Nong Khiaw

Having just about recovered from the bike ride, although sitting down still required a gently lowering movement as if pregnant, it was time to move on from Luang Prabang and head north. We caught a local bus back to Pak Mong, the town that I not so long ago collapsed in having conquered that bloody hill! From here we went deeper into the countryside and the small village of Nong Khiaw, a sleepy place surrounded by mountains and full of cool little wooden huts perched on stilts on the river bank – ours had a little balcony complete with hammock and family of red ants! It made for a nice place to sit and watch the sun disappear behind the mountains albeit a little obscured by the amount of ash that was now falling from the sky! We went for a walk earlier in the day and it felt like we were back in Argentina a few years ago when the volcano erupted nearby and it appeared to be snowing but it was ash! We coughed and spluttered our way for 2 hours out along a lovely country road before turning round as the ash was starting to get a little annoying. After a cold shower, something we are getting all too use to, it was time to hit the town for a spot of dinner – fried river moss! Not the first thing that sprung to mind when wanting a tasty dinner but hey its green and doesn’t have a face so its safe to eat! It was actually surprising tasty, a bit like prawn cocktail crisps! That night the heavens opened and it poured with rain for hours, as it battered the roof of our little hut we had visions of landslides and us disappearing in the middle of the night down the bank and into the river. Obviously this didn’t happen and us and the ants survived the night, the rain though had cleared the air and you could now not only breathe but also see the mountains properly. From Nong Khiaw it was back to Pak Mong and retracing our steps, well pedals, even more – this time up the downs and down the ups that we had previously ridden to Udomxia.