Nong Kiaw - Our favorite place in Laos!
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| Nong Kiaw sits on the banks of the Nam Ou River |
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| A little girl cools down in the Nam Ou |
| Nung kiaow- The period of hard traveling in Northern Laos made for a period of great relief once we got to the breezy, beautiful town of Nung Kiaow. It sits on the banks of the Nam Ou river, surrounded by mountains and caves. |
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Patok Cave
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| The Patok Cave served as a hidden headquarters for the Pathet Laos resistance near the end of French colonial rule. |
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| Chris looking out of Patok Cave |
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| The insane staircase leading into the cave. |
We bumped into a Canadian couple we shared a taxi with in Hanoi, and spent a few days hiking, swimming, and motorcycling around the area together.
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| Chris in the sticky-rice field. |
The four of us hired a guide to take us hiking to a waterfall and kayaking down the river. We followed a lovely trail leading us through sticky-rice paddies and then jungle up to the base of a waterfall with a clear blue swimming hole and a little picnic area, where we swam and splashed around and had a whale of a time.
After an hour or so we hiked back down to the river where we had kayaks waiting for us for the trip home. These were the type of kayaks you might put your children in to paddle around a pond.
With two full grown adults sitting in one, the water line was about two inches below the top of the kayak and, needless to say, it was a wet journey. We spent a good portion of the 1.5 hour trip with the boat totally swamped but luckily we managed not to capsize!
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| The rare and elusive Little Iida tribe ethnic minority with traditional headdress |
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| View from the Nong Kiaw bridge at sunset |
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