Nong Khiaw

From Luang Prabang we continued north to Nong Khiaw by minivan.
Upon arriving at our guesthouse, we quickly realized that we had arrived in a little paradise. The bungalows are located on a raft on the Ou River, and the rooms have a great view of the mountains. We spent the rest of the day swimming and reading.

The next morning, we were picked up for a 3-day trek. After driving for almost an hour on good roads, then increasingly rough roads, we reached the starting point of our hike. We passed dry rice fields and tobacco fields to the edge of the forest. From there, we hiked up a waterfall through the jungle. Once we reached the top, we passed herds of cows to a small hut where we had lunch, which was fried rice wrapped in a banana leaf. The last part of the day involved a steep climb up the mountain.

Afterwards, we reached the village where we stayed with a Hmong family. The family was very large, with about 30 people living together in one house.
We had a almost equally large cottage for ourselves (a few huge spiders shared the space with us). For dinner, we had a traditional Hmong meal consisting of rice, vegetables, beef, and chili paste.

In the morning, after a hearty breakfast that was similar to the dinner with an additional omelette, we set off again. The majority of the route led through the jungle, up and down. Our guide told us a lot about the plants and their use in cooking and medicine. After 5 hours, we arrived at the house of our second host family. This village was a bit smaller than the other one, but it had a lot more space. Everything was very spacious.

After a tour of the village, we had dinner with the family. This time, we had chicken and different vegetables, and of course, rice.

On the 3rd day, we had a leisurely walk through fields to the Ou River. After a stroll through the village, we had lunch with a family. We also had homemade Lao-Lao liquor with the meal.
We were then taken back to our guesthouse by boat from this village down the river. We went straight back to swimming in the river.