Nong Khiaw -> Muang Ngoy -> Muang Khua

We couldn’t have timed our diversion better. It absolutely dumped with rain the first afternoon/evening. I’d had ambitions of a sunset hike, which would’ve been deterred by half the precipitation.

There are many hikes here, but they are all steep af, and the volume of mud we saw on our fellow breakfasters encouraged us to linger on the balcony and delay adventuring into the afternoon.

Or as they say in limerick:
We hiked a steep hill slick with mud
And our shoes grew casements of crud
The view from the top
Was worth every drop
Even though on the way down we went thud

I again had some aspirations of getting up early for a sunrise hike, but between a persistent headache, and more rain, sleep seemed the wiser choice.

To travel up the Nam Ou, there are public boats, which run once a day up to various points below the dam, and then connect to a boat on the upstream side of the dam.

So when we discovered it was actually a couple of hours each way to walk to the nearby village, we scaled back our ambitions and explored the village at hand.

We had paid up front to our accommodation host and didn’t have tickets or any effective language communication with any of the boat operators, but they were each ready when we arrived and easily recognized us “three beautiful girls” (with bikes) as promised by our host.

Passing by many little clusters of homes enroute, we were reminded that this river is the road, and has been for eons. It is how goods are transported:

People making boats, mending boats, fishing with nets, doing laundry, and other everyday life tasks.

Jeannie’s strava reports we gained 2780m in elevation on the second day alone.

From a quick google, it looks like the dam was built in 2016. I wonder how much say local people had, and if/how people were compensated.

We were getting increasingly desperate until finding a little spot where we could get noodle soup. It came with mysterious pink meat in it. While we were eating (and batting away flies), a man at a nearby table chewed up food and spat it onto the floor for a kitten and chicks to fight over. Little did we know we were getting dinner and a show again!

Or as they say in limerick:
There once was a man in Muang Khua
Who, as a host, had a bit of a flaw,
He prechewed some ?meat
And spat it out by his feet
So his kitten had no need to gnaw.

Our other meals have been, by and large, quite tasty (Indian food, thai, congee, papaya salad, fresh fruit, pancake, mango smoothies, avocado smoothies, fried rice, lao pumpkin curry, chicken suzy, mango sticky rice, and lots and lots of lao noodle soup.)

Tomorrow, it’s back on the bikes.

Alice (with the usual input, edits, photos from F and J)