11/4 Nong Khiaw: Rope Hiking up Mt. Phadeng!

Wonderful getting up and looking outside our balcony at the mist and cloud-covered limestone mountains. We sure hoped though the low lying clouds would soon burn away leaving just blue sunny skies in their wake. 

'Our' table and chairs on the balcony were on the left.

Guess Harp, the travel agency owner, was at the Hive Bar last night!

We walked back to his agency on the off chance that he or, more likely, his assistant had been able to arrange a tour for us but no luck. So we decided to climb Mt. Phadeng, one of the limestone karst formations in the above photos. The clouds had mostly disappeared and the weather looked great for a nice long hike especially since much of it would be through the mountain's forest and jungle.

Sign at 'ticket booth.' We took heed not to get off the path when climbing the mountain!

The sign said all the right things but the money didn't seem to make it to trail maintenance, we later felt, as there was a lot of trash the entire length of the trail.

There was only 1 walking stick left when we got there about 9:30 so Steven took it as my hands were full with the camera in 1 hand and pen and paper in the other as always. We had never felt the need for walking sticks before so we both wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

Photos climbing Mt. Phadeng:

There were few flowers along the path.

Your first glimpse of the newly shorn and red headed me. I can hardly recognize myself in the mirror as I never think of myself as having red hair. Thank goodness the sun, showers and time will leach out much of the color in a week or so.

Just loved the views of the trees just covering all the surrounding mountains, cliffs or whatever they were exactly. It was a great opportunity to take a much needed break as we kept ascending Mt. Phadeng too.

Spider web still glistening in the morning dew.

Nong Khiaw in the distance.

Only the first official Rest Area which meant we still had a long ways to go. I was so hot I pored precious water over my head but I know Steven was happy as it meant less of a load for him to carry in his backpack.

If you like hiking at all, you've got to agree the views of the Nam Ou River, the town of Nong Khiaw and the valley from here are spectacular.

NOW we could see why sticks had been handed out as the trail got very steep and holding onto the ropes was strongly advised!

Above: Glad we didn't get too close to the prickly tree.

Below: I nicknamed these trees camouflage trees.

I saw holly in a lot of places up and down the trail but no red berries however.

As we climbed higher, the vegetation became more of a jungle.

So, I'm curious: Do you wish you had been there climbing Mt. Phadeng with us or do these pictures have the opposite effect and you're glad you were nowhere near there?

Feeling more and more like Jane, as in Tarzan's companion! Not too far back, we had passed a young Laotian guide and his 2 female Korean tourists. He had noticed I didn't have a stick so he kindly gave me his and mentioned, without missing a beat, 'to take it down the mountain and to put it in the bomb at the bottom.' More on that later, I promise.

At long last, getting near the summit. Look how the vegetation changed again to this large stand of bamboo trees. Unfortunately, we could clearly hear Nong Khiaw's PA system from far below blaring out music, etc on this side of the mountain. We had heard the town's PA system last night and had seen the loudspeakers as we walked through Nong Khiaw yesterday.

Views from the summit:

Too tired to do anything but watch some beautiful butterlies land near us.

Back down at the bottom at long last where there was the walking stick holder above. Certainly another interpretation of reuse and recycle, I thought, as was the one below.

We walked back across the bridge to see once again if there any takers for a jaunt upriver tomorrow. There weren't so we firmed up plans for our own day long boat trip in the morning.

Steven's been on a spaghetti kick lately as he just couldn't face any more chicken fried rice or, any rice dish for that matter, after all the rice we've eaten the last 6 weeks or so. Surprisingly it's easy to find lots of spaghetti bolognese variations in both Vietnam and Laos - who would have thunk, huh?

Posted on 11/8 from Luang Prabang, Laos.