8/21/10 (muang ngoi neua)

Muang Ngoi Neua -  Nong Khiaw

I woke up early to catch a sunrise over the beautiful limestone cliff faces in this remote village. It is probably one of the more scenic locations we have visited in a long time. The town consisted of a small path from the dock that intersected with the main road. The path was lined with rustic bungalows and open porch restaurants overlooking the rapid waters of the Nam Ou river. Our group, that had made the boat trip the prior day had agreed to meet at 8am to decided whether to move south or to spend a day enjoying the town. We were hoping to stick together in order to maintain a large group that would possibly be needed to charter any upcoming boats on our way to Luang Prabang. I was feeling undecided because I enjoyed the area for its beautiful and remote appeal but was also looking forward to some of the modern conveniences that Luang Prabang had to offer. Most of the group decided to stay and trek up the local mountains and that put me in a tough spot since I was without hiking shoes. We decided to join our new friend Rick from San Diego for the journey to Nong Khiaw, the next town south to see if we could then catch the larger boat to LP. At 9:30am we boarded the aging teal long boat for our one hour trip to Nong Khiaw. The ride didn't disappoint as we snaked our way through the remote countryside. The river banks were lined with steep limestone mountains covered with freshly cropped lush green jungle terraces as the brown waters of the Nam Ou raced below us.

Most of the boats require a minimum of ten passengers when making the longer trips. The distance from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang would span six hours and we needed an additional seven passengers to make the second leg of our journey on this sunny Saturday morning. When we arrived at the dock in Nong Khiaw, we quickly visited the ticket office and were informed that the boat to LP had no other passengers for the day. We could wait to see if our fortunes would be better tomorrow or take a minivan to LP that would take four hours and would leave later in the day. Nong Khiaw was a more populated town than Muang Ngoi Neua but is equally beautiful. The town had a large bridge connecting the two shores and rose high above the Nam Ou. The river split the dramatic mountain range that rose up along the river banks. On the dockside was the local town where most of the natives went about their daily tasks and across the bridge on the adjacent shore was for the travelers and offered several guesthouses, bungalows, and restaurants. Our friends Pete and Danielle from New Zealand informed us that this river trip along the Mekong was the highlight of their trip six months ago. Based on their recommendation we agreed to join Rick in staying one night in hopes of finding some additional passengers for the boat leaving tomorrow. 

Annie and I wheeled our luggage up the muddy river bank until it met the semi-paved road that led to the bridge. It was very hot and and after making our way across the bridge, Annie explored several options for accommodations. We settled on a bungalow next to Rick that cost 30,000kip ($3.75US). The bungalow was an elevated bamboo hut with a bed, fan, and shower and not much else. You could look down at your feet and see through the cracks in the floorboard all the way to the dirt ground. The last two nights have been out of the ordinary from our standard accommodations and I enjoyed the rugged nature of these bungalows. 

We relaxed the remainder of the day and ventured out in the early evening, near sunset to capture some photos of the beautiful terrain. While we were shooting pictures, a heavy rainstorm quickly moved in and chased us back to our bungalow. Later that night we met up with Rick to visit the local Indian restaurant and had a delicious meal of naan bread, vegetable curry, and several Beerlaos. We were optimistic that several friends from Muang Ngoi Neua would catch up to us tomorrow and that would allow us to charter the boat and make our way to Luang Prabang.