Love Laos; Fear Lao-Lao

Once the rain finally stopped here in northern Laos we realised it was freaking gorgeous!! We left Luang Namtha in the hope of finding drier, warmer weather and found it just 300km away in Nong Khiaw, on the banks of the Nam Ou. 

 

We spent a lazy few days here, enjoying blue skies, sunshine and the beautiful scenery of the surrounding countryside, before taking a boat upriver to Muang Ngoi Neua, a tiny village which made sleepy Nong Khiaw seem like bright-lights-big-city. 

After China, Laos seems overwhelmingly rural. The capital city, Vientiane, wouldn't even cop a mention on Chinese-scale maps, with a population of just a quarter of a million. Muang Ngoi was only accessible by boat until very recently, and so far as we could tell, the addition of a rough dirt road hasn't done much to increase the flow of human traffic. 

Muang Ngoi is the kind of place you could easily find yourself spending weeks in. Unfortunately we forget to stock up on cash before we left and with no way to access money in the village, we had to limit our time, and our expenditure somewhat. 

This curtailing of our spending somehow translated into a bottle of 15,000 kip (AUD$2) lao-lao (Laos rice whiskey). It made sense at the time; cheaper than beer and certainly, at 40%, more effective. 

The next morning we woke up with severe lao-lao induced hangovers. They were so severe that we didn't get out of bed until midday, thus helping our budget immensely by skipping breakfast. More money was saved throughout the day as we lay prostrate on the lawn, recovering. 

Thankfully after a lao-lao free night, we were good to go. We took a stroll through rice paddy fields and forest to the nearby villages of Ban Na and Huay Bo where (like us) the locals were recovering from some kind of village fiesta from the day before.

 

We stayed for lunch, enjoyed the tranquility and watched the teeming population of puppies and small children playing and fighting in the dirt. Laos is a young country- 60% of it's population is under 25 and the animal population seems to echo this demographic. It's like one giant baby-animal petting zoo with hundreds of puppies, kittens, chicks and piglets competing for our adoring love and attention. Just one more reason to love Laos.

Now we're back in Nong Khiew, dry bags packed and ready to head off on a three day kayaking trip down to Luang Prabang. We'll be spending Christmas in an ethnic Khmu Lao village, eating spicy food and enjoying our Santa-sponsored trip downriver. Merry Christmas everyone!!!