Up The River
I finally dragged myself out of Laos this morning and now I'm in Chiang Mai (Thailand) while I arrange my visa for India. In the meantime, here's the first part of the writeup of my final weeks in Laos. This covers my trip up the Nam Ou river from Luang Prabang to Hat Sa.
The boat trips up the Nam Ou were simply amazing. The river runs through the mountains and there were many places with significant rapid to climb. I couldn't believe that the boats I was riding were capable of making it up some of them - you could really feel the steep angle as they struggled up some of them. I remember riding a jet boat in New Zealand as a kid but I don't think they did anything like this.
My first day out of Luang Prabang I had planned to go all the way up to Muang Ngoi, however when I got to Nong Khiaw it looked nice so I decided to stay a night. I ended up really liking it so one night turned into two. I spent the day in Nong Khiaw wandering around the area near town taking in the scenery.
After Nong Khiaw I took a short one hour boat trip up to Muang Ngoi. With the delay getting out of Luang Prabang, and the unplanned stop in Nong Khiaw I was already 3 days behind schedule. I decided to spend the full three nights I'd planned on in Muang Ngoi anyway. It was a pleasant town although it's been taken over by guesthouses and traveler-oriented restaurants. There weren't too many other travelers there though so it had some of the village feel. Anyway, it was a nice place to chill for a couple days as I'd expected. I spent the entire first day reading in the hammock in the porch of my bungalow and then spent the second day wandering the paths around town seeing the scenery.
I hadn't really had enough of Muang Ngoi after 3 nights but decided to try to get up to my next stop on the river anyway. Boats don't necessarily run every day up to Muang Khua so I figured I should try in case I had to wait a day to get a boat. I got lucky though and found someone who was making the run. For the first third of the trip I was the only person on the boat other than the couple who owned it. This was another nice full day trip up the river with the usual rapids. The scenery changed drastically though - instead of the sharp peaks of the lower Nam Ou the terrain was more rolling.
I had originally planned to head inland from Muang Khua to Udomxai and from there west to see the north-west part of the country. However, I was enjoying the Nam Ou trip so much I decided to spend one more day and head all the way up to Hat Sa near Phongsali.
This turned out to be the most eventfully day of the trip. About one hour after we left the drivers got all excited and turned the boat around. Turns out they were chasing a big dead fish they spotted floating by. I don't know how long it had been dead but it was already starting to rot and it stank like crazy. They put it in the back of the boat and every time we stopped to pick up or drop off passengers the whole boat was overwhelmed with the stench of rotting fish. Yum!
Then, about 2 hours from Hat Sa the driver managed to hit an underwater rock outcropping. Although the boat didn't quite flip (it was close though) the bottom plank was cracked and it started to sink. They managed to get to shore to unload us before it sank all the way, but the bottom of my pack was soaked. We helped them bail the water out of the boat and haul it up onto the river bank so they could start fixing it. About 30 minutes later another boat came by and picked us up for the rest of the trip up to Hat Sa, which was nice because we would not have made it by dark otherwise.
By the time we got to Hat Sa it was too late to catch a ride to Phongsali so I had to stay in Hat Sa. There were three other backpackers on the boat with me and we all got to share a little cubicle in the back of the only restaurant in town. I was just a single room with a couple of blankets and mattresses on an elevated bamboo platform. Just enough room for the four of us. I had a great time in Hat Sa though. The four of us ordered up a full spread (a fish dish, a vegetable dish, and lots of sticky rice) from the restaurant and split a bottle of Lao Lao (rice whiskey) and a bunch of beers.
That's about it for now. Tomorrow I'll post pictures from my final week in Laos. Don't expect as many as today though.
I finally dragged myself out of Laos this morning and now I'm in Chiang Mai (Thailand) while I arrange my visa for India. In the meantime, here's the first part of the writeup of my final weeks in Laos. This covers my trip up the Nam Ou river from Luang Prabang to Hat Sa.
The boat trips up the Nam Ou were simply amazing. The river runs through the mountains and there were many places with significant rapid to climb. I couldn't believe that the boats I was riding were capable of making it up some of them - you could really feel the steep angle as they struggled up some of them. I remember riding a jet boat in New Zealand as a kid but I don't think they did anything like this.
My first day out of Luang Prabang I had planned to go all the way up to Muang Ngoi, however when I got to Nong Khiaw it looked nice so I decided to stay a night. I ended up really liking it so one night turned into two. I spent the day in Nong Khiaw wandering around the area near town taking in the scenery.
After Nong Khiaw I took a short one hour boat trip up to Muang Ngoi. With the delay getting out of Luang Prabang, and the unplanned stop in Nong Khiaw I was already 3 days behind schedule. I decided to spend the full three nights I'd planned on in Muang Ngoi anyway. It was a pleasant town although it's been taken over by guesthouses and traveler-oriented restaurants. There weren't too many other travelers there though so it had some of the village feel. Anyway, it was a nice place to chill for a couple days as I'd expected. I spent the entire first day reading in the hammock in the porch of my bungalow and then spent the second day wandering the paths around town seeing the scenery.
I hadn't really had enough of Muang Ngoi after 3 nights but decided to try to get up to my next stop on the river anyway. Boats don't necessarily run every day up to Muang Khua so I figured I should try in case I had to wait a day to get a boat. I got lucky though and found someone who was making the run. For the first third of the trip I was the only person on the boat other than the couple who owned it. This was another nice full day trip up the river with the usual rapids. The scenery changed drastically though - instead of the sharp peaks of the lower Nam Ou the terrain was more rolling.
I had originally planned to head inland from Muang Khua to Udomxai and from there west to see the north-west part of the country. However, I was enjoying the Nam Ou trip so much I decided to spend one more day and head all the way up to Hat Sa near Phongsali.
This turned out to be the most eventfully day of the trip. About one hour after we left the drivers got all excited and turned the boat around. Turns out they were chasing a big dead fish they spotted floating by. I don't know how long it had been dead but it was already starting to rot and it stank like crazy. They put it in the back of the boat and every time we stopped to pick up or drop off passengers the whole boat was overwhelmed with the stench of rotting fish. Yum!
Then, about 2 hours from Hat Sa the driver managed to hit an underwater rock outcropping. Although the boat didn't quite flip (it was close though) the bottom plank was cracked and it started to sink. They managed to get to shore to unload us before it sank all the way, but the bottom of my pack was soaked. We helped them bail the water out of the boat and haul it up onto the river bank so they could start fixing it. About 30 minutes later another boat came by and picked us up for the rest of the trip up to Hat Sa, which was nice because we would not have made it by dark otherwise.
By the time we got to Hat Sa it was too late to catch a ride to Phongsali so I had to stay in Hat Sa. There were three other backpackers on the boat with me and we all got to share a little cubicle in the back of the only restaurant in town. I was just a single room with a couple of blankets and mattresses on an elevated bamboo platform. Just enough room for the four of us. I had a great time in Hat Sa though. The four of us ordered up a full spread (a fish dish, a vegetable dish, and lots of sticky rice) from the restaurant and split a bottle of Lao Lao (rice whiskey) and a bunch of beers.
That's about it for now. Tomorrow I'll post pictures from my final week in Laos. Don't expect as many as today though.
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