Kayaking Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday after three days kayaking from Nong Khiaw, first down the Nam Ou and then along the mighty Mekong, staying with ethnic Khmu families along the way...and drinking more than a little lao-lao.  In our defense, it was literally forced upon us. Tiny Laotian ladies just won't take no for an answer. 

 

We left Nong Khiaw on Christmas Eve while the fog was still hanging low over the river. Our co-kayakers were a Swiss couple and our guide, Tong. After all the heavy rainfall the river was higher than usual and we didn't really need to paddle too hard to cover the morning stretch to our first stop, a Khmu village which was bang in the middle of their annual new year festivities. Of course, the arrival of four falang (which originally meant French but now covers any western foreigner) was cause for much excitement. A crowd of children stood at a safe distance watching us eat our lunch and then trailed behind as we made our way over to the bamboo and banana-leaf party tent. It was clear from the state of the MC and most of the adults that the party had been going for some time. We were offered multiple shots of lao-lao and then...it was time to dance!!

 

After showing the villagers our moves and downing a few more shots of lao-lao, Tong decided we better get moving before we were too legless to paddle.

This is the face Lao people make when watching falang dance

Our next stop was a small village where we visited the local school and I got invited in to give the english students a taste of aussie english. Then it was time to paddle across the river to our homestay. 

 

The next morning (Christmas!!) we woke early to the sound of seven thousand roosters crowing, wood being chopped for the cooking fires and many Lao villagers hawking, hacking and spitting. Nice. 

Since we didn't have far to paddle that day, we took it easy, watching the villagers going about their daily routines and playing a bit of frisbee. Several ladies nearby were cooking rats over their fires and we squeamishly wondered if this was going to be a Christmas feast we'd never forget. Thankfully, we were served a bowl of innocent noodle soup. Phew. 

We had about four hours of paddling on day two which was mainly mellow and uneventful, until we hit a rock on some (rather tame) rapids and flipped the kayak. Luckily the sun was shining and our dry bags kept everything important dry so we weren't too fussed. 

Arriving into our second homestay village we could hear the music pumping and knew that we had a lot more lao-lao in store. We weren't wrong. If anything, these guys were even more tanked than at the first village and had a serious lounge room disco going. After an hour or so of shaking our asses and downing countless shots of lao-lao, Tong came and saved us by suggesting a walk around the village. This walk took us straight to the next party where we partied with the local teenagers...and then it was time for dinner, accompanied by a few more shots of lao-lao. Yikes.

 

The next morning we were all feeling rather tender. Then we flipped the kayak on some less-tame rapids and suddenly the hangover was gone, to be replaced by a healthy fear of the river and a bone-chilling cold. When the sun finally burned through the fog it was a cause for celebration and we stopped to thaw out on the banks of the river and eat the food we were all too hungover to eat for breakfast.

 

The highlight of our third day was leaving the Nam Ou and entering the Mekong River. It felt pretty cool to paddle along one of the world's great rivers, even if we only covered a fraction of it's 4350km.

We were picked up on the banks of the Mekong and driven into Luang Prabang where we plan to spend the next week indulging in countless steam baths...and avoiding lao-lao at all costs.  If there's a better way to finish three days of exercise than with a traditional Lao massage and an unbelievably awesome herbal sauna...I look forward to finding it.