River Trip!

We left Luang Nam Tha on a morning bus, connecting with another bus and then a sawngthaew (a pickup with a covered bed containing two benches along the sides) to reach the town of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou (Ou River). It was a full day's travel but the scenery was beautiful and the trip was broken up by several stops.

Nong Khiaw's setting is dramatic, and it is very remote - it only received 24 hour electricity in the last couple of years.



We had dinner on a deck overlooking the river, shadowed by the nearby moutains with their sheer limestone walls.




Yesterday, we took a slow boat from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang. Once the main form of human and cargo transport in Laos, and indeed much of Southeast Asia, they have lost much of their market share to buses and trucks as the roads have improved. However they are still a great way for tourists to get around while seeing the countryside from a whole new perspective.




The scenery along the way was mind-boggling and we took far too many pictures to post here, but here is a small taste:









The ride was exciting enough, as even the slow boats move pretty well, especially going downstream. Here is our perspective riding through one of the many rapids on the trip.

It was about 5 hours in total. Some people ride the slow boat two full days from Huay Xai to here, but we think that would be a bit much.

More on Luang Prabang later...