Sorry for the long delay in blogging. After entering Laos in the North, we spent 5 days in some small villages along the Nam Ou river. These villages were very simple. Electricity is new for them and still fairly unreliable, and there is no internet. It was actually quite refreshing to be in such surroundings. The scenery and the people were beautiful.
It probably makes the most sense to read from the bottom up. This will be the most recent post. Start with the one titled, "Travelling from Vietnam to Laos" if you want to catch up!
After a great time in Muong Ngoi Neua, we hopped into another boat to continue the journey down the river. It was a short trip and we arrived in Nong Khiaow in only an hour. It proved to be another small, peaceful, riverside town.
It probably makes the most sense to read from the bottom up. This will be the most recent post. Start with the one titled, "Travelling from Vietnam to Laos" if you want to catch up!
After a great time in Muong Ngoi Neua, we hopped into another boat to continue the journey down the river. It was a short trip and we arrived in Nong Khiaow in only an hour. It proved to be another small, peaceful, riverside town.
We celebrated Brian's 26th birthday here and were very lucky to find an amazing meal! We had lasagne, salad, garlic bread and even cheese cake! We finished off the evening with a good bottle of wine on the deck of our bungalow, overlooking the river. It was a great day.
Our Bungalow on the river.
To spend our time during the day, we walked to another cave. This one had been used as a shelter for Laos people during the Vietnam war (as some of the atrocities spilled over into this country as well. Not many people know this, but the USA bombed Laos very heavily as well).
For our second day, we decided, or maybe I should say, Brian decided it would be fun to climb one of the mountains surrounding the village. He got information from someone on where to find the trail going up the mountain. We figured since we had good practice with climbing Fansipan, we could summit this mountain in an hour or less.
It took us a little while to find the trail going up, but soon we were on it, heading for the top. It didn't take long for the going to get a bit tough. We soon felt like we were actually climbing, and not just hiking up the mountain. After about 20 minutes we were having a hard time finding the trail, but we persevered, determined to reach the top for the amazing views we expected to see. At this point I was hot, super sweaty and not too optimistic about getting back on the trail. Brian assured me it wouldn't be long before we reached the top, and that it would be worth it.
I would like to say that it was worth it.....but we came to a point after climbing for an hour when we decided maybe we should turn around. A few rocks were coming loose and tumbling down the hill. We could hear that they were tumbling a long way without stopping and we didn't want our fate to be the same. After a laughing away our discouragement we started the perilous journey back down the steep mountain side, wondering how we'd even gone up. We definitely slid more than we walked down.
All in all, it was a great 5 days! We took a 5 1/2 hour boat journey into Luang Prabang, which is where we are now. It's a beautiful town with great food! (We've realized how much we like eating). There is a lot of good "Western food" available here, which is a nice break from rice. We enjoyed a burger and fries for dinner yesterday, and an amazing banana and chocolate crepe for dessert. But don't worry, we haven't gone too soft....we're planning to head to the night market for some Laos food tonight!
Anyway, enjoy reading! Thanks to everyone for keeping up with our travels. We love your emails and comments! And we love sharing our trip with you! More from Luang Prabang tomorrow! We have a few more pictures we'd love to post...but our connection is too slow.
4 comments:
"We've realized how much we like eating" Cute remark -- the rest of us figured that out about 3 months ago! Sounds like the 26th was a good day, Brian! One to remember. So glad to know that you're having this adventure together. I'm bettin' you'll look back on it as one of the pivotal periods of your lives -- may the friendship carry you a long way! Thanks for the triple effort for these posts! Hard not to forgive you now :)
So glad to hear from you both! What a trip and awesome pictures. The summer will be calm compared to this trip. Glad you had a great birthday. Denver is fine, still full of energy. Take care, love you both.Miss you both and I am starting to count the days till you are home.
Just trying to imagine what life would be like without electricity - in some ways alot more simple. "Children playing like children do" - men and women finding fulfilment in their work/routines/life without having to decide which movie/hockey game/reality show to watch after the sun goes down.
Those cave pictures are amazing! Glad you enjoyed some open spaces after being a bit crammed on that bus!
You just keep having one adventure after another - looking forward to sharing some with you in a few days :)
Thanks for helping with my blog withdrawal symptoms. I was almost late for work reading them all this morning. You guys are amazing and have such wide-open eyes.
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