We actually started our time in Laos by flying from Siem Reap, Cambodia to the town of Luang Prabang. We stayed 4 nights in Luang Prabang and then took a van through 4 hours of potholes to the small town village of Nong Khiaw. We will be returning to Luang Prabang for another week so I am going to wait on showing those pics. Nong Khiaw is a small river town in the mountains between some crazy steep karst mountains. The steep cliffs reminded us of Banff, Yosemite, or even Mount Si or Rattlesnake Ledge in Washington state. The pics would have been fantastic if not from the smoke haze because we are in the middle of crop burning season. There are just a few thousand residents and the town is famous among the backpacking crowd because of the hiking, rustic camping and cave exploring.
We arrived into town with a bunch of 20 somethings and we were a bit concerned that we were out of place. Most of the accommodations are hostels or camping for those younger folk. We found our way to our hotel that was filled with Europeans that were mostly our age and not in town for any high adventure. We can hang with the young crowd but prefer our hotels with a bit more comfort. The Mandala Ou river resort had one of the few swimming pools in town as well as another daily free breakfast buffet. It was a beautiful place to watch the river and just take in the grandeur of the canyon.
We did do some hiking. Many of the locals have created businesses by developing trails up the cliffs or to the caves. They then charge just a couple dollars for entry. I climbed up a short but very steep trail to the Sleeping Lady lookout. Great views although I was still fighting the smoke haze. We are used to a couple of weeks of wildfire smoke in Seattle most summers and this wasn’t close to that. We had no problems breathing.
The same day, we also did a short hike to some caves. We paid our $2 to walk across some rice paddies, a rickety old bridge and up to a couple of caves. We didn’t see anyone the whole time we were there. The caves had some great rock formations at the openings but we weren’t up to squeezing on our hands and knees to see the further reaches of the caves. We decided it wasn’t a good idea to explore caves all by ourselves with our limited lighting. We mostly just enjoyed getting out of the heat before we headed back.
The prices in Laos for food and drinks are still crazy cheap although not quite as cheap as Cambodia. It was a bit harder to find wine here so it was mostly beer. We did find a place that sold some local whiskey so I had to try it. They poured a couple of shots or warm whiskey into a glass and called it a cocktail. I decided to stick to BeerLao. It was a good place to watch the smokey sunset.
3 Nights was just right for us in Nong Khiaw. We really enjoyed the small town and relaxed feel here. Yeah, there are a lot of hikes that aren’t so relaxing but we found the excursions that worked for us. Next stop is another week in Luang Prabang where we will be able to see some big waterfalls and eat some more great Lao food.