Nong Khiaw

Decided to come to this place 10 days before my departure to let myself decide how much I was gonna like this area, and what happened is that... i ended up just not moving from here! To tell the truth I really didn't do that much in here, rested and worked a bit on some things I had to (and way less than I should have). Arrived to the place with a lovely thai couple, but they were staying in a place a bit out of my budget, so I walked and walked until I found a place that looked cozy enough. It was right next to the school, so for that day I was just surrounded by kids who cherished and admired me for longlong time (ai was feeling a mix between uncomfortable and flattered). After that, some people I was with in luang Prabang joined me (Sep, a veryvery special israely guy; the cute french Thiboult and Hortense and Marja, my roomate back in Luang Prabang) plus Loek, and also an israelí girl (Yuvalt) with a kiwi guy (Connor) that I kinda met through someone else. So yes, I ended up giving such good business to the place. We all went on a two day trek with a big group, and hiked a waterfall for about 4 hours after a boat ride and then hiked 3 more hours until the village we slept in after another boat ride and a tuktuk. We had tons of laolao and I had a bit of a confusing night. Day after we hiked through the jungle to the closest village to the river for 5 hours (which was a bit too much for some people (even a very special german man stopped at some point freacking out asking for a helicopter, which I found quite funny), and even hough I enjoyed it I was having a weird and hangover day). It was a long trek because not all the group were very fast and prepared and there were tons of leaches, it was slippery and we didn't have as much water as we would have liked. After lunch many people decided they wanted to skip the last trek, so I went with a few other guys to do it and hiked for around 2 hours and swam on a nice waterfall. To finish our longlong trip we got on a kayak and kayaked our way back to the village (we got there when it was dark even). Stayed some more days on the quite town, still not doing much more, but found a nice pool to swim in in a very beautiful place, did a viwepoint with Loek (were he bet he would be able to smoke 5 cigarettes going up, and was quitequite tough), did a crazy cave were we thought we would get trapped, and mainly enjoyed the group company, had some beers, and had a slow lao pace. As Sep would say, "it's not about the place but about the people", and that's probably why we stayed for so long, even though I had some confusing and emotional days, been surprised about myself (not always in the best meaning of it) lots of procrastination, some tough conversations (also very important) but as well some very nice group feeling, resting time, and very nice connections. And to tell the truth, I would have even stayed longer if I didn't have to leave already.

🏠 Accomodation: Pho Sai Riverview (not the cheapest accomodation on the area, nor the fanciest, nor most central, right next to the school so manymany kids and sometimes a bit too loud like weekends the market starts at 3 in the morning. Nevertheless the place is right in front of the river, with a hammock on the balcony and very cute simple room, the owners are never there so its like you rented a house to live there, so I really liked the place despite everything else)
🍴Food: place right before crossing the river (cheap, big and good), Qbar (backpackers place where you can meet everyone else, really nice three floors so very nice views and nice food and drinks, but very slow and a bit expensive), mandala ou resort (the hint of this place is that if there's no guests you can use the swimmingpool which is absolutely amazing and the owner is very sweet and chill), Dellillah's (amazing breakfasts, but the owner is a bit weird, we called the place Malkovich (he looked like him), Colours (nice owner, not the cheapest either but good food)
📍Essentials: treking with NK tiger tours (we did a two days trek in the jungle which was nice but too big of a group and not everyone was in good shape, but we got to hike a lotlot and see planty of the surroundings like waterfalls, lots of laolao (maybe even a bit too much) kayak and good local food. Ask for Tom, amazing tourguide), Pha Kuang Cave Adventure (you must be fit and NOT claustrophobic at all, lao people used to hide here on the IndoChina war, such an adventure to see this place, some parts of the cave are as narrow as you body (for real I thought we wouldn't make it), Pha Daeng Peak Viewpoint (beautiful 360° views, we did it for sunset and was super nice)Read more