Maung Khua to Nong Khiaw

Weds 11/12/13

Ten hours sleep last night... Not sure I've done that in the past five years!

Order of the day was getting a boat down to Nong Khaiw, some 90km away. This proved to be both easy and worthwhile.
Met a nice American couple, David and Cindy on the way to the boat office and we were going the same way.

Logistics: get to the boat office (little wooden cubicle by the river) around 8:30, for boats leaving at 9. Pack something to eat, journey is five or six hours. Cost is 120000 kip plus 30000 kip for the bike.

The journey starts off as a pleasant meander down the river. We stopped deliver supplies to some gold dredgers and let people off at a couple of villages.  After two or three hours it the scenery took a turn for stunning as huge cliff faces rose from the mist to loom over us. Felt like a scene from LOTR, I was fully expecting them to resolve into giant figures with swords.

The wonderful scenery continued until with reached our destination, Nong Khiaw, where it was a matter of getting the bikes and kits up a long set of stairs at the landing then finding a place to stay (plenty of them, went for Meeaxi at 60000 kip for a newly built room with a river view). Followed this up with a wonderful Indian curry, beer Laos and bed.

One thing I am running low on here is superlatives, however the landscape over the past week or two has completely depleted my already low stock. Beginning to wish for a boring road with nothing to see for a few days (note to self: be careful what you wish for...).

First photo is a gold dredger.