boat down the Nam Ou River to get back to Luang Prabang from our side
trip to Nong Kiaw. This was a good decision because the boat took us
through some beautiful country, but we didn't know how long it would
take and like everything in Laos, it took longer than we expected.
The morning started with rats scurrying through our walls, which is
always a pleasant way to start your day. Aside from the scuttling, we
had no complaints about our bungalow though. Three nights was a good
length of a stay there, no rush, but not dawdlingly either. We said
goodbye to Blacky, Browny and Fantastic Mr. Fox, our dog friends, and
had breakfast at our favorite place, Mekara. Robert had khamu soup
again and I had regular noodle soup. He wanted to remember the recipe,
so here is our best guess of the ingredients: dill, galangal, onion,
spring onion, broth, eggplant, hot chilies, kaffir lime leaves and
meat. We will have to experiment with it at home. I don't know if I
have complained about it yet or not, but about 70% of travelers here
smoke. It is ridiculous. We got smoked out during breakfast, bleck.
Boatride
Next we walked to the boat dock, hoping to easily get a ticket on a
morning boat to Luang Prabang. No problem. Put your name on the list,
pay 110,000K, and wait until 10-11:00am. We sat at a restaurant next
to the giant concrete staircase near the boat dock, each step of which
is a different height. Westerners finally started showing up and
sitting in long lines on the stairs. Everyone was getting antsy as the
morning wore on and no mention of a boat leaving. Finally, finally,
there was a call for Luang Prabang and Muang Noi (an upstream
destination). We got on the boat, endured more waiting and finally,
finally pulled out heading downstream.
I was in the first seat, with the roof pulled back and my view was
amazing. River gardens at first, then soaring mountains on all sides.
I took a million pictures, a fraction of which will be posted. The two
most interesting sights along the way were the people wading in the
water gathering fresh river weed to make into Kai pen and the river
powered generators fashioned out of bamboo and old bike tires. Other
than that, I noticed that people we saw along the river were more
excited to wave to us. One girl even blew kisses to Robert! I don't
know if it was an indication that they see more or less tourists, but
it was nice feeling welcomed. Aside from sitting on a hard wooden
stool for six hours or so, the one crappy part about the ride was that
I was in the splash zone. Every now and then we would go through a
rough spot and waves would materialize out of no where to soak me. I
learned to keep the camera protected, but we lost the sticky rice to a
wave - it got drenched and we were unwilling to eat river water.
Potty Break
The boat stopped only once. Immediately everyone got off and peed. Me
being a girl and all, I had to walk a fair ways down the path to get
to a big rock and pee behind that. Not too sheltered, but at that
point, I was dying. I thought I was getting left when I heard the
engine roar to life so I made short work of reclothing myself. Thank
goodness because moments later, the entire boat filed passed my poorly
concealed pee spot! Robert explained that they had even waited a
moment for me to finish, but if they knew I was there, they were not
too generous in their time allotment. They quite nearly got a show.
The pee break then turned into a mild hike. The boat went ahead and
ran some shallow rapids without our bodyweight so it didn't get stuck
and we walked around. Besides the whole peeing fiasco, my favorite
part of this adventure was watching everyone reboard the boat. The
shore was rocky and the captain laid out a plank for us to use to
cross into the boat, but it terrified some people. They teetered and
tottered and flailed and eventually the boat captain stood next to the
board and guided people aboard. Robert and I did not need help because
we are excellent at putting one foot in front of the other.
Nam Sok Guesthouse
We got to Luang Prabang and found a place to stay no problem. We
stayed at a place called Nam Sok Guesthouse mainly because they had
free wi-fi, but they only had room for us for one night. Also, as we
were putting our stuff down in the room, the attendant came in with a
bug zapper to kill all the bugs for us. He kept saying that they
weren't mosquitos, and most of them weren't, and he didn't know where
they came from. The room looked sealed to me, so I wasn't too worried.
Plus, I was mesmerized by the bug zapper. I had never seen one before
and it looked a lot like a joke. For the uninitiated, a bug zapper is
an electrified tennis racket that vaporizes bugs on contact. The guy
let me try and then left me to clean out the rest of the room. It was
so much fun that I didn't question why our room was infested with
those small black poop flies that you find in unclean bathrooms. Our
room of course was buzzing when we got back from dinner, but it was
only one night and when you turn the lights off, no one is the wiser.
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