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Nong Kiao, Nong Kiaw, Nong Khiau, Nong Khiaw...many names, but one place indeed
A Story...from Tiger Trail Fair Trek visitors
to our branch in the North on
the Nam Ou river
The founder of the famous Lonely Planet Travel Guide Books on tour with Tiger Trail Outdoor Adventures in Nong Khiaw
Read more online on "Roads Less Traveled"
Nong Khiaw, North Laos Travel Report
2008-12-10, Nong Khiaw,
We
didn't really know much about Nong Khiaow except that it was a good place for trekking
from. It is not a very touristy place. That was another attraction.
Our guidebook didn't throw much light on it either. This is partly because we had been sold a copied version of the Lonely Planet in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It's cover tells you it's the 2007, latest edition. It has all the same pictures (including the cover picture) as the new edition but we started to notice that the page references given under the pictures didn't match the rest of the book. Some cheeky bugger had copied the cover of the new book and used it to bind the old book to trick some unsuspecting and dozy travelers, AKA Ross and Karen. So our book is pre-2005 and is pretty useless for anything that has changed fairly recently and for prices other than demonstrating how much inflation there has been!
So
we were delighted to arrive to some spectacular mountain scenery, covered
in low cloud, Nong Khiaw. We took a bungalow with the balcony overlooking the river
and were pretty pleased with our choice of destination. However, when we arrived
back after dinner the first night we found a dropping on the bed and our bananas
half eaten. When we put the lights out we heard rustling and when Ross put on the
torch he saw a rat's tail disappearing into the roof cavity!
The next day we took a trek with Tiger Trail to the top of one of the mountains (mountain view tour), through jungle, to get a fantastic view over Nong Khiaw with a local guide. It was a brand new tour and it was only his 3rd time to take a group up (the office had only been open in Nong khiaw a couple of months - the area isn't very touristy, yet). He told us of his life and how poor his family were. He was leading treks up mountains and waterfalls and all he had to wear on his feet were a pair of tatty old Converse All Stars trainers with the ankle supports cut off because they had torn. He was very glad to have a job as a tour guide because now he could help his family and hopefully make enough money to buy some proper walking shoes!
We ate some traditional Laos food, using our hands and balls of sticky rice, as
is customary in Laos, that he had prepared earlier at the top of the mountain. His
spicy aubergine was so good we took down the recipe! Afterwards we gave him a decent
tip to go towards getting some decent shoes. (and he probably all spent it on
beers)
Thank you Rossnkaren for your personal story
source: http://www.traveljournals.net/stories/27596.html
trekking in Laos, trekking on Nam Ou, trekking and adcenture tours in Nong Khiaw, all rights reserved by Tiger Trail Outdoor Adventures, Laos adventures.com