Bob & Janette's Travel Adventures

Flight details:

We arrived in Laos via a land crossing from Northern Thailand.  Flights home as follows

Vientiane to Kuala Lumpur AirAsia Flt AK613

Depart Thu 26Nov09 1005hrs arrive KLIA-LCCT Thu 26Nov09 1340hrs

 Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast AirAsiax Flt D72702

Depart Fri 27Nov09 2140hrs arrive Gold Coast 0750hrs Sat 28Nov09

Exchange rate during trip -  AU$1 = 8600 kip

Novice Monks - Laos

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Huay Xai

After a short boat ride across the Mekong at the Thai border town of Chiang Klong we arrive in Huay Xai.  Immigration are waiting for us as we get off the boat where we arrange our visa on arrival.  It is  then it is just a short walk up the main street to our hotel.

Huay Xai is just a border crossing for us and doesn't hold any great attraction.  We spend the afternoon having a look around the town and arrange our minivan trip for the next day.

Luang Namtha

As was to be expected, our promised "new" minivan turned out to be a little older than promised and had every seat occupied.  We made ourselves as comfortable as possible for the 4 hour journey on to Luang Namtha.  We were aware that roads in Laos can be in need for some repair, but it wasn't long until we found out how bad the roads would be.

About 2 hours into our trip we hit quite a large pot hole.  Our driver coasts to a stop in the middle of the road and here we he gets under the vehicle and commences some makeshift repairs.  I sneak a peak at what has happened and learn that we aren't going anywhere in a hurry.  Even if we did get going again there was no way I was going to be a passenger in a van with a broken steering arm tied together with some wire.

After sitting on the side of the road for 2 hrs we finally manage to get a passing public bus to stop for us and we head off to complete our journey.  Luang Namtha is a stopping off point for trekking but for us it is just a rest stop on our overland trip across to Nong Khiaw.

Nong Khiaw / Muang Ngoi

We arrived in Nong Khiaw late afternoon and headed across river for our accommodation.  Nong Khiaw is a very quiet town, with mainly rustic accommodation, although the setting is quite beautiful.  We spent the night here before heading up river to Muang Ngoi.

What a wonderful stretch of river.  Our one hour trip upstream was very scenic, complete with boulders in the middle of the river and we even went through some rapids.  Muang Ngoi is an isolated town, only accessible by river.  We checked into the

Muang Ngoi

 

Louang Prabang

 

Phonsavan

 

Vang Vieng

 

Vientiane