriving in Nong Khiaw I bumped into Sarah, french girl who I met back in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Seen that Nong Khiaw is more village then city we explored the town on foot. The views are really fantastic, it s surrounded by colossal green-blue mountains while the Nam Ou river cleaves it in half. I had a bungalow with amazing view: view on the nice bridge, the river and this huge mountain; in the evenings the weather really cooled off and was more then chilly.... In the evening I crossed the Spanish group again and next day we all went together to Nong Khiaw, an even smaller village which can only be accesed by long tail boat. With its friendly locals and nearby caves we ... read more