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.