« Taking the scenic route: Muang Vieng Thong | Main | My favorite villiage in Laos: Muang Ngoi Neua »
December 10, 2005
The scenic route: Bus to Nong Khiaw
Our 1400 Hyundai passanger bus to Nong Khiaw showed up 90 minutes late. We passed the time by drinking some green tea, reading books, taking pictures, and greeting friendly locals who passed by. Once the bus did arrive, we loaded our packs up top and I jumped on and grabbed the best seats we could get on the big, shoddy bus. Our seats (30 and 31) were painfully towards the rear where a quartet of Lao men behind me were sucking on beetle nuts and spitting every few seconds. The drivers needed another ninety minutes to fix an inner tube from a previous flat and grab lunch. Off we go.
After a few hours the saliva chorus ended with the beetle nut maestros’ departure at some small little town between here and there. I hopped out and took a few pictures of a young girl weaving on her loom while her father happily said who-knows-what to me the entire time. I have them the thumbs up and re-boarded the bus. There were three other foreigners on the bus with us, a trio of French travelers. The five of us became the object of interest for our brief few moments in town. Surely, we all were the topic of dinner conversations in dozens of households that evening.
Some time that evening we heard a loud bang followed by a repetitive thump, thump, thump. The right rear outermost tire had blown. While the driver/foreman was inspecting the wheels I took a picture. He didn’t seem so fond of that and said something severe in Laotian to me. Most of the passengers, including myself, jumped off the bus for a break. Many people were smoking and others were finding discrete little coves in the bushes to relieve themselves. I took another picture of one of the bus crew spinning the lug nuts back on and received a second, harsher rebuke from the bus foreman. Oops. Flat fixed, all aboard, let’s go.
At about 2230 we pull into Nong Khiaw. Only Levi and I got off at the stop. I jumped up to the top of the bus to help the bus crew identify our bags, but they remembered exactly what was what. Impressive. After the bus pulled out, Levi and I were pleasantly surprised by the night time beauty of the half-moon light town. We stopped on a bridge to take pictures but only Levi’s turned out decent. (He’s got this fancy Cannon digital camera, as opposed to my sleek-n-sexy but limited Sony.)
It’s dark and there is only a small sign of life from the area around a guesthouse that Lonely Planet describes as “use as a last resort” or something like that. So, we head for the Manypoon Guesthouse. It takes a while, but we wake up the mistress of the house who shows us two 30,000 kip rooms each that are pretty decent. I’m dead beat tired and am ok with it, but Levi is much more cost conscience than me and says “no, let’s look for something else”. I offer the sleepy madam 40,000 for the rooms but she rejects my offer. We wander down the street and find the Somgnot Guesthouse (which LP incorrectly lists as the ‘Songot’ Guesthouse.) We wake up the friendly owner, find two decent 20,000 kip a piece rooms and he agrees to make us a much desired dinner…at 2300. Soon his wife joins us to sit out on the dining deck this pleasant, starry evening. Noodle soup, a vegetable flaked omelet, and a Beer Lao hits the spot for both Levi and I. This tasty dinner must have run us a whopping 17,000 kip a piece. Soon we are all sound asleep in bed by 2400.
The next morning we pack up and have breakfast on the dinning deck. It seems most of the extended family is out to hang about and talk story. While Levi and I are chowing down breaky, a few travelers approach us about the boat ride south to Luang Prabang. It seems that the boat owner wants a million kip for the entire trip regardless of how many passengers are on the boat. Levi and I are headed 10km northbound to Muang Ngoi Neua but are interested in their dilemma because our next destination is Luang Prabang. We are not sure what happened to them, but suspect they opted for bus ride at for 38,000 kip. (That figure is speculative…I’ve heard different numbers between 30,000 and 50,000 kip.)
Time to sort out the trip north to Muang Ngoi Neua. We are headed there at the recommendation of fellow travelers we met in Sam Neua.
Posted by stu at December 10, 2005 05:26 AM