A lazy morning. All we had to do was catch the slow boat 5 mins walk away...
There seemed to be 20 spaces on the boat and we put our names down on a list when we purchased our tickets. However, there were many more people waiting at the boat landing! Many locals turned up too with jerry cans of oil, bags of clothes and food. We spotted a boat made from the carcas of a bomb dropped on Laos by the American's in the 70's.
Luckily there were many boats travelling the Nam Oh River to Muang Ngoi. Time of departure was 11am but it took a while to load the boats and we were in the last boat which left at 11.45. Even then we turned back after 10 minutes as the driver had forgotten something ..... to put more oil in the engine!
The scenery was jaw dropping with jungle and limestone karsts on both sides. We saw herds of water buffalo taking a bath in the river and locals paddling along in their boats.
We arrived in Muang Ngoi and found a nice guesthouse by the river, then went in search of food. A local lady called us over and asked if we would like eggs, so we said yes. She made us a fantastic omlette stuffed with greens and served with a crispy chapati and a sweet chilli and peanut dip. Unusual but very tasty. We wandered on through the pretty little village and saw lots of people around a stall. They were all eating a type of rice flour pancake stuffed with something, so we thought we would try that too, it was so nice we went back for seconds!
We walked through the back of the village and saw lots of houses with weaving looms outside and beautiful coloured scarves with intricate patterns for sale. We continued on past the last house of the village towards a series of caves. However, as it was getting late we decided not to enter but will visit other caves tomorrow.
Darkness arrived, so we scuttled off to a little restaurant for pumpkin curry! A good food day ... ;-)
There seemed to be 20 spaces on the boat and we put our names down on a list when we purchased our tickets. However, there were many more people waiting at the boat landing! Many locals turned up too with jerry cans of oil, bags of clothes and food. We spotted a boat made from the carcas of a bomb dropped on Laos by the American's in the 70's.
Luckily there were many boats travelling the Nam Oh River to Muang Ngoi. Time of departure was 11am but it took a while to load the boats and we were in the last boat which left at 11.45. Even then we turned back after 10 minutes as the driver had forgotten something ..... to put more oil in the engine!
The scenery was jaw dropping with jungle and limestone karsts on both sides. We saw herds of water buffalo taking a bath in the river and locals paddling along in their boats.
We arrived in Muang Ngoi and found a nice guesthouse by the river, then went in search of food. A local lady called us over and asked if we would like eggs, so we said yes. She made us a fantastic omlette stuffed with greens and served with a crispy chapati and a sweet chilli and peanut dip. Unusual but very tasty. We wandered on through the pretty little village and saw lots of people around a stall. They were all eating a type of rice flour pancake stuffed with something, so we thought we would try that too, it was so nice we went back for seconds!
We walked through the back of the village and saw lots of houses with weaving looms outside and beautiful coloured scarves with intricate patterns for sale. We continued on past the last house of the village towards a series of caves. However, as it was getting late we decided not to enter but will visit other caves tomorrow.
Darkness arrived, so we scuttled off to a little restaurant for pumpkin curry! A good food day ... ;-)
