Out in the Stix

After LP we headed north to Nong Khiaw, a small town on the river OU. From there we got a one hour tiny tiny boat that was barely above the water line it was so full of fatty whiteys and our backpacks, and spent two nights out in Meang Noi and an even smaller village called Ban Na something. I have the name written down at the hotel room but not on me so i'm sure i got both of those wrong.

Mean Noi is a one street town that is only accessible by boat so there are no vehicles, only hundreds of animals and their offspring (dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, ducks...all living in sweet harmony hehe) and a few people. It was a really cool place to stay. We spent a night in bungalows by the river and had the worst meal of the trip - understandably, they were run off their feet because four of their five tables were occupied but we waited for an hour and a half before politely inquiring as to the whereabouts of our food and then two minutes later two curries with ants, not-quite-dissolved curry powder and cold rice came out. The next morning we had one of our best breakfasts though - sticky rice with banana and coconut milk - and then headed out for a trek to the outlying villages. These places are seriously tiny and seriously basic. We had lunch at the one with the kids getting nits out of each others' hair...it was actually really sweet but we moved on and ended up staying at one slightly closer to town. This place has three lightbulbs in the entire place and has buffalo roaming pretty close to everything, so we had some food, i had a traditional Laos massage from the woman who ran the bungalows (it was amazing. The kind of skills that would have been passed down through the generations) and we all went to bed at about 9pm. We were awoken by mon after i'd - as is my habit - slept through the alarm, and at 6:30am there we were, rushing through the mist and the buffalo following locals back to town to get our morning boat.