The boat from Luang Prabang to Nong Kiaw that was due to leave at 8am, didn't leave until 9.30am. It's little wonder visitors often joke that Laos P.D.R, which stands for 'People's Democratic Republic', would be more appropriately named 'Please Don't Rush'! But the trip was worth waiting for and for once it was all about the journey and not the destination.
The banks of the river were lined with a spectrum of green; bright lime green of the undergrowth, the earthy green of the thick trees and the fresh, mint green of the
plants inbetween like coconut palms, banana trees and elegant collections of sinewy feathered bamboo fanning out like a peacock's tail. Hills gave way to mountains with dappled limestone sides reflecting beige and black stripes in the mirrored surface of the Mekong. As the mist lifted from the hills, the vegetation began to take on a rainforest apprearance and we were reminded of our Amazon boat adventure almost a year before. As the sun came out, butterflies circled lazily over the little flowers dotting the bank with their pinpricks of blue beneath the water buffalow bathing in the shallows. The only sign of human inhabitance was the odd bamboo hut, the vegetables in tidy lines sown in the flood plains and the rafts carrying bamboo down the river to Luang Prabang. As morning stretched to afternoon, we saw more people; men fishing in their boats, women washing in the river and children splashing wearing nothing but their smiles.
The journey made us feel alive. Alive because you knew with certainty that beautiful, untouched, mind-blowingly raw scenery still exist and exhilirated because we were seeing it. Everyone should take this trip, a journey that makes you feel like you are both an extension of the landscape and an observer of Mother Nature at her most creative.
Nine hours later, we arrived on the muddy shores of Nong Kiaw - a provincial place consisting of bamboo and mud huts. Children waved and we called 'sabidee' (hello!)
back, holding our hands out to be led to their village. The guest houses were basic with only four hours of electriciy in the evening but it was only $3, the staff were lovely, the food good and Beth made best friend's with a little black kitten she promptly named Oompa 2 (after one her cats she had to give away). Oompa 2 promptly feel asleep on her lap and when her Luang Prabang seaweed special arrived she even rolled the sticky rice into balls and hand fed him - clearly his first meal in a while bless him. Steve wouldn't allow her to smuggle him into her backpack - even against the strength of her 'black cats are good luck' argument - and we left Nong Kiaw leaving a little kitten with a taste for sticky rice and noone to love him (Steve is playing a small violin at this point).
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