LUANG PRABANG
19th: We caught the flight to Luang Prabang and booked into a lovely guesthouse by the river, accommodation is more expensive here 8-10$. While we walking around town we met Dugg a Canadian we talked for a while and agreed to meet up for dinner later. The town here is great and the atmosphere is brilliant, as the light fades there is a street market set up and the whole road for 1/2 a mile is lit up with Thai Lanterns with ladies selling all kinds of goods from hand made bed covers to local Lao-Lao with snakes inside (Rice whiskey)
For dinner that night we meet up with Dugg and had a feed of Home made Hamburgers and Chips!

This town really left an impression on us we will spend a few nights here on way back from Nong Kiaw.

NONG KIAW
20th:We had breakfast in "Ja mo" egg, bacon and cheese in a bagel and a cup of real coffee. Afterwards we went down to the pier and caught a boat to Nong kiaw, this was an 8hr journey up river in a narrow boat with 12 other people.

You sit and the floor and is a bit cramped but the view and scenery more then makes up for it. The trip takes you up rapids they can be a bit hairy at times. Every now and then we would stop and you could jump in for a swim, which was glorious. Everything was going well until we hit the bottom and we had to get out of the boat and push it past a shallow rapid.

The Shaft was knocking after this so we had to stop while the driver took the propeller off because it had got a few knocks; he hammered it and filed the dents and we got under way again and a few hours later we lost the propeller completely when we hit a rock. We got the boat into the shore and the driver went about removing the old propeller and putting on a new one, this kind of thing seems to happen all the time as he had 3 spares on board. The tiller support also took a bad knock and was hanging off but some nails,a hammer and some wood temporally fixed this. Once we were under way we had no more problems although the steering was a bit iffy, all in all it was a very memorable journey and would reccommened it to anybody travelling to Nong Kiaw!

We booked into Manypoon guesthouse and so did a Dublin couple "Ann & Jay " that night we had dinner together and a few beers! The food here was not the best.

21st: We walk to some caves about 3km from town; the locals used these as bomb shelters during the Vietnam War. On the way back into town we met a few of the gang from the boat and agreed to meet up later for drinks. That evening Ann, Jay, Matt, Jeremy, Fredrick, Dave and ourselves had way to much beer but a good night was had by all.

MUNG NGOI
22nd: We got a boat up to Mung Ngoi most of the gang we had met on the last boat trip were going up as well. It took 1hr to get to this village there are a load off guesthouses here and is a great place to chill out. We booked into Banana Cafe guesthouse that cost 1$ a night this consisted of a bamboo hut on the river with a balcony for hammocks.There is no electricity or phones here but most of the locals have there own generators that they turn on for lights between 6pm and 9.30pm! We took it easy for the rest of the day and had dinner down by the river that night.

23rd: Had a wonder around the village, hired a Kayak and we took it up river for 3hrs, it was beautiful up here, the river is any thing from 100-200ft wide and from 1-20ft deep. You are surrounded by lush jungle and lime stone cliffs. The local villagers are fishing using nets and rods and some are using home made spear guns! As you go past the villages there are dozens of naked kids splashing around the water and waving to you. We had to walk the kayak past the rapids, between the rapids the water was very calm and you could paddle against it easily enough. It took us 2hrs to get back and along the way we just went for a swim to cool down! That night we had dinner in our guesthouse and met up the gang for a few drinks. We decided to go on an over night trek the next day so we did not stay out late.

24th April: We met the group at 7.00am Matt,Jeremy(NZ),Kate(UK),Dave(US)Leena(SZ),Jay,Ann and ourselves made up the group with "Phan" as our Guide. We had to Carry all the water we would need as it was not available on the trek, this was alot of extra weight (6L per person). The first 3 hrs we treked through the fields to a small village where we had a break and some of the gang bought the local Lao-Lao for a night cap in the village we would stay in that night!

From here the going started to get tough It was all up hill from here and the sun was beating down. Matt,Jeremy and Leena were fairly fit and the rest of us found it hard going but making headway at a slightly slower pace! We stopped for lunch at another village and the guide cooked lunch this consisted of noodles,rice and local veg. Once rested we were of again it was hard going, the guide was not the best as he kept shooting on ahead and he was no good for any info in regards to the villages we visited or the local area also the pace was quite fast so you had no time to enjoy the scenery.

We reached the village were we were to stay the night, once the guide had spoken to the village leader we were welcomed into the village and shown to the family's that would we would be staying with. None of the villagers spoke any english and again the guide was of no help he left us to settle in ourselves. Most of the villagers were very friendly and the kids loved getting there photos taken, we were split into two groups 4 in one house and 5 in the other we would all share a raised platform to sleep on. The houses were quite smokey as the cooking was done indoors with no chimney, there are cats, dogs and chickens in and out all the time. Jay,Ann,Clare and myself were together and our family were really friendly we had brought along some coffee,salt,pens and paper for them which there seemed to really appreciate. Again the guide cooked us dinner and after we sat outside talking and passing around the Lao-Lao. The family we were staying with called us to bed at 9.00pm and locked, we found it hard to sleep in the heat and we had a collection of guests dropping on the bed (cockroaches and mice). The family started getting up at 3.30am and started cooking and cleaning, we were ousted from our bed at 5.00am by the family head. We were knacked but the experience was great and over all we enjoyed our stay here. Before we set of the family cooked us Breaky consisting of rice, local greens, fish stomach bile and fish in a spice we ate some but not all!, this was very nice of them as it is not part of the arrangment for them to do this.

It rained for an hour before we set of this made the going tough as the path was very slippery there were a few sore bums by the time we reached the first village were the guide cooked the breaky, noodles and rice are fine but everyone was gagging for something a little taster!
We set of on the last leg of the journey the path was not as well worn here and fairly over grown at times the path led down to a valley between two hills which we followed.

The going started to get more difficult the further we went and we started to wonder if we were on the right track, we asked the guide and he said all was OK but after awhile he admitted he was lost!!!!. There was no way we could go back so all we could do was go ahead. The path seemed to be getting worse as we went and we had to lower our selves down a few shear drops, at this stage we were starting to get uneasy as we had visions of staying the night here! But luck was with us, a few local hunters came across us and after a discussion with the guide they said the only way out was up the valley sides as going forward only got worse and as i said going back was'nt an option. Well the walls were up an incline of about 70 degrees were the ground was made up of loose soil and stones with a few roots and shrubs to grab every now and again. The going was slow and difficult but Matt and Jeremy were well able for it and kept everyone moving. It must have taken us an hour to climb up the valley side, once we had all caught our breath the hunters brought us to a path that the guide knew and would lead to the river. We had a 3hr trek left, the first hour was down hill but then the going got tough again, everyone was knackered so the going was slow. We had to wade along a stream for some of the way, this was really refreshing and a break from the uphill walking. There were plenty of mozzies and wasps around and for the unfortunate there were LEECHES about, some of the group found them on there feet you wound''nt know you had any unless you looked for it. They start of tiny something like thread thick but once they attach themselves they just keep on sucking, when you remove them you have to heat them with alighter and let them come away by themselves if you pull them off the head can break off and you might get an infection. Clare found one on her foot but i was at hand to expertly remove it (Indiana Jones showed me that one). When we got to the river everyone was straight in for a cool down i thought we would never get there! We loaded the boats and set off back down river to our village (when i say boat i mean one reasonable size long tail with a small one lashed to the side) we loaded our gear in and set off but we had not gone 30ft when we started to take water over the side. After we had shuffled the bags and ourselfs around we set off again but at a much slower speed, we made the rest of the way with no further mishaps! We all agreed to meet up later after a wash and huge helping of some "TASTY FOOD".

When we got together later we were all knackered but we all agreed that we had a good time, the highlights for us were the being lucky to have been with such a friendly group, the village family we stayed with and the scenery (when you got a chance to look at it).

26th April: We had a lie-in today to recuperate after the abuse we had put our bodies through! Most of the gang had traveled on today only Jay&Ann and ourselves remained. They called over to us during the afternoon and we had a few drinks and lunch together. Our guesthouse owners wanted us to have some local Lao-Lao but we said we would leave it till tonight. Later that night we were well on the way after the Lao Lao, a bottle of tiger whiskey and all the beers, Jay and myself were the worse for wear, the sooner we get away from all these lunatics who are dragging us down this way-ward path the better!!!! (Only joking we will really miss you all)

27th: We checked out of guest house and said our good-byes to Jay & Ann. We got the 9.00am boat back to Nong Kiaw and then a Pick-up to Luang Prabang. We arrived at 2.00pm and booked back into the same guest house as the last time. We chilled out for the rest of the day. That night we had dinner and on the way we bumped into Kate, later we went to the ""cinema" this consisted of a room with a 32" TV with surround sound you had a video library to pick your movie from we watched "Man on Fire".

28th: We went to the Lao airlines office and bought our plane tickets to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, these cost around 115 euros each. We were departing front Vientiane so we got 2 bus tickets to here leaving first thing tomorrow morning. We went emailing and caught up on the blog for a few hours as we had not been near the internet for a week, we also found a book shop were we could exchange our books. Later we met up with Kate for a drink, she was traveling to Vientiane also tomorrow.

29th: Traveled to Vientiane as Kate had been here before we tagged along with her to a guesthouse she had stayed in. After we had checked in we had a stroll around, got out some money and had lunch. We met Kate and another Irish girl Anna for dinner that night, we ate in the "Sa Baa Dii" restaurant the food was basic but the craic was good. We said our goodbyes to Kate and agreed to keep in touch.