Blogs from Nong Khiaw, West, Laos, Asia - page 5

Despite the bungalow-style accommodations on both sides of town, Nong Kiow is little more than a transfer point for the newest upstream-town-cum-attraction. The most that visitors ever see of Nong Kiow is the bus depot beofre stern light grey bridge spanning the Nam Ou. They load up on supplies and gingerly manage the steep slope down to the docks. Their last image of Nong Kiow is the columns and underside of that concrete span after having boarded thin, noisy longboats. Nong Kiow knows no banks, ATM’s, public Internet connections, or paved side streets. An apprentice monk awaits transport at the bus depot. Nong Kiow doesn’t even have a wat large enough to support clergy. No one ever stays the night in Nong Kiow unless they have to. The town receives far less sunlight than Luang Prabang ... read more

We set sail from Luang Prabang with Nong Khiaw as a destination. Technically speaking we boarded the craft, as we did walk a plank from shore to boat. Stuffed, jammed, rammed, tamped, crammed; these are more accurate descriptions of what occurred. The canopy was low, the aisle narrow, and getting from our seats involved a flat-footed, butt-to-heel, knee-to-shoulder, elbow-to-elbow, duck-waddling sort of shuffle. Fine. But the seats . . . The seats were fashioned in two rows of four, the sliver of space between rows serving as aisle. The sturdy wooden chairs were originally manufactured for the pre-school market and thus they were small, not extra-tiny as the constraints of the boat dictated. Some creative shipwright had since modified them in the following fashion; the aisle-side legs were truncated by half, and their outboard kin were ... read more

Much time has passed and joyously little has happened in the last few days. One last night in Luang Prabang meant a Lao style BBQ, which is a little like a meat and vegetable fondue arrangement over hotcoals with my trusty australian posse. The BBQ is a metal dish with raised centre, which is surrounded by a trough, all of which perches (precariously at times) over the top of a bucket of hot coals in the centre of the table. Thin slices of meat are placed on the raised centre, while broth, vegetables, egg and what ever else you fancy it would seem, are loaded up in the trough around the centre. As the meat and soup are cooked, you help yourself and each of the ingredients is topped up; the broth was from a rather ... read more

Alexis and I went to Nong Khaiw to look for a trek that was a bit more off the beaten track, and we got it. Nong Khaiw is a fishing hamlet nestled in a valley between mountains with limestone clifts. There are waterfalls and caves to explore during the daylight hours but after the sunset this place is dead. Which actually suited me fine as the slowboat ride, was well, slow and I need rest more than anything else. Our first night we were hanging out on the porch of our little bungalow when a Polish guy joined us with offerings of Lao Lao whisky. I think we impressed him with our drinking whisky straight out of the bottle abilities. He said we sounded like Americans so that ended our friendship and we sent him on ... read more

Nong Kiaw is only 3 hours North of Luang Prabang by road, however we decided to take the advice of the ever-unreliable Lonely Planet and take the most scenic trip in the whole of Laos which takes 7 hours against the current and costs 4 times as much as the bus. I'm sure that the scenery would be very nice (endless hills and mountains on either side, and the occasional tiny village complete with excitedly waving naked children) had it not been a pretty miserable day, and had we not been cramped into a boat that makes a narrow boat look practically obese. It was pretty uncomfortable, but more crucially the low roof on the boat severely limited what view of the "most scenic journey in Laos" could actually be viewed. Nong Kiaw is a tiny ... read more