Relaxing in Nong Khiaw (Day 83 of the World Tour)

11/26/2019

Today we "slept in" until 8:00 am :O Since our only goal for the day was to buy the boat ticket for tomorrow's journey, we could take it easy. Not that we're always stressed, but still^^

Feeling energized with the chocolate spread, which unfortunately is running out with no hope of resupply (so sad :( ) on baguette, we walked the 2km into town. On the way, I thought about how spoiled we actually are. Sure, the distance isn't really a long way, but we still think twice about what we needed to buy so that we don't have to go out again :p :D

Similar to Luang Namtha, the village is dominated by tour operators. Jungle trekking, kayaking, waterfalls - everything the heart desires ;-) We can also imagine that these tours are really cool here because it's just so beautiful <3

Since the tour operators also sell tickets for buses and boats, we had originally planned to just buy our ticket there. However, while I was taking some photos of the bridge that connects the two parts of the village, Jonas found a "Ticket Office" marked on Maps.Me. This office is located right at the pier, so it made sense to try there ;-)

Arriving at the Boat Office, we bought a boat ticket to Muang Khua for €15 per person. The boat only runs once a day and we read on the internet that it can also happen that the boat doesn't run because there aren't enough passengers :D When we asked the seller about it, he didn't understand the question, so we'll just go there tomorrow and hope that everything works out^^

Back at the hostel, we spent the day by the pool :) We pondered a bit about how Laos is also Laos and how we imagined Laos before our visit here. I originally thought that the countries in Southeast Asia are very similar and that you wouldn't notice any major differences, but there are definitely differences between Thailand and Laos, for example.

We didn't see the rural, simple, and above all original life in Thailand. Maybe we would have had to go to the east of the country where even fewer tourists go, but in comparison, Laos is already seen as more "wild" and we are both glad that we had Laos on our bucket list :)

Unfortunately, the sun disappears behind the hill around 2:00 pm, so it's already getting chilly by the pool :D To not worsen my cold, I had to take a shower and put on warm clothes in the middle of the afternoon^^

We just searched for accommodation in Muang Khua but for the first time, we couldn't find anything on our internet portals :O There are simply no accommodations listed on booking.com and agoda.com!

However, we briefly looked at other blogs and Google and of course there are guest houses there. However, they don't have any websites, so for the first time tomorrow, we have to go to the accommodations in the city and ask for a room on the spot - hoping that one is available^^

Most likely, it won't be a problem, but since it's the first time we don't know where we'll sleep tomorrow, it's also a bit "exciting" :)

Now we're going to let the afternoon end quietly, have an early dinner and yeah. So, it was a rather uneventful day, but it also felt very good.

So tomorrow we will continue to Muang Khua and from there to the next country, which of course we are also looking forward to <3