Heading north

Having seen a few of the slow boats heading north with two isles of old reclining bus seats, I was slightly disappointed to find ours only had small wooden stools for the 7 hour journey, hello numb bum. The scenery certainly made up for this discomfort as we made our way up the scenic river  along some wild conditions including a thunder storm and having to negotiate up numerous small rapids. The first stop was Nong Khiaw, intentions were to do the famous '100 Waterfall Trek' however this turned out to be nothing more than an overpriced tourist walk in the jungle for a few hours, something I'll pass on.

The town itself is quite small and situated around a river crossing, my bungalow at Bamboo Bungalows resort was located on the restaurant side of town with a decking that provided river views from my hammock, for less than $6 night with a private bathroom it was a bargain. Trekking was now off the cards so I spent a couple of days restaurant hopping and making the most of sunset beers or cocktails as the sun dipped behind the mountains.

 Hiring a mountain bike for a day gave the opportunity to ride out to Than Pha Thok cave, where 500 Laos and Vietnamese hid from the Americans during the war. The cave which looked barely big enough to house half that many, had various marked sections including communications post, armory and a hospital, an interesting visit though be careful of the unofficial 'tour guides' who do little to earn their commission. Back in town I ran in to Marla who had just come from couch surfing with the same dude I am staying with when I first get to China. She has been living in Chengdu and could not speak higher about the amazing trekking nearby, as this is the second person to strongly recommend the Sichuan province, I may have to head north in China to see what the fuss is all about.

Venturing down for the 11am boat up to the next river side village of Mong Noi, I purchased my ticket along with a group of Spanyards and Frenchies, only to find out the boat was oversold and the operators solution was to give us our money back. Hiring a private boat between the 10 of us was only going to be about another 50c each which seemed like a great option to me as it meant comfy seats, but you should have seen the French girls outburst at the proposal, even threatening to get the police involved haha. The end result was that we got crammed in to the boat and some of the locals got to go on a more comfortable boat, cheers frogs.

Arriving in Mong Noi was an instant feeling of relaxation, this sleepy little town only got a road and power connected a few months ago, certainly no internet for outside distractions. Usually I don't go for accommodation offerings stepping straight off transport, but I had to see what these $4 bungalows were like. BOOM, a river front bungalow with (clean) queen bed, fan, private bathroom and a hammock on the balcony, damn good deal. Having organised some sort of fishing trip for the next day, I caught up on my neglected ebook and killed some time until happy hour at the bar.

Sinking in to the cushions on the bamboo lounge chairs with a cocktail in ones hand makes you want to never leave a place like Mong Noi. It was only the extensive and very reasonable buffet that eventually dragged me away from the picturesque river views and although it was vegetarian, the selection was decent and the pumpkin curry was one of the best curries I have tasted yet. This place had secured my patronage for the next 3 days as they also did a great buffet breakfast, perfect for my bottomless stomach.

The fishing trip was not quite what I expected it to be, the guide nodded when I asked about using lures although in turned out we were strapping worms to some of the smallest hooks in existence. I fished unsuccessfully in the blistering sun while my guide caught up on his morning nap time, which was later followed by afternoon nap time. There was a priod in between where we pulled some nets and long lines to recover a few small fish and ransacked specially designed cane baskets for prawns that were cooked up in a small riverside hut, with sticky rice of course. Along with some other locals my guide makes a living from harvesting these prawns out of a small stream the have blocked off, making around $12AUD per kilo on the wholesale market.

Back in town there was not much else to do apart from kick back and soak in the atmosphere. Another Aussie bloke(well he was born in NZ so I'm not sure how to define this one) staying near me had been given a big bottle of local rice wine or Lao Lao , which was a bit too easy to drink. Like me he was also contemplating heading up to Phongsaly, although we were having difficulties ensuring there would be transport that did not involve significant delays due to the low season. Mong Noi offers self guided walking trails up to a few hours long, if you do find yourself  doing one and get to a river, cross it and don't make my mistake of turning around thinking your lost.