Nong Khiaw aka Nice and Quiet

So back on the bus we go all the way North East to a small rural village on the banks on the river Nam Ou (or nAM Ouuuuu, as the man in the Chitlada corrected as I said the name to Alena in the reception.)

Nong Kiaw is a very peaceful place buried in between the stunning mountains ranges that stradle the river. Not many tourists venture this way so it was a nice get away from the beaten path.

When we arrived we quickly realised that we really weren't going to be doing much for the next few days and there really wasn't much to do!

In fact I think mostly we just took in the views, ate and relaxed.

We took a walk one way across the bridge and realised we'd seen everything there was to be seen (a big tree and a few locals tending to their stalls) and then walked the other way and saw the same plus a few small restaurants that lined the streets.

As the eveing drew in we passed the time with conversations about friends, home life and career aspirations and dreams for the future and went to bed at a very respectable hour... if we were about 80 lol. However When me and Merel headed back to our room we did the usual scan round the room to see if we had any company, only discover two cockroaches as we first open the door and a spider as big as a hand in the bathroom. I immediately ran and jumped on the bed and Merel slammed shut the bathroom door. There was also a leaf on the floor which we inspected, which slithered across the floor when it was touched... So great two cochroaches, one spider and a moving leaf!
We considered just going to sleep, but somehow knowing about the huge spider a few yards away wasn't very comforting, so we decided to go find someone to take care of it for us.

In the search for a member of staff we came across nearly the whole family who sent their 10 year old daughter with a stick! (How humilating! Lol) While we stood cowering outside the bungalow we described the spider and she went inside to find it. We heard a loud bang and she came out. Just to make sure she'd got it we asked her whether she'd found the huge spider which we had described to which she replied "only small spider".. Convinced she'd got the wrong one.. We made the size again with our hands and she agreed "same one" and showed us the squashed spider on her stick! If that's what she's calls a small spider- I DO NOT want to see a big one!

That night I didn't feel so happy about staying in our riverside hut but tiredness eventually took over and I fell asleep despite the deafening schreeches being made by the riverside insects.

On the sunday we decided that we really had to achieve something with our day so set out to find some caves that was the regions main draw. we eventually stumbled across the river we'd been informed about that passed by the caves enterance. We the much appreciated help of one small local man we waded through the river to the other side and entered the caves, that had been inhabited during the second world war as hide outs by Japanese soliders.

The caves were pierced by beams of light that illuminated the darkened corners creating a somewhat poetically calming warmth within the haunting, aggressive looking exterior.

We spent maybe around half an hour in this mysterious looking place, before heading back towards the river and being helped back across by the old man.

For the rest of the day we found a resturant that had the asian floor cusions and hammocks and we chilled out there with both me and Alena trying to figure out our plans for the future.

That evening we had a dinner (fried noodles all round) and a few beers and then spent the rest of the eveningon our balcony of our little hut on the rivers edge (which was no better than a shed in at a back of a garden!)

The following day we changed our plans and decided to get a bus to return to Luang Prabang and go from there to Vang Vieng, but we bumped into Mr Mang (a the young Nephew of our hostel owner) who advised us of a night bus we could catch that would take us all the way to Vang Vieng so we bought a ticket for that instead.

Faced with another day in the sleepy Nong Khiaw, we decided just to spend another day at the lounge cafe catching up on reading and listening to music.
However throughout the day Merel became progressively more ill, in reaction to her malaria medication, so by the time for the bus came round she was in no fit state to travel in a packed overnight bus.

Instead Mr Mang very kindly offered to take us in his mini-van to Luang Prabang. (We decided it was for the best to take her to the big town, that way if she needed to gt medical treatment, she would be in the right place.) So leaving at seven we took a very sick Merel by mini-van with Mr Mang and his cousin back to Luang Prabang.

The whole journey the sky was illuminated silently by a dramatic thuderstorm. Sheets of lightening lite up the horizon, beautifully highlighting the mountain ranges below. All the while being accomplied by Mr Mang's rather bizare 90s boy band music collection including Ronan Keating and the Backstreet boys! All very strange!..

He told us about his family and how he'd started building a guesthouse of his own with the help of a dutch man he'd met and how he dreamed of a better future- but he was stuck on what to name his business. He wanted something that meant something to him but could only think of the generic names that every guesthouse you pass on the streets are called. So for the rest of the journey we all tried to come up with suggestions for him, and finally came up with the name Mango guest house. Not only did it have his name in it- which he loved!- it meant man go (as in activities and trekking) and was different to all the othe guest house names in his region- none of us had come across a mango gust house on our travels so it was a winner!

I hope one day in the future I will return to Mango guest house (near the big tree!) and see his booming business!

We arrived back in Luang Prabang at around 10pm, and it was great to be back at Chitlanda!