Mekong / Laung Prabang / Nong Khiaw

So we are now onto the second of our four country excursion, Laos. We stayed our last night in a place called Chiang Khong. The next morning we took a ferry over the river to Huay Xai (in Laos) and sorted out our Visa’s. What shambles! There were people everwhere, there was not much of a system, but finally we got it sorted. Next we jumped on the slow boat, a flat bottom wooden boat used to transport people up and down the Mekong river. The boat had these very hard wooden seats, which after 7 hours became very painful. This boat took us to Luang Prabang via an overnight stop in Pak Beng. In Pak Beng we changed boats. And they tried to fit all the people from the day before in a smaller boat. Eentually they gave in and we went in two boats. As we neared Luang Prabang (LPQ) the terrain was very rugged with massive limestone hills along side the river.
LPQ. Our first real stop in Laos. According to the guidebook you can breathe a sigh of relief here as the pace here was alot less frantic, the streets were clean and the people were really friendly and didn’t hassle you for money all the time. LPQ also has a distinct french feel. The food here is just as good as Thailand. Its probably a wee bit more expensive than Thailand in terms of accommodation and food. Went out in LPQ with some Irish mates I met Mountain biking in Chiangmai. Had a beaut of a night, curfew in LPQ meant we had to be back at the guesthouse by midnight. On the way home I accidently walked into a ditch much to SK’s amusement.
The second day in LPQ we organised our travel plans and went to this pretty amazing waterfall. It rained heavily again that day. We stopped at a touristified village on the way home. We also climbed the main hill in LPQ and got some amazing views. Had dinner at the street markets and spent about $2 NZD between us for our meal. Shopped at the night markets after tea and got some really cool stuff.
Next day in LPQ I had troubles with a cash machine, thought it had run out of money, and charged me anyway, turns out it hadn’t Phew! Got picked up from the Guest House (G.H) by a minivan for our trip north to Nong Khiaw. They drive on the left side of the road in Laos which we are struggling with. Scenic drive to Nong Khiaw (NK) saw wandering buffalo all over the road, scorpions, cars in ditches, hitch hiking tourists and spectular green scenery. One thing quite entertaining was our minivan driver who beeped at almost everything we passed on the road. NK was the Laos version of Queenstown, but way less touristy and no snow on the spectacular hills. We went to a cave were the locals hid during the war and I swam in the river with the local boys. Also tried to organise a fishing trip but the river was too high. We went to the pictures at NK as well, we watched a really bad movie which was pirated, oh well.