11/5 Nong Khiaw: Weavings, Wood Ladders & Waterfalls

What a fun day we had planned beginning with a long boat trip up the Nam Ou River. 

Breakfast fit for a king and his queen!

After breakfast we walked back to Harp's travel agency meeting with Mr. Thang (on the right), our boatman for the day. Notice the 500 lb bombs Harp uses as seats. 

Mr. Thang's boat was typical of all the boats we'd seen since arriving in Nong Khiaw. The seats were luckily very comfortable as we were planning to spend a lot of time in them before the day was done.

Photos from our Nam Ou River trip:

Our 1st destination was Ban Sop Jam, a weaving village located about 75 minutes upriver from Nong Khiaw, and the furthest place we'd visit today before turning around and heading downriver for the rest of the day's sights and activities.

The boat's blue roof is what you're seeing on the bottom left of this photo and of others that follow.

How absolutely delightful sitting in the boat and taking in the gorgeous scenery as we sped by without a care in the world. 

Orange groves one after another along this patch of the river.

Mr. Thang was luckily very adept at maneuvering his boat around water obstacles like these mini trees. We noticed old plastic pop bottles being used as buoys all along the river.

The water had been mostly very smooth til we hit this batch of rapids.

There were a lot of very small farms along the waterfront.

I've seen lots of water buffalo here in Asia but never in the water before so it was neat seeing them here.

The Library Boat stopping at one of the villages. I wondered how often it comes, how well it's used, how long it's been a fixture on the river and, most importantly, what the literacy rate is among the ethnic villagers in this area.

When we were hiking up Nong Khiaw's Mt. Phadeng yesterday, we stopped and chatted with some of the other people who had been in the mini van with us the day before from Luang Prabang. Some of them passed us in the public boat, above, on their way further north in Laos before crossing over to Vietnam.

Above and below, the village of Muang Ngoi that we'd stop at on our return journey.

Fishing in the river.

We were struck how absolutely calm the river was here and also how the trees appeared to grow straight out of the mountains all along the river.

We arrived at Ban Sop Jam, the ethnic Lao and Khmu weaving village only accessible by river, about 10:15. I was excited to leave the boat for a bit and especially to walk around the village and see the woven items done by the villagers.

No immediate gratification here as we still needed to walk up the hill to reach Ban Sop Jam.

Photos of Ban Sop Jam:

The village was small, with homes flanking a single dirt road. I had read that the 50 families of this village support themselves with agriculture, raising water buffalo and by selling woven items to the handful of visitors who come here.

All the items for sale in the village were either scarves or shawls and all were displayed in full view of anyone walking by. There were generally women, but also a few men, standing in front of their weavings as we passed by with each saying 'Sabaidee' or hello as they caught our eye and silently entreating us to stop at their home and look at their creations. It was hard passing so many of the villagers knowing we would only likely be buying at most three or four scarves while in their village AND also we were virtually the only 'customers' too. 

We chatted with a French couple who left shortly after we arrived. As it turned out, they too had had to hire a boatman in Nong Khiaw for the day as no other travelers wanted to go upriver for the day, they were also told. We later met another couple an hour later in Muang Ngoi and heard the same story from them too. I guess the 'joke' was on all of us as we had all come separately which meant the day's cost was quite high. Looking at the glass half full though, it meant that at least 3 rather than just 1 boatmen were hired for the day and each couple could go at their own pace.

Steven and I initially felt badly that we too had not thought of coming to the small village with tiny gifts when we saw the Frenchwoman above blowing up balloons for the children. But, later when they had left and we saw one toddler chewing one of the deflated balloons, we thought about it differently or possibly rationalized it another way. Obviously you could never possibly have enough gifts or trinkets to give to every child in the group so how do you decide whom to give items to? Small pieces of individually wrapped candy are easy to bring because they're lightweight and inexpensive but in the past we've discounted the wisdom of handing out candy because it's not healthy and you don't know if the children's parents want them to have junk like that. Ahh - things to think about as Westerners traveling to remote villages.

The scarves were either cotton or silk.

This was the only woman I saw weaving and I only saw her when I walked around the side of her home where she displayed her creations. Thought of you, Darlene, in Ban Sop Jam obviously. I daresay you would have had a field day with figuring out which scarves to buy. Even Steven bought two for himself. The prices were certainly cheaper than in Luang Prabang's Night Market but, unlike there, there was little to no negotiating depending on the seller here.

Walking to school - didn't see where it was though.

I bought a large black and white shawl from the woman below after we agreed on a price using a stick in the dirt above as there were no calculators in use here. I think we'll use the weaving as a table runner though and not a shawl as it's quite heavy material. Almost every home in the village sold about 10 differently patterned black and white shawls - figured Ban Sop Jam must be known for them. 

We found the beautifully situated village delightful to visit for an hour or so and were thrilled with our purchases but were now ready to get back in the boat and ride downriver toward Muang Ngoi, our next stop of the day.

Photos from Muang Ngoi: 

We had come to the bigger village of Muang Ngoi so we could see Pha Noi Cave and also climb another mountain - yup, really! 

Muang Ngoi had guesthouses and several places to eat but we immediately headed for the trail up the mountain as we knew we only had so much time with Mr. Thang, our boatman, and we couldn't afford to waste time dawdling in the village.

Only 1 dirt road in Muang Ngoi.

The sign we'd been looking for.

Photos from Muang Ngoi:

Thinking this may be looking like a familiar photo to you 

by now of Steven hiking pretty far ahead of me!

The sight of a Laotian man carrying a gun on the path to the trailhead was unusual and unnerving though.

Above the 'ticket booth' and below, the start of the trail.

Almost immediately we knew this hike was in another category than those we've gone on before. I may have been smiling in the photo below but that was only the beginning and before the trail got super steep. No sticks to hold onto here unfortunately.

We had very sturdy bamboo poles to hold onto this time which turned out to be better than the ropes on yesterday's climb which 'gave' too much.

I stayed put while Steven went exploring in the cave. That's him below with his headlamp on! I had been in enough small dark spaces already this trip, I figured.

The cave was 'only' halfway up the mountain so we still had a long ways to go.

Looking at some of these photos makes me think of either how adventurous or sometimes possibly how foolhardy we are!

It had taken us almost 2 hours to reach the summit but once again, the views were great as was the sense of accomplishment of actually getting up there in one piece.

These very sharp and jagged rocks just before the summit were almost my undoing.

The descent went a lot quicker and we were back in the village by 1:30.

Muang Ngoi's one dirt road. When Steven began munching one of the baguettes he had bought at breakfast, he attracted a 'friend' who followed him and the bread crumbs Steven tossed his way all the way through Muang Ngoi and down to the boat jetty!

 It was great getting back in the boat by 1:45 knowing we could relax a bit before arriving at the village of Sob Kong, our last stop of the day. 

Monks going downriver probably to Nong Khiaw.

Arrived at Sob Kong just 20 minutes later where, for the first time all day, Mr. Thang, our boatman, would join us as we had been told by Harp we needed a guide to get to Tad Mok Waterfalls.

Note the long handled knife in Mr. Thang's scabbard. I wished I could have asked him why he anticipated possibly needing it but he spoke no English. Some things are better off not knowing, I later thought.

Photos of Sob Kong:

Another one hour trek each way seemed very doable then as we had a guide who knew the way, right?

Somehow doesn't look like huge waterfalls are nearby, does it? Turns out our boatman had gotten utterly lost but at least we had beautiful views as we traipsed along country lanes, forded many streams (I kid you not!) and walked through rice paddies! We had to be very careful to step over the piles of rice straw, below, so we didn't break the stalks - no easy feat.

The farmers were listening to loud music blasting away as they harvested the rice. For us, the unexpected detour through the paddies was great as we would never have seen such sights unless Mr. Thang hadn't gotten hopelessly lost. We didn't mind one iota going around and around in circles as long as we finally saw the waterfalls.

Hundreds of tiny yellow butterflies flew right in front of us - what a beautiful sight.

This 'path' through the fields may look wide but in reality it was quite narrow. 

So lucky when the man on the right appeared and subsequently agreed to take the three of us to the waterfalls in exchange for a finder's fee. None of us minded that at all as we had been lost for over an hour by then.

It took another good half hour to reach the bottom of Tad Mok Waterfalls but we knew we were in safe hands this time!

I never thought I'd really be putting my river shoes through such extreme use as they had gone through today. What a great advertisement for Kohl's branded shoes as they really lived up to their being called river shoes after we walked through so many creeks and streams en route to the falls.

Our 2 guides taking a break at the lovely falls. Thank goodness, the view of the falls was almost as perfect as the trek getting there had been!

I had left my daypack containing my swimsuit back on the boat but I didn't miss it at all. I loved watching Steven cooling off in the falls instead.

As we headed back, our new guide used his hatchet to cut down a huge log which he then carried for a long distance back to his home. We thought it was for firewood but there was no way of knowing for sure. We were sad to say goodbye to him as he had been a big help going well out of his way guiding us to the falls.

It was after 4 by then so a lovely time to take photos. The late afternoon light, the vibrant yellow-green colors and the idyllic pastoral scenes made us both think of Impressionist paintings. Ivy: I imagine you would have given your eye teeth for these views.

Yes, back to civilization again; this time that only meant Sob Kong but that was OK by us.

I wonder how heavy the load was the woman was lugging up the hill from the boat jetty. I need to remember how easy our lives are when I look at images of people doing such back breaking work as they eke out a living.

We didn't get back to our boat til after 4:30 for the relatively short ride back to Nong Khiaw. We were supposed to have been back in town by 4 but at least we weren't the cause of the delay!

Photos from ride back to Nong Khiaw:

On the way back, Steven and I agreed this had been one of our favorite days all trip as it combined stunning scenery, a fantastic boat ride, great hikes, perfect weather and hardly any other tourists.

Posted on 11/9 from Luang Prabang, Laos.