We begin our journey to Nong Khiaw with a mini-bus ride to Oudamxai.
Along the way we stop at a roadside market where every stall seems to be selling “jicama”, which is a sweet root vegetable, kind of like a potato crossed with an apple. And after the market stop, one of our “seat neighbours” offer us some jicama they purchased, so we swap them some jicama for some bananas we have.
Our other seat neighbor doesn’t have much to swap considering he is a chicken.
We finally arrive in Oudamxai around 12:45pm, after a long, dusty and bumpy ride through the northern mountains of Laos and we have just enough time to catch our next mini-bus, which will take us to Pak Mong.
This minivan is smaller than the last one we were in and it seats about 12 people comfortably. Of course, they cram 16 of us into it and we’re on our way again. The back has 3 seats, yet they cram the 4 largest people in the entire van – Eric, myself and Phillip and Renee, a couple from South Africa.
Again the ride is quite dusty, bumpy and mountainous but we pass the time asking questions about South Africa, in preparation for our next trip leg. Phillip and Renee introduce us to a saying they use back home and it applies perfectly to Laos…
“There’s always room for one more.”
Once we arrive in Pak Mong, we jump in a sawngthaew and begin our last bit of the journey to Nong Khiaw.
And boy is the long day worth it – Nong Khiaw is stunning!!! When we step out of the vehicle, our mouths drop as we stare at the beautiful limestone cliffs, surround the Nam Ou river.
We gather our things and begin the hunt for a place to stay. We end up in a lovely bungalow, down a little laneway at the side of the river. We spend dinner chatting with Phillip and Renee until a crazy semi-tornado interrupts us. The restaurant is open-concept, so we quickly find cover and wait out the storm before returning to our bungalow, where we enjoy a well-deserved sleep.
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