This is a Long ONe

Hue

The bus ride from Hoi Ann to Hue was a scenic four hour journey along curving roads and rolling hills. We arrived in Hue around 6:00pm and it was rainy and cold. We quickly found one of the first hotels we saw and just chilled for the rest of the night. The next day I took a one day tour of the city while Omer stayed back. I ended up being on the same tour as Luc, the Australian I met in Mui Ne with Omer. It was another rainy and cold day but the tour was well worth it. We went to the Citadel, which was built by Emperor Gia Long in the 1800’s. It was used as shelter during the Vietnam War when the French and American’s bombed it destroying much of it. We also went to visit some tombs and pagodas as well. The tombs are in the middle of nature and are quite peaceful. It certainly makes a great place for a final resting spot. The best part of the tour was our guide, however. He had a wealth of knowledge and information on all the attractions and Vietnamese history that it really added a lot. At one point he even corrected another tour guide who had given a piece of misinformation. If I had visited these sites on my own, I wouldn’t have gotten close to the same amount out of it. Sometimes a guide can make a lot of difference, unfortunately many times you don’t get a great one or can’t understand them but this was one of the better ones I’ve had.
On our second and final day in Hue, Omer and I just walked around exploring the city for a few hours. We were on our way back to our hotel when we ran into a couple motorbike drivers that started talking to us. They asked us if we wanted to go with them to have some beers and talk politics. It sounded a little sketchy but I was intrigued and convinced Omer to go as well. This was either going to turn out really bad or good. We each went with a different driver on the motorbike and they took us to a local beer place. We had a beer and they started telling us about Vietnam and the war and such. One of them had relatives in America and one was imprisoned at the re-education camps during/after the war. It was actually an interesting conversation and we learned a lot. After a while they asked us if we wanted to go see Ho Chi Minh’s house. He lived in Hue for a few years when he was a kid. Again we were skeptical but decided to go ahead. We only had a few hours because we were catching a bus that evening to Hanoi. They took us to his house, which was a simple and basic Vietnamese house, and to a neighboring museum next door (if you can call it that). A local man had to open the lock on it and inside were just a bunch of pictures of Ho Chi Minh with his family and others. After visiting the museum the motorbike drivers asked us if we wanted to drive through the real Vietnamese countryside. We didn’t have much time but agreed anyway. I’m glad we did because this ended up being my highlight of Hue. We rode through local villages and wet rice patties. We really got to see typical Vietnamese life up close and personal and it was surreal. We passed water buffalo laying around, kids playing, and women working in the fields. It was really amazing. The drivers drove us back to our hotel and then asked us for money for showing us around. Now I knew they were going to ask for money because they weren’t just taking us to all these places out of the goodness of their heart but it still felt like we were getting taken. We gave them half of what they asked for and walked away. For only a couple dollars each it was definitely worth the experience but we learned a valuable lesson that nothing is for free and cost should always be discussed first. We got back just in time to catch the 12 hour bus to Hanoi.

Hanoi
We decided to take regular sitting bus this time and not a sleeper bus because the last sleeper bus was not the greatest experience. This bus ride wasn’t that much better. Terrible and loud Vietnamese music was playing during the whole trip making it impossible to sleep. After more than 12 grueling hours we made it to Hanoi. We walked around for over an hour looking for a decently priced room and finally ended up settling on something for $8 together. The room was a shithole but it was the cheapest we could find, accommodation in Hanoi is expensive. I immediately proceeded to clog the toilet and some poor Vietnamese man had to come up and fix it. We passed out for a few hours and for the rest of the day just wandered around the city. The old quarter of Hanoi is centered around a lake and it makes for a very beautiful and romantic spot. At night you see nothing but couples hanging out together around the lake. There is also a temple on the lake that looks really cool lit up at night. Another highlight of Hanoi is all of the Bia Hoy’s around. Bia means beer and Hoy is like draft. It’s basically the cheapest place to drink as you can get a glass of beer for something like 25 cents each. The bad thing about Hanoi is that everywhere shuts down at midnight. It is hard to find a bi ahoy or bar that is open past then. The second day in Hanoi I wanted to see the Ho Chi Minh Masoleum and Museum. We got up around 10:00 though and the Masoleum closes at 11:00 so we were frantically trying to find a motorbike taxi to take us there. All throughout Vietnam you are constantly harassed by these motorbike drivers that just come up to you and say “moto-bike, moto-bike, where yo go? You want moto-bike” yet the one time I actually need one there is not one to be found. So we settle on a cyclo who pedals frantically trying to get us there by 11:00. We make to the grounds at about ten to 11:00 and we run to try to get to the Masoleum but we go the wrong way and by the time we find it, it is closed. If we had just gone the right way we would have made it. I guess it didn’t really matter much though because Ho Chi Minh’s body wasn’t even there. For three months of every year his body gets sent to Russia for cleaning and upkeep. So we didn’t make it to the Masoleum but we did go inside the Museum, which was pretty interesting. Ho Chi Minh or Uncle Ho as he is still affectionately called certainly was and still is a hero to many in Vietnam. He was a very smart man and even used the same words from the American Declaration of Independence to try to get America to recognize Vietnam as a sovereign nation. One thing that did go right though was that after about a week of wet and cold weather the rain stopped and the sun came out. It would not rain again for the remainder of my stay in Vietnam which was perfect timing because I was going to Halong Bay the next day. After the museum we finally found a motorbike driver and hired him for $8 for the rest of the day. He took us to all the main attractions in Hanoi including the Ethonology Museum, Temple of Literature, B-52 Museum in which we were the only two people there and also the Hoa Lo Prison Museum (this was the prison where John McCain was a POW in Vietnam). The prison was especially interesting as there were very propagandist videos playing showing how well American POW’s were treated. That night we found a pizza place that had an all you can eat buffet which included pizza, pasta, rice, ribs, and some other local dishes. Me and buffet’s don’t go well together and I ate so much that I literally had trouble moving afterwards. It was nice to have some decent pizza and pasta but I completely overdid it. After that I went straight to bed.

Halong Bay
The next day we started a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. We took an extremely overcrowded bus for four hours to Haiphong and then boarded a junk boat. Omer and I paid $43 for the 3 day trip which was about the cheapest anyone paid. Somehow we got upgraded to the luxury boat where everyone else was paying $100 or more. Our guide pulled us aside and told us not to tell anybody how much we paid and we happily obliged. The boat was nice and relaxing and Halong Bay was beautiful. There are over 3,000 islands and they are everywhere. We first went to a cave, which is one of the top attractions of Halong Bay. The cave was pretty cool but after seeing the caves in Borneo, it didn’t excite me that much. After the cave we had a chance to do some kayaking in the bay, which was really cool. I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to kayak in, and the weather was perfect. It was sunny the whole time. Halong Bay is actually one of 28 finalists for the new 7 natural wonders of the world. After kayaking we set up anchor for the night and just relaxed on the boat. It was really nice being and sleeping on a boat/ship again and really made me miss Semester at Sea. It’s just so nice and soothing sleeping on the ocean. The rest of the group was made up of mostly older people so Omer and I just watched a movie and went to bed. The next day Omer, I, a Finnish guy, and 2 New Zelander girls left the rest of the group as they were only on a 1 day trip and met up with another one. We took a boat to Cat Ba, which is an island in the bay and went trekking at Cat Ba National Park. At the top of the mountain the Vietnamese somehow built an overlook platform, which contained great views of the valley below. After the trek we took a bus back to the hotel we were staying at for the evening. After eating some lunch we took a boat to “monkey island” which is supposed to be a secluded beautiful island that has monkeys on it. Sure enough we were welcomed by a group of monkeys eager to steal anything they could get their hands on. At one point a monkey had grabbed on to one guy’s pants without him noticing and he had to struggle to break free of the monkey’s grasp. They are cute creatures but don’t be fooled they will come after you and can be dangerous. Monkey island was quite small and we found a path so we decided to follow it to the other side of the island. After about 25 minutes going over steep and sharp rocks we reached what can only be described as paradise. There were bungalows on the other side with a nice beach and no monkeys. We jumped into the water and were having a great time when the owner of the bungalows came running out and told us it was a private beach and we had to leave. So we had to get out of the water and hike back to the other side of the beach after only spending about five minutes there. Those five minutes were worth it though as it was an amazing place. We went back to the other side of the island and hung out for a little while longer before our boat took us back to Cat Ba and our hotel. The rest of the day we just walked around Cat Ba and relaxed.
The next morning we got back on the boat and headed back to Haiphong where we had lunch. We had to wait for a while for our bus to arrive so our group of five, Omer, the Fin, Kiwis, and myself found a bia hoy place and started drinking. Before we knew it we were kind of drunk just in time for our bus to arrive. The rest of the bus must have hated us because we had to stop three times on the way back to go to the bathroom.

Hanoi
We made it back to Hanoi that evening found a hotel and passed out for a couple hours. We had previously bought tickets to a water puppet performance that night so we woke up from our slumber and made it to the show. It was actually very cool, the puppet masters are behind a curtain and have these puppets on poles that you can’t see and are unbelievably coordinated. The puppets dance and prance around in the water while traditional Vietnamese music is played with it. After the water puppet show we met up with 2 girls who Omer had met previously in Cambodia and hung out with them for a little while.
The next day we didn’t have really much to do and just needed to kill time before our night bus left for Sapa at around 6:00. So we just wandered around the city some more. The nigh bus to Sapa was quite the experience though. First we got in a minivan who then picked up 6 more tourists and then drove us to a travel agency. From the travel agency we got our stuff and got in another minivan that took us to another van that we transferred into and just when we thought we could get comfortable the minivan took us to a bus that said Sapa on it. Finally we got on the bus that was actually taking us to Sapa and didn’t make it out of Hanoi till about 9:00pm. Once again we took a sitting bus but after watching a couple of movies I was actually able to get some sleep. We got to Sapa around 7:00am. Sapa is unlike the rest of Vietnam. It is up in the mountains and the majority of locals there are hill tribe people mainly consisting of the Hmong tribe. Another thing about Sapa is that it was cold. You could actually see your breath it was so cold. It is a beautiful town though. It is small and quaint. The whole town basically consists of a market selling fake north faces and the local Hmong’s selling local clothes and a row of guesthouses/hotels and restaurants. There are numerous villages surrounding the town and the best thing to do is go on a trek. The first day there we didn’t really do much just walked around the town and I bought some jackets to send home. Even though they are fake the quality is still pretty good and I paid about $40 for two northface jackets and a fleece that would have cost me about $500 for the real thing back home. The next day we rented a motorbike and just drove around the whole area. We drove through local villages and took winding roads overlooking cliffs. It was absolutely amazing scenery but a little scary at the same time. The only bad thing was that the whole area was covered in fog so you couldn’t see that much but what you did see was still beautiful. Then we drove to a waterfall that was pretty nice and hung out there for a little while. There were some locals selling tea and bbq meat, potato and like a bamboo cylinder with rice inside that they heat over the fire and out comes blocks of sticky rice. We got some food and heated up by the fire. After the waterfall Omer couldn’t handle the cold anymore so I dropped him off at the hotel and kept on riding to a local village. It is amazing how simple their lives are. The women go into Sapa town to try and sell their hand woven clothing and other things to the tourists many times taking the children with them while the men go into the mountains to hunt animals or grow crops. Their homes are as basic as they get, just wooden huts centered around a fire. The road to the village was pretty rough and there were a few times where I pretty much had to drive through a few inches of water. The whole time I was just praying that I wouldn’t get a flat tire or do something terribly wrong. One wrong move on the motorbike and you’re going over a cliff. The roads were extremely curvy in addition to rough so it was quite the adventure. I made it back in one piece though and Omer and I went out and had dinner at what had become our local go to restaurant. We were planning on leaving the next day or the day after but then we met two Israeli girls that night at the hotel who were going on a two day trek the next day through local villages and included a homestay at one of them. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go but decided that I would at the last minute. The first day we trekked about 18km just walking from town down a mountain passing different villages along the way. The most interesting part was stopping at a local school and seeing the children in class and singing songs. All of the tribal kids get to go to school for free where there is usually a local teacher from the tribe as well as a Vietnamese teacher. Healthcare and education for these minority tribes are provided by the government. The schools were the nicest buildings in the village probably because they are constructed by the government. At school the kids learn Vietnamese and all the tribes have their own indigenous language. We also got to see some girls put on a dance show in the village which was also a cool site. At about 5:00pm we got to the village where we would be staying that night. They had a makeshift pool table there so the rest of the night we just sat around drinking local rice wine and playing cards and pool. It was someone’s birthday in the group so the locals brought out a special apple rice wine that is only used for special occasions. It was much tastier than the normal rice wine. We had a group of 8 and as always when you are traveling people ask you where you are from. Somehow America came up and a Dutch guy an Australian immediately had bad things to say about America and Americans. When they found out I was American the Dutch guy even said no offense but I don’t like Americans. It’s really amazing how bad a reputation Americans have around the world. Some of it is warranted I guess but it’s easy to be neutral and peaceful when you come from countries like Australia and Holland but we have a huge role in the world and yeah we have made some bad moves but I like to think we have done some great things as well. It made me realize how American I really am. I love football and thanksgiving and even though I travel and am more knowledgeable about the world about most Americans I still have pride in my country. It’s crazy that people can generalize people from a country so much. But Americans certainly do have a different view of the world than the majority of others. Of a country of 300 million people I have met very few Americans on this trip. I do certainly think it would be good if more Americans traveled and saw other places in the world but I also feel the need to defend the so many good American people. Anyways I’ll stop ranting about that. The next morning after breakfast we trekked back to another village for lunch where we had lunch and then took a van back to Sapa. Omer and I met two Australians on the trip one mentioned above who really was a good guy who were on their way to Laos as we were. We figured out we were on the same bus to Dien Ben Phu which is the closest city in Vietnam to the border of Laos the next morning. The four of us got along pretty well and it was cool to have some new people because I was starting to get sick of traveling with Omer. We bickered and fought with each other like brothers and I guess in a way we were. On the rest of our last day in Sapa we met the Australians for dinner, we had some great local bbq on the street, and ended up going to one of the few local pubs for a drink. One drink turned into three and before we knew it, it was midnight. The Australians and Omer went searching for food while I went back to the hotel to get some sleep having no idea what was in store for us during the next three days.

Road to Laos
We woke up in a hazy state to catch a bus to Dien Bien Phu at 9:00. Dien Bien Phu is a town about 28 km from the border with Laos. Getting to Laos would be a two-day trip. The first day was an 8-10 hour bus ride to Dien Bien Phu and then the next morning we could take a bus into Laos. 9:00 came and the bus wasn’t there, then 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 and still no sign of the bus. We asked the people who worked at the guesthouse to please call and find out what was going on. They said the bus was “broken” but not to worry it would be here in half an hour. Well it wasn’t there in half an hour and the same thing continued for the next two hours, we would ask when the bus was going to arrive and they said it would just be another half hour. Finally at 1:00 the bus arrived with the Australians already sitting in it. I should say it was actually more of a minivan and not a bus and I will start calling it as such. The van was already pretty full when it picked us up and I was really hoping that we were going to be the last passengers but the Vietnamese have a great ability to fit as many people, bags, vegetables, chickens, etc… into a small space. Sure enough we picked up a few more locals on the way and just like a Tetris game they made everything fit. We probably had 20 people and just as many bags in a 15 passenger van. It was a little cramped to say the least but I was able to wiggle in some room for my feet and wasn’t in the worst position. The ride was a picturesque yet bumpy ride. Much of the road was unpaved and we were going about 20-30 km per hour for most of it. There were times that we would get stuck trying to go up a hill or over particularly rocky areas and the driver just backed up and tried again gunning the pedal until we made it through. Early in the ride when we stopped for a break, the van would not start and we had to all get out and push it a few meters to get it going and started. We passed through villages and mines and a few times we had to stop for 20 or 30 minutes while bulldozers worked on the road. Lonely Planet said in its 2008 version that this journey should take about 2 or 3 days so the roads must have improved a lot since then because we were able to make it in one. At one two or three hour stretch of the ride we were driving on the edge of a cliff and it was dark at this point as well. I was sure that any second we would go spiraling down to our death. Remarkably at about 10:30 we arrived in Dien Bien Phu. Dien Bien Phu is not much of a town at all with a few guesthouses and restaurants, we quickly found the cheapest guesthouse, which wasn’t really a room but more of a storage closet with 2 beds and passed out.
We had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to catch the 5:00 bus to Mung Khoa, which is the first major city in Laos. Sure enough the 5:00 bus didn’t leave until 6:00 but it was a real bus. I think there were more bags of vegetables than people on it though. A bag of garlic was under my feet as once again the Vietnamese will put things anywhere to make them fit. The whole bus was filled with onions, garlic, chillies, and other local fruits and vegetables that apparently were being transported to Laos. We got to the border without any issues in a few hours. Omer and I already had our visas for Laos, we had gotten them in Hanoi but still had to pay a 7,000 kip administrative fee. Luckily I had exchanged some dong (Vietnamese currency) for kip (Laos currency) with another traveler. I was the only one out of the four of us (Omer and the two Australians) who had any kip so I paid for all them as well. After crossing the border and another three or four hour ride through Lao villages we arrived in Mung Khoa.

Mung Khoa
None of us knew anything about Mung Khoa before we got there, it is not even mentioned in the Lonely Planet SE Asia edition which is all I had at the time. The bus dropped us off at one side of the Nam Ou river and again we had to pay a few kip to cross it, we finally settled on some Thai Baht and got to the other side. There was also a ferry for cars and motorbikes that was literally pushed by a boat to get the 10 meters or so to the other side. We got to the town and tried to figure our next step. It was about 1:00pm at this point. We quickly learned there were no ATM’s in Mung Khoa so the four of us were relying on my about $50 US Dollars worth of Kip until the next town. We sat down for some lunch and met a few other travelers that said there was a bus at 3:00 to Udomaxi, which is a bigger town with an ATM. From there you can catch a bus anywhere. During lunch we also met two Israeli guys who had just arrived from a 9 day canoe trip. They had bought a canoe at some other town up the Nam Ou River and canoed down to Mung Khoa after two days of practicing and learning from the locals. They would just camp or stay in local villages every night and canoe by day. It sounded like a really amazing experience something out of Into the Wild. We decided that we were going to try to catch the 3:00 bus to Udomaxi so we got into a pick up truck with benches in the back that are used as taxis and went to the bus station which was about 3km away. We got to the station at 2:00 but the bus was already full to Udomaxi and it was the last one of the day. We would have to wait until 8:00 the next morning for the next bus. After we missed the bus we decided we were going to be adventurous that night. We didn’t want to walk the 3km back to town with all our bags so we decided to camp on the banks of the river. There was a pretty steep drop off from the road to the river but we found a place to walk down near the bus station and reached the riverbank. Some kids had followed us and came down to see what these strange falongs (foreigner) were doing. We put on our bathing suits and went in the water for a little while and played with the kids. After that we started to plan things for the night. Tony (one of the Australians) and I were to go to town to find food and Omer and Red (other Australian, so called because of his red hair) were to make a fire. So Tony and I wondered into town where we saw the Israelis again. We offered them to join us and they said they had to sell their canoe first and then they might. We went around looking for food and a pot to cook it in and were debating if we should just buy take away from a restaurant. We got to the boat pier just as the Israelis had sold their canoe to a local. They were happy that it only took them a few hours to sell it. They also said they had plenty of food left and a pan and wok that would be enough for six. So we helped them carry their stuff back to our campsite and were greeted with a fire. While dinner was being prepared Tony and I again went on a mission for some beer, but with our limited funds ended up with Lao Lao or local rice whisky, which was much cheaper. We were wandering around the pretty deserted main street and ran into a sort of bar. That was my first introduction to “boon” which in America we call bocchiball. Apparently it was taken from the French and “boon” is now played on the streets everywhere in Lao usually for a few Beer Lao at stake. Also we were lucky because the SEA (Southeast Asia) Games were happening in Laos from December 9-18. The SEA games are basically the Olympics of SE Asia with much national pride at stake. Anytime Laos was playing soccer the whole country would be cradled around their TV sets. We brought back the Lao Lao and had a great meal of noodles and vegetables. We discussed life and traveling for the rest of the night and passed out. We got up early the next morning, packed our stuff, and huffed our way to the bus station intent on getting on the 8:00am bus, which we did. We arrived in Udomaxi after another very bumpy road and luckily they had an ATM there. Everyone got money and paid me what the owed. I had a decision to make, Omer and the Australians were going to Luang Prabang but I wanted to go to Luam Nam Tha, which is more North and supposedly really good for trekking. I decided I had enough of Omer and went to Luam Nam Tha. Raffy, one of the Israelis was also going there for a night to pick up his bike that had ridden from China.

Luam Nam Tha
When we arrived in Luam Nam Tha we had to take a pickup into town. We found a guesthouse and I was finally able to relax after a long last few days. It was cold in Luam Nam Tha but luckily I had some warm clothes including a jacket I bought in Sapa. It was a nice quiet small town with very friendly people. Everybody said Sabadee (hello) to you on the street as you passed by. The first night Raffy and I shared a roasted chicken with chilli sauce, which was delicious and I was able to shower and check the internet after a few days without it. I wanted to sign up for a trek but there were not many tourists in town and the treks were much cheaper with more people. Anywhere between 1 and 8 people can go but the price is substantially cheaper the more people you have. Basically there are four or five travel agencies around town that list all of their treks on a big white board and the number of people who have signed up for the next day and there was pretty much nobody signed up for anything when I checked the first night I was in town. The next day I decided to rent a bike for the day and hope to find people to go on a trek the next day. I biked to a waterfall that was nearby and also through some villages. It is amazing how simple life is in Laos. Much of the population live in villages. It is probably the most relaxing country I’ve been in which was a big difference from Vietnam. Nobody comes up to you to get you to buy something, they are content with just ‘chilling’. Life in the villages has very distinct roles for the men and women. The men go out and catch fish or hunt other food and take care of upkeep on the houses while the women wash the clothes, cook the food, and tend to the children. It is common to wander around a village and see men just sleeping in a hammock or on the floor. Laos definitely don’t take things too seriously. After my bike ride I returned to town to try to find some people to sign up for a trek. I met a French couple who had signed up for one the next day and at the last minute was able to find three other people who wanted to sign up as well so with me that made 6. So the next morning we were to depart at 9:00. It turned out everyone else spoke French in the group. Two French guys were traveling together, there was one guy from Montreal, and the French couple (the guy was actually from Belgium). Most of the time they would all talk in French together and I would just go and talk with our guide who was your typical 25 year old guy. The trek was for 2 days and the first day was not too bad. There were a few long uphill sections but most of it was pretty flat walking through the forest and valley. We stopped at a little bamboo hut for lunch, which consisted of sticky rice and some local vegetables. In Laos pretty much all meals are eaten with sticky rice. Also in Laos chopsticks are not used as they eat with their hands using sticky rice to help scoop up the other food. We got to the Akha (a hill tribe group) village where we were staying the night around 4:00 and Julien, Florian (the two French guys) and Dominic (the Canadian) went on a little adventure in the river. We walked/swam in the river against the current, which was hard work. We stumbled upon a rickety old bridge that was crooked and half falling apart and decided it would be a good idea to cross it. We made it to the other side and went exploring following a path. We crossed some local village boys with a harpoon and mask to catch fish, they learn from a young age how to hunt. Finally we ended up at a dead end and went back to the river to let the current carry us back to the village. The water level was very low though and the river was very rocky so we had to move carefully over the rocks and every few meters you would get a large rock hitting your ass or hips depending on what side you were on. Finally after about half an hour of this we arrived back at the village. We had another traditional Lao meal with chicken and vegetables, pumpkin and sticky rice. It was delicious. The rest of the night we sat around a fire discussing movies and music and watching the stars, which were truly remarkable. I haven’t seen that many starts in a long time. There was no light pollution, the village was pitch black except for everyone gathered around little fires throughout the village. There was separate house/hut made for tourists that we slept in for the night. It would have been cool to actually sleep in an villagers home but that wasn’t the case. The next morning after breakfast we started our hike back to the main road. First we passed through three more villages, one of the Lantern people who come from China and another Akha village who come from Cambodia. Each village has its own culture and customs and our guide told us that they had tried to combine to smaller Akha an Lantern villages but shortly after two members of the Akha village died and they returned to their former home. They believe a lot in spirits and things of that nature. After passing through the villages we had a very difficult walk through the jungle going over rocks and mud at times and the last bit of it was mostly uphill. It was a pretty tough trek but finally we made it to the road where a van was waiting to take us back to Luang Nam Tha. When we got back I found a guesthouse and got some food at the local night market. I had some laap, which is a traditional Lao salad with some sort of ground meat and garlic, shallots, coriander, mint, and chillies, and in this particular one buffalo skin. It was pretty good. I saw our guide sitting having some beers with one of his friends (another guide) and a few tourists and I joined them for the rest of the evening. Before I knew it I was a little bit drunk as they would just pour a little glass of beer and pass it to you and you had to drink it in one sip, they would go around the table and do this to everyone. I was planning on leaving for Luang Prabang the next day but changed my mind and decided to go to Nong Khiaw after hearing about it from the couple on the trek who said it was really nice. Julien, Florian, and Dominic were also planning on going there as well.

Nong Khiaw
The next morning I arrived at the bus station and because there were no direct buses to Nong Khiaw, it not on the main highway, I had to buy a ticket to Pak Mong which is a town about 33 km from Nong Khiaw. The bus was actually going to Luang Prabang but stopped in Pak Song. I met two women who were going to Nong Khiaw as well so we stuck together. Julien, Florian, and Domnic had chartered a minivan from their guesthouse along with some other people so they would be going directly to Nong Khiaw. After another long and bumpy ride we arrived in Pak Mong at around 4:00. The pickup driver wanted 30,000kip each to take us the rest of the way to Nong Khiaw but we would pay no more than 20,000. After waiting for an hour and a half we finally found a driver that agreed to 20,000. Reflecting back on it the difference between 20,000 and 30,000 kip is little more than a dollar so it really wasn’t worth the wait but I guess it’s the principal of the matter. Anyways we finally arrived in Nong Khiaw at about 6:00 and it was easy to see why it is a favorite destination for travelers. The town was centered on the Nam Ou river with guesthouses that had bungalows that overlooked the river. I found the cheapest guesthouse I could find and ate some delicious Indian food. I got up the next morning and saw the true beauty of the place. There was a morning fog over the town but it didn’t take away the beauty of the river and amazing limestone formations around it. You could see fisherman in the water and kids washing themselves in the river. There was a long bridge over the river that went from one side of town to the other and standing on the bridge you could truly get a great view. After much internal debate I decided to make it to Muang Ngoi Neua that morning. Muang Ngoi Neua was another town up an hour north on the river, which was supposed to be smaller and even more spectacular than Nong Khoi. It has developed a sort of cult reputation among backpackers as a great place to relax. There is one boat a day at 11:00 so I went to the pier where I saw Julien, Florian, and Dominic. They were heading to Muang Ngoi Neua as well.

Muang Ngoi Neau
The boat ride was a little over an hour and was a pretty cool although uncomfortable experience. There were no towns on the way. We met another French Canadian girl on the boat who knew of a cheap guesthouse in Muang Ngoi Neau so the five of us went there and got two rooms, 3 in one 2 in the other. The whole town was filled with guesthouses and at times there are probably more tourists than locals. It is a sleepy quiet town that only has power from 6-10 pm every night. The first day we just chilled and relaxed and got to know “Mama” who was the owner of the guesthouse of which the name was Mama banana. ‘Mama’ truly did become our mom for the next few days, cooking all of our meals and talking to us. Fanny the French Canadian girl quickly became a big fan of mama’s as she helped her cook when a big group of tourists came to eat. All five of us helped bring food out to their table and we felt like party of a family all helping out. ‘Papa’, ‘Mama’s husband’ was not feeling well so Fanny give him some medicine that made him feel better. The first night we didn’t eat until 9:00 because we had to wait until the big group had gotten their food but Mama made us some delicious Buffalo Laap and cooked vegetables. Mama was a one woman show. She did all the cooking herself and had only one assistant that helped with chopping vegetables and things like that. It was great getting to watch her cook in her small little kitchen with a wood burning stove. We just sat around the rest of the night listening to music. The next day started with some delicious if not extremely disgustingly fattening banana-chocolate pancakes cooked up by mama. I then played some volleyball with some local kids including mama’s 15 year old son. We were going trekking to some local caves and villages so mama made us some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the only problem is she also put regular butter and a lot of it, which turned the sandwiches pretty gross. So we set off and passed some kids hunting rats (no joke) and many cows as well. The scenery was pretty insane. The path started out flat walking past farms and cows with mountains in the backdrop then we had to pass over a few streams and soon arrived at the first cave. The cave was nothing spectacular, I have seen enough caves on this trip that they are all starting to look the same. Then we walked a little further and arrived at a village. Apparently this village was known amongst druggies because we encountered a French guy who was stoned out of his mind and met a few others on the way who were nothing but skin and bones. There was a local with a crazy beard and sideburns that sold pot and opium to supply all of the tourists. We kept walking and ended up going through the forest. There were numerous forks in the road and we didn’t really know where we were going, we were just trying to stay close to and follow the river. At one point we crossed the river over some locally made contraption that felt like it was about to collapse at any instant but we made it. Finally Fanny and I got tired of wandering without knowing where we were going and turned around to go back while Julien and Florian pressed on. On the way back we quickly made it out of the forest and back to the main path so we were clearly not going the right way because we were weaving through the forest for an hour or two without finding anything. Relieved that we had found our way back to the main path, we stopped to talk with some village children and take pictures when we saw Julien and Florian coming back soon after. They said they went a little bit further but the forest was full of leeches so they turned around. We walked back to town and met up with Dominic who had turned back early in the trek and the four guys went to play some “boon”. The only time I had played this game was at a bar in Brooklyn and it was really fun. The locals take it very seriously and are very good. One of the locals asked if he could have some of my beer and he took a sip and spit it out onto his ball to polish it. There were two courts, the locals were playing on one and us farangs on the other. After a few games we went back to the guesthouse where mama made us some duck laap with cooked vegetables. It was very delicious and we quickly chomped it all down. At this point mama knew we were leaving the next day and was very upset. She gave us each a bracelet that she made for us. We relaxed the rest of the nigh. The next morning we got up early to catch a boat back to Nong Khiaw which form there we would catch a bus to Luang Prabang. We said our final goodbyes to mama, it was quite sad leaving her. It was the first time that I really felt part of a community. The previous night mama had showed us pictures of tourists who had sent her pictures and she also told us how a group of three tourists who had stayed at her place went to Luang Prabang to get menus made and lamenated for her restaurant and brought it back to her.