Trekking In Nong Kiaw

I napped a little bit along the ride up to Nong Kiaw, but when I was awake I enjoyed beautiful views and dramatic landscapes passing by. Once our bus did arrive, we got a tuk tuk (pictured, in the back, left to right: Kate, Manon, Juriaan, Frank, James, Me) to take us over to our accommodations, a locally owned riverside hotel that also offered trekking. We got our briefing from the owner by way of a chalk map of our route, then changed and set off to swim in the nearby river. After cooling off we set out to find dinner and closed out the night with a few beers before an early night, excited for the beginning of our trek early the next morning. We started off in a tuk tuk once again, and made a quick lap around the small town of Nong Kiaw picking up six others before we set off out of town to the start point. We started out over flat land and small hills, crossing rivers as we moved towards an imposing mountain pass. Eventually the land flattened out and we made our way past rice paddies and cassava fields into a small local village, where we stopped to rest and have lunch.

I enjoyed a delicious lunch of sticky rice, a pumpkin curry, and some stir fried vegetables with lots of garlic and soy sauce. Afterwards I got to walk around the village for a little while, but eventually we set off once again, this time on a much narrower path, up and over an imposing ridge. All very sweaty and occasionally struggling to keep our footing on the floor of bamboo leaves, we eventually all made it to the crest of the ridge and took a well deserved rest, enjoying the water we had carried all the way up. Then we descended the other side along a mountain river with lots of diverse greenery, fungi, and birds chirping in the trees. When we reached the bottom, luckily without any serious falls, we continued to follow the river as we were surrounded by swarms of beautiful white butterflies. We passed a local woman burning greenery to clear her fields, and continued onwards through more and more developed rice paddies and small houses towards our destination for the evening.

After a little more walking, complete of course with beautiful views and interesting bugs, we found ourselves at a beautiful riverside village. Quite sweaty and ready for a break from the heat, we assigned beds and made our way down to the river for a nice swim before dinner. We then explored the town for some time, playing with local children and enjoying exploring such a foreign environment. Eventually we all sat down for a dinner cooked by a very kind local woman, accompanied by ample quantities of local rice wine. After a fun night getting to know the whole group better and enjoying truly local Lao food and culture, we all went to bed in order to rest up for the next day’s hiking. I woke up earlier than the others and decided to start my morning off with a small hike around the village. Wary of straying from the path due to the possibility of unexploded bombs in the area, I found a small path leading up into the nearby hills and followed it in order to get a nice view of the sun rising above the river valley and mountains beyond. Eventually I tired, and curious if others had awoken, made my way back into the town. There I found the locals just beginning their day, children starting to wake up and move around while parents prepared for their jobs and headed out into the fields. Unfortunately none of the other trekkers were awake yet so I decided to round out my morning with a swim across the nearby river. With a fairly strong current, I made it across quickly where I met a local man carrying palm fronds up and away from the bank, but tired on my way back and found myself swimming along the bank for some time, trying to make it back to the small beach where I had left my things. After I finally made it back to land and the path to the village, I was more than ready for a rest, so sat on the benches where we had eaten the night before, and gratefully accepted the coffee offered to me by our kind host, waiting for the others to show their faces before she started the process for breakfast. Within half an hour, my companions started to get up and join me, and before long the entire group was back together, drinking tea and coffee as breakfast came just in time to ease my weariness and prepare us for another day.

The next day’s trek started with a boat ride departing from the very beach where I had so recently been swimming, in a long narrow boat in which we could barely speak over the sound of the engine. After some time sitting and trying not to rock the boat too much, we pulled up onto a muddy bank and once again began trekking our way through the heat and humidity of the Lao day. Once again the white butterflies sat in large groups upon patches of water and other decay, swarming into beautiful clouds when anyone approached. We had a mostly vertical hike, with a small break to make our way into a cave filled with headless Buddha statues (removed from temples after theft or damage) and then continuing to the summit where we had a beautiful view over the entire surrounding landscape. We then made our way back to the river, enjoying the butterflies and views the whole way down. We then boarded the boat once again, had a delicious lunch of rice noodles, and after our short ride was completed, we started another hike up towards a beautiful waterfall. Of course sweaty, once we arrived, we all eagerly hopped into the pool at the base of the waterfall. After our refreshing swim, we enjoyed the waterfall and the beautiful scenery for a little longer before making our way back to the river for our boat ride back to Nong Kiaw. Practically as soon as we arrived, we had a tuk tuk ready to take us to the south. We would be separating from Kate and James along the journey, but the rest of us were excited to head to the South of Laos, after the long night of bus rides that lay ahead.