Run To The Hills

Whelp, that looks nice.

More Time, Please

Boat heading north

With just two weeks left in Laos -sniff-, I decided to leave Luang Prabang early and got lucky getting my behind on a boat heading north. 

A seven hour boat ride took me and Anita, a 36-year old woman from Austria who's actually from Switzerland but also kind of from the US, from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw, a small town surrounded by karst mountains and the Nam Ou river. There we were greeted by dramatic scenery, cheap accommodation, great food and a working ATM, as the ones in fancy-pants Luang Prabang refused to give me any money. Taking my money was somewhat less of a problem, although I bargained hard for my precious little artifacts in the local night market, all of which hopefully make it home in one piece.

Boat not heading north

The Mist, without the interdimensional carnivores

From Nong Khiaw it went to Nong Khiaw Neua, an only reachable by boat kind of village that depends on generators to provide its power between 6 and 10 PM. There I was invited to a big party after buying a Lao phrasebook, as two of the villagers were going to celebrate the first month of their baby's life the following day by giving him a name and by getting everybody drunk. By the time I got there, and had said goodbye to Vietnam-bound Anita, most Lao were already speaking somewhat slurred and very loudly, so my visit was brief but powerful. I got there late because I trotted of following a sign that said 'minority village - 2 km'. I ended up never finding the village after walking for three hours, but I came across stunning views and a funny little checkpoint where I had to pay 10.000 kip. One of the highlights of this trip.

Scenic

Scouting Ahead

As I'm running around like a madman in order to see all I want to see up here, most impressions given are really brief as most visits are really brief. I intend on scouting the north of Laos for interesting spots because I'm positively sure I will return here one day if I can, with a budget (or an adventurous party) that will make the multiple day treks affordable.

The Road To Sam Neua

Duct tape to the rescue

Yesterday, a big crane was parked in the middle of the road, extending the bus ride from Nong Khiaw to Sam Neua from 11 hours to 14 hours. The 300+ km road is somewhat known among Lao as The Road Of A Thousand Turns, offering scenic views, one road villages and a lot of  let's-just-fall-asleep-in-the-middle-of-the-road cows. Unfortunately, this road is the stuff of nightmares for most Lao, as they seem as prone to carsickness as their Cambodian and Vietnamese counterparts. We arrived in the mist shrouded Sam Neua bus station around 2 am and I ended up sharing a room with a 38 year old Lao from Luang Prabang, who is here with five colleagues for additional schooling on something that is called the 'Poverty Reduction Fund', which sounds straightforward enough. The following needs to be mentioned: The last hour of driving through the hills was stunning with hills shrouded in mist and the clearest star-riddled sky I've ever seen. That alone was worth the fourteen hours of supporting sleeping Lao, passing out plastic bags for sick Lao and, last but not least, stopping in the middle of nowhere to do some exercise with Lao.

Sam Neua itself is peaceful, in-your-face Communist and uncomfortably close to Vietnam, which is tangible by the way people treat you, unfortunately. Though not all is bad, as the Lao people are still very friendly but yes, the neighbors to the east imported their grumpyness, staring habits and their grotesquely disgusting table manners. Can't wait to get back there next month. Ahem.

Sam Neua

Sam Neua is also famous for a cave system that was used by the now ruling party to hide from bombs and whatnot. Were it not so expensive and were it that I had more time in this country, I'd definetely go there.

Coming up tomorrow: the 11 to an infinite amount of hours on the bus back to Nong Khiaw.

Bring it.