Laos Public Bus To Nong Khiaw

At about 6 in the morning I awoke to say my goodbyes to Brig, Amy and Lucy as they were catching the early bus south to Vang Vieng for a spot of tubing (sitting on a rubber ring down a river). They had been great fun to travel with and I was sad to see them go but I also felt I needed to make a few more decisions myself instead of following the group.

I went back to sleep for a while then got back up at 8:30 and rushed to the bank where I took out over 2 million kip. I was a millionaire for the first time in my life and the notes just wouldn't fit in my wallet no matter how hard I tired to fold it! I soon came down to earth when I remembered that it was really only in fact about 125 UK pounds. After sorting out my money and returning yesterdays hired bikes we caught the public bus to Nong Khiaw a small village on the river surrounded by huge mountains covered in jungle. The bus was quite small and basic and I was dreading the 5 hour journey but to my surprise it was fine and I managed to sleep for most of the journey.

Once we arrived at Nong Khiaw I took a stroll around the village. It was a hot sunny day and for a while it felt like I was back in China with most of the locals staring at me as if I had just landed on the planet. The children in the village were entertained by saying "hello" in Laos and getting the same (or similar) response and a wave from myself.

Out of the 3 or 4 restaurants in town we chose to go for a Indian (yes, I've no idea what it was doing in the middle of no where either) where we chatted to an English couple . They shared lots of stories about huge spiders and bugs which they had found in their rooms which left me reaching for the torch to make sure the mozzie net was well and truly tucked into my bed! Although I knew in the back of my head I'd be rudely awoken at "stupid o'clock" in the morning by one of the many cockerels strutting around the village.