Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi are the kind of places where you go to do absolutely nothing, which is absolutely something that ranks high on my list of hobbies. We woke up to the sound of roosters, lazed around in hammocks overlooking the river, binged on pork noodle soup and hiked some pretty darn beautiful peaks for sunset. I’m going to go on record here and say Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi are our favorite places to relax in Southeast Asia and if you like fried bananas, petting puppies, drinking beer at the top of mountains and hammock chillin’, then you should book a ticket here immediately.*
After a scenic six hour drive across Northern Laos, we arrived in Nong Khiaw, a tiny town built along the Nam Ou river in a valley of limestone karsts. Within the town, there is a school, a boat dock, a backpacking street and various mountain villages. The pace of life is slower and more easy going here – you’re more likely to find cows than cars in the street, people leave their valuables out freely and you’re more likely to find a shop owner watching TV in the back than watching over the store.
We stayed in a bamboo bungalow with a hammock that overlooked the river. Many of our mornings were spent here while our evenings were spent doing something different, but equally enticing- watching Breaking Bad, a show about crystal meth. If you’re late to the game like me and haven’t watched it, don’t start. It will consume your entire life. You will not want to leave your room. You’ll crave nothing but Pollos Hermanos. You’ll feel like money laundering is a casual activity that brings couples together. You’ll be disgusted by how fast you can watch 5 seasons of a show but also impressed by your focus and determination.
Despite our Netflix binging, inviting hammock and resident puppy we did make it outside of our bungalow. We hiked to two different viewpoints overlooking the town. Both hikes were described as “difficult but doable” which Justin and I incorrectly equated to “difficult for fanny-pack-wearin’-Hawaiian-shirt-havin’ tourists, easy for us.” The hike up to these views were relatively short but brutal and I wouldn’t recommend what we did, which was hike up them in sandals and use iPhone flashlights for post sunset descends.
We also rented a motorbike and drove through unbelievable mountain landscapes to different villages. The people here live in basic, wooden stilted houses and primarily farm and forage for food. When the kids see foreigners on a motorbike, they very enthusiastically wave and yell “sabaidee!”
If you know Justin and I at all, you know that our favorite way to experience local culture is through the (street) food. We spend a surprising amount of time reminiscing about Nasi Lemuk, sniffing out the best noodle shops and praying we don’t break the comedically tiny chairs outside the soy milk stalls. But in a place where farming and foraging is still the way to go, it was very difficult to find a meal outside of one of the handful of guesthouses and other restaurants catering to tourists. But after a few days of serious investigation, desperation and determination, we found a few people catering to the students in town. We found one lady selling fried bananas and coconut pancakes and three pork noodle shops run directly out of peoples’ homes. Think giant pots of soup sitting on a fire on someone’s “porch.” The students loved speaking English with us, they’d come over, say hi, ask our names and whether they could have one of our fried bananas.
After 5 nights in Nong Khiaw, we took a boat one hour upriver to Muang Ngoi, an even smaller village accessed only by boat. You won’t find a single car here and if you walk down the main road, you’re likely to find a few guesthouses and plenty of women weaving traditional Laos skirts inside their homes. Again, our guesthouse was right on the river with a view that made it hard to leave the room.
The view from our room:
Ngoi was the type of place that has been developing a tourism structure but has remained a place where few tourists visit. It’s the kind of place where you can rent a kayak, but you’ll be the only one on the river. Not that we rented kayaks, but we did rent bicycles, which broke into pieces outside of town. Cue Justin “scootering” with one foot on the right bike pedal, the other pushing himself along, razor scooter style.
I wish we could have stayed in both these places longer but we had a flight to catch to Phu Quoc, Vietnam for Christmas (and apparently needed an ENTIRE DAY to find a way to print our visa application letters in Luang Prabang…). Mark my words, we’ll never disrespect a functioning printer again.
*Justin fainted in an alley post-pork noodle soup, which didn’t negatively impact our rating. At the time of writing, his black eye has healed nicely.
MUANG NGOI > VIETNAM