For a day we roamed around Nong Khiaw.

I visited the Pha Thok cave. It’s vast cave with several rooms, that was used during the “Vietnam war”, to hide military headquarters. Of course, the war was not limited to Vietnam; Laos was also heavily bombed (because why not, these commies hide everywhere !)

In the evening, after swimming in the Nam Ou river to freshen up, Mary and I went climbing the Pha Deng viewpoint for sunset (Leo didn’t feel like walking; he waited for us at the guesthouse). It’s a steep climb for over an hour, and Mary almost gave up halfway. But she didn’t, and we reached the top on time to see the golden globe dip slowly behind the mountain. The view of the river bend was majestic.

At the bottom of the hike, a sign warned visitors to stay on the track because unexploded land mines still haunt these parts. Thank you America for this long lasting gift to humanity. We’re glad to have you as garants of morality and peace for the world.

For the next days, we figured that the easiest way to visit the nearby villages and major sites in a short time would be to go trekking with a local guide, so we booked a 3 days trek to the jungle.

The first day, we started under the rain, fearing it might be like that for 3 days, but it stopped after an hour and it both cooled and cleaned the air. We walked for about 5 hours, along rice fields mostly. We stopped halfway for lunch in a first village. The kids were playing the same game I used to play in school at their age: a big rubber band is held around the legs by 2 children, while the contestant jumps in the middle, entangling and detangling the band at the same time. I gave it a try and made a fool of myself 😂

In the evening, we reached the village of Hoay Huy where we would sleep. The sunset colors were reflecting on the river and we had been sweating so much during the walk that we were all happy to dive in the cool river. And that’s when the miracle happened! Mary just swam towards me, in the deep river, without screaming, without being scared. After years of trying, it took a trip around the world to cure her from her fear of depths!

In the evening, after a dinner of cabbage soup, sautéed pumpkin, pork, sticky rice, and barbecued frogs (which Leo loved!), two men of the village came to teach us how they make bamboo baskets. Leo was most enthusiastic and made the biggest basket of all (although slightly uneven). We also had the customary few shots of happy water 🙂

In the morning, we had sweet rice porridge with coconut, and bananas for breakfast. We went for another morning dip in the river, and then left the village by boat.

We went first to the nearby waterfall to bathe some more 😅. Then headed to Mueng Ngoy, a cute laidback village popular with backpackers. Smaller than Nong Khiaw but still quite touristic, with lots of cafés and guesthouses. In Mueng Ngoy, we visited the cave and climbed to the viewpoint. This cave also was used to hide fighters during the war.

That’s where we split from the group; most of them were doing a 2 days trek, returning directly to Nong Khiaw. Only the three of us were continuing further north into the jungle.

Another hour and a half by boat and we reached the village of Sopchem in the evening. We met with a small friendly group of French who had spent a few days helping the local school with handiwork and supplies. Leo learned fishing from one of the girls.

Sopchem is a beautiful little village of about 40 families, located on another bend of the river. Almost all families are weavers, making scarves and handbags to sell in Luan Prabang. We couldn’t resist stuffing a couple of scarves in our overloaded bags!

The next -and third- day, we went hiking for about 5 hours in the jungle. It was rather steep and slippery but at least we were in the shade of the banana trees. On the way down, Than, our guide, had to carve steps in the soil with his machete, so we wouldn’t slide all the way down on our bottoms!

Once out of the jungle, we took the boat to a small beach were the buffaloes watched us grill some fish and enjoy a little picnic or fried noodles packed in a wrap of banana leaves.

Back on the boat for a couple of hours, down south. And finally the last activity of the tour; we kayaked the last hour to return to Nong Khiaw.

Thanks Than, it was fun and insightful 🙂

One night of rest and we head to Luang Prabang.