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Other entries in Muang Ngoi

Nong Khiaow - & 17 hours of bussing

The bus journey from Luang Nam Tha to Nong Khiaow was never gonna be as bumpy as the journey to L_N_T, but still it took several hours, many were spent sqashed up with my legs gradually losing feeling since there were 5 of us on the back row... and then we got off at Pak Mong, where we need to catch a tuk-tuk the rest of the way. This is annoyingly the same price (for an hours journey) as it was for the 8 hours from L_N_T... and that was after haggling! He wanted 110,000kip($11), but I told him we were willing to pay 70,000kip ($7)

Nong Khiaow is actually 2 settlements, either side of the Mekong river and surrounded by mountains - all making for really beautiful scenery all around. We witnessed a spectactular thunder & lightning storm on one of the nighs we were sat eating in the river side restaurant - several of the lightning strikes lit up the mountains as good as daylight. We spent a couple of days here and then decided to go ahead and wait for the overnight bus to Sam Neua (in the North East) even though we had heard news about a landslide a couple of nights before hand due to the heavy rain in the area. Thankfully we only had to wait til 11:20pm and then we boarded our bus - where 2 people are moved out of their seats so we can squeeze into one and try and sleep... Which kind of worked in small sections of time...in between the driver playing his favourite Lao pop music fairly loud along the way at 3am etc... We stopped once about 1am for a puncture to be fixed . replaced & then for toilet visits and breakfast at about 10am, continuing the rest of the journey with the odd stops for toilet etc, arriving at Sam Neua about 4pm (the whole bus cheered as we caught our first glimpse of the town from the mountain road as we made our way in..) 17 hours on the bumpy bus ride and now I am sooo glad for my feet to be on solid ground again - and even happier to lay down on a soft(ish) bed!!

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