Nong Khiaw, 8 - 11 April

Another boat ride down the beautiful Nam Ou river took us to our next stop, Nong Khiaw. After a few days with limited electricity, no internet, and no ATM, it was a nice change to find these facilities in Nong Khiaw. The town itself is in such a gorgeous setting – huge karst mountains rise up on either side of the Nam Ou. Again we had a bungalow overlooking the river and spent quite a bit of time chilling out in hammocks, reading, and watching life take place, in, on and around the river.

In the past two or three weeks of our travels, we hadn’t had any rain at all. Then quite out of the blue, a huge storm blew into Nong Khiaw. The wind started and blasted dirt and dust everywhere. Then came the rain, in a torrential downpour, luckily only lasting an hour or so. We were having lunch in an opensided café by the river at the time and had to huddle with other customers and staff in the office. Once the rain stopped and we made our way home, we realised the downside of a bamboo thatch bungalow – sand, dirt, and plant debris had covered every surface of the bungalow. Luckily, our backpacks were closed, and none of our things were damaged.

We ended up staying longer here than expected as we wanted to be there for the big boat race, part of the town’s Lao New Year (Pi Mai Lao) celebrations. The dragon boat races involved teams from some 25 surrounding villages racing all day on the river (now a murky brown from the previous days’ storm). The sleepy town suddenly transformed into party central, with a big market, and a few girls began the waterfight celebrations. Chasing us with hoses, we were utterly drenched in a few seconds – just a taste of what was to come in Luang Prabang! It was clearly a big event in the local calendar, with much beer lao and lao lao consumed, resulting in a lot of line dancing and singing.

Muang Ngoi Neua 5th - 8th April

After a night in the charmless transit town of Oudamxai we headed to Muang Khua, the first sleepy village in our Nam Ou river trip. Our guest house overlooked the river, but the barge that ferried cars across the river was powered by a horribly loud diesel boat 12 hours a day. So we decided to leave early for Muang Ngoi Neua and caught the 4 hour long boat down the Nam Ou.

Muang Ngoi Neua sits on the banks of the Nam Ou and of the 3 villages we visited on the Nam Ou, it is the least advanced, with no roads connecting it to the rest of the country and only 3-4 hours of electricity a day. The streets are dirt and all shops are either river bungalows or food stalls – often both, with a few house fronts selling bits and pieces from dried river weed to cans of pringles.

On arrival we step out on to a bamboo raft/jetty and are welcomed by locals offering “bungalows with hammock.” Most of these, including the one we stayed in, are single unit bamboo thatch huts with concrete bathrooms on the rear. Some offered 24 hour power with generator but we decided to go for the view of the river from the hammocks and peace and quiet (except for the roosters).

After the first night we met up with some people we had met on our boat ride and headed out for the outlying caves and villages. We took a while getting out of town as one of the locals dogs had taken a liking to our group and decided to follow us. The owner was a bit worried and explained to us that one of the outlying villages had warned her that if there dogs strayed into their villages alone they would eat them.  We ended up unwittingly adopting another dog that followed us safely for the whole journey however.

One of the attractions en route was a large cave, and we headed in armed with torches. The caves in Laos are numerous and very imported to the locals that live around them; they often hold century old images of Buddha or statues and figurines that were stored in the caves during the sixties and seventies while Laos was bombarded by the US as part of the Secret War. In fact one the bungalows in town had huge bomb casings at the entrance.

After the cave we headed to the closest village and decided to stop and have our lunch, ending up napping in the hammocks and playing petanque with one of the locals. The rest of our group made their way back to Muang Ngoi Neua along the rice paddies, while myself and Hannah decided to stay the night and hired a bungalow for a mere 10,000 kip (1.54NZD); another bamboo hut with a mattress and a mosquito net.  I shared my Beer Lao with my petanque partner and in turn he fed me too many shots of home made Lao Lao (rice whisky), some strong stuff, and after a few more beers I headed to bed, with our newly adopted dog sleeping outside our door.

 The next morning the sun was out in force and being hungover in the sun with 30c+ heat wasn’t the best. Our dog followed us back to Muang Ngoi Neua and for the rest of our visit would turn up from time to time and spend a few hours following us or sleeping under our hammocks. After a few nights taking in the river views from our hammocks we headed downstream to Nong Khiaw.

Views over the rice paddy fields in Ban Na village

Laos - Luang Namtha 29 March - 1 April

We took the boat across the Mekong to the Laos town of Huay Xai, which took all of three minutes. Immigration procedures at Huay Xai took quite a bit longer as unfortunately we arrived just after a whole Contiki bus group had handed in all of their passports for processing. Eventually however we left and made our way to Luang Namtha, in Northen Laos.

In Luang Namtha, we rented some bicycles and biked to a waterfall 6km out of town. The waterfall itself was less than spectacular (probably more impressive in the wet season), however the ride out there was great. We passed through a few little villages and got a glimpse into Lao village life. As we rode through, kids would run out and wave, shouting ‘sabaidee’ (hello).

Funnily enough we discovered there is a café in Luang Namtha owned by a kiwi couple (Forest Retreat Laos). Excited by the prospect of baked beans, marmite, and most of all, flat whites, we decided to check it out. Unfortunately as we should’ve known, the food and coffee was a little disappointing, although the setting was nice and the staff friendly.

Every second shop, guesthouse, or restaurant along the main street of Namtha is offering various trekking or homestay options, into the nearby Nam Ha National Protected Area. We decided to go with Forest Retreat for a two day trek into the Nam Ha. We were joined by three other girls, from Belgium, France, and Slovenia, and a local Lao guide.

We trekked for around five hours the first day, and crossed a river to arrive at the forest retreat where we were to stay the night. The bamboo weave hut, at the confluence of the Nam Ha and another river was a great location. However unfortunately there was a road just across the river and diggers in plain view (and more importantly, earshot) – improving the road apparently – and a rubber plantation above that. The diggers kept on until around 10:30pm and started up again around 6am. Hardly the tranquil location we expected which was really disappointing.

Big millipede - apparently quite dangerous if you're bitten

Our accommodation for the night

The trekking itself was enjoyable, with giant bamboo plants above, below and to the sides of us. Unfortunately the views we should’ve seen were shrouded in the haze created from burning rice paddy, as is done throughout this region at this time of year. He also gave us a bit of insight into the culture of both Laos and the Khmu people, whose village we started and ended our trek in. As our trek continued our guide plucked and cut local plants tasting them and telling us the uses for each plant. At one point he picked up some flowers, took a bite, nodded his head and said “These are very sweet, used for salads in Laos” as everyone took a bite our faces puckered up from the unexpected bitterness and our guide calmly explained “you see today in Laos it is the 1^st of April” and with that burst into laughter and giggled to himself while continuing our trek.

Chiang Rai, 27th-28th March

Chiang Rai was our next stop as we made our way to the Thai-Laos border crossing. Chiang Rai itself we didn’t find particularly exciting. As in Chiang Mai, it’s a good place to go trekking and do hilltribe homestays, but we didn’t have time for this. We did see the large golden clock tower in the centre of town, and watched the show it put on as it struck the hour.

Outside of Chiang Rai is a wat known as the white temple. This is quite impressive and quite different from other temples we’d seen. This one was somewhat fantastical – you walk over a small bridge towards the temple entrance, and below are a multitude of roiling and writhing hands and heads cast in stone reaching towards you. Inside the main temple building, three of the four walls are covered with a colourful mural. The mural is the work of an artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat and his numerous disciples, and is an impressive work of art. Fire-breathing dragons fight modern movie characters, like Neo from the Matrix, Darth Vadar, Superman, and all sorts. Not at all what I expected to see inside a wat but quite a sight. Alongside the temple is a museum housing more of his work, and a little of his history.

From Chiang Rai, we had a night in Chiang Khong. Chiang Khong is a small town bordering the Mekong river. The river isn’t particularly wide here and you can see across to the Laos border town – Huay Xai.

Chiang Mai – Sammy’s Organic Cooking School - 26 of March

Recommendations from fellow mahouts-in-training led us to Sammy’s Organic Cooking School. We were picked up by Sammy himself, and joined just two others from Germany for the class. We stopped by a local produce market before continuing onto Sammy’s farm, around 30 minutes’ drive from the city. At the market, Sammy explained to us, making jokes all along the way, about different types of rice, in particular, sticky rice, and showed us how coconut milk and cream is made. We reached Sammy’s farm, which is surprisingly lush (given it was the dry season), and tranquil – such a beautiful setting for a cooking class.

Rice vendor at the market

Fresh from the farm

We were to make five different types of dishes, and within those five, could choose from two or three choices. The great thing about this was that we could all make different things from each other, allowing us to see how lots of different dishes are made. Under the patient tutelage of Sammy’s wife, various parts of the class made things such as green, red, or yellow curry – the paste, then the curry itself, tom yum goong (hot and sour prawn soup), tom kha gai (chicken in coconut milk soup), stir fried chicken with holy basil, phad thai, som tam (spicy green papaya salad), spring rolls, chicken in pandanus leaves, mango sticky rice, and pumpkin custard.

Pad Thai

Folding the Chicken in Pandanus leaves

Chicken Laab

Making Papaya salad

After we ate three of the five courses for lunch, we all went and had a bit of a nap in the hammocks for an hour or so. Our food suitably digested, we then made the appetisers and desserts, and ate those as well before heading back to town. Delicious food, beautiful setting, and even a nap – what a great way to spend the day.

Chiang Mai – Baan Chang Elephant Park - 24th of March

We spent a day at Baan Chang Elephant Park, around an hour’s drive north of the city. The Park rescues elephants from Myanmar or from people using them for logging or not treating them well, and then brings them back to the park to live. Each elephant ‘chooses’ their own mahout who looks after them.

 Our course involved us trying out our hand at being a mahout for the day. This included getting to know them by feeding them bananas and sugar cane (huge bunches of bananas just swallowed in a few gulps!), learning the commands for go, stop, left, right, and down (in Burmese as the mahouts are from Myanmar), and going for a ride with them and then giving them a good bath in the pond.

 It was a great experience and we learned some interesting facts about elephants; they consume around 300kg of food each day and leave behind around 70kg! We were riding the elephants bareback, Kylie and I on one aptly named ‘Big Mamma.’ We took turns to sit on the elephant’s neck and act as mahout, and sit on the back as passenger. During the walk, Big Mamma frequently sprayed us with water through her trunk, cooling herself down and coating us (perhaps intentionally?) Turns out elephant skin is quite tough and the hair on their back and sides particularly bristly, so I was quite glad to climb down at the end. While it was great fun, sadly neither Kylie nor I would make a good mahout anytime soon! 

Chiang Mai - 21st-26th March

We decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary by treating ourselves while in Chiang Mai, and booked a resort in the northern hills about 60 minutes from town called the Rawee Waree resort and spa. After our more humble accommodation we were thrilled to find a bath tub, a comfy bed and the biggest pool I think I’ve ever seen, and which extended right to our back door. After a few days of luxury and being pampered we caught a cab and headed into town to stay a few more nights

.

Chiang Mai is the biggest city in northern Thailand but the place still has a lot of it charm. And unlike Bangkok you aren’t harassed at every turn for massages, tuk tuks, or random merchandise. With more coffee shops in Chiang Mai than 7-11’s it’s easy to sit by the river and relax with a coffee although we would recommend something local and maybe not an espresso or latte as they aren’t great. With dozens of art, antique stores, and markets with surprisingly good quality goods and crafts there is a lot of shopping to be done. But as anything we buy we would have to lug around for the next few months we decided to spend our money on some of the many activities offered in and around the city. We spend a day at Ban Chang elephant sanctuary learning how to be a mahout, and another day on an organic farm with Sammy and his wife cooking up some northern Thai dishes but they will be covered in later posts.

With a market every day and night it’s easy to wander around and try some of the local street food like Chiang Mai sausages, mango sticky rice or just a refreshing fresh fruit shake with blended ice.
If you’re there for the weekend I would recommend the walking night markets which are held in different locations; one for Saturday and one for Sunday. The streets are closed off and tens of thousands of people wander the streets inspecting local handicrafts and enjoying local street food.