Laos: Nong Khiaw

Nong Khiaw is an absolutely spectacular and beautiful place, just simply one of those places which really does take your breath away. It wows everyone: every other traveller we meet uses phrases like “most beautiful place I’ve ever seen”. It is for us too, it is beyond stunning. More description in a minute.

First, it seems the storm on our last day back in Luang Prabang was actually the outer reaches of a typhoon, and as we leave, our minivan has to pull around fallen trees and other debris, and we hear stories of one of the Mekong riverboats being turned over into its murky depths. Hopefully with no one on board. Our time in Luang Prabang ended with a bang (see what we did there?).

And so to this beautiful place, Nong Khiaw. The village sits on two sides of the Nam Ou River, a road bridge connecting the two halves, with a location which is more than wonderful. Either side of the river, and towering over the village on all sides, are gigantic limestone mountains, rising majestically and incredibly steeply. It’s almost difficult to believe it’s real, it really is as beautiful, scenic and dramatic as that. Wherever you are, you just look around and pinch yourself that you are lucky enough to see this. It must be one of the most beautiful places on Earth; it’s certainly one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.

Nong Khiaw is now on the backpacker trail, on the activities radar, a few cafes, bars, guest houses and activity agents have sprung up, but essentially it’s still a mountain village, nestled quietly amongst this incredible scenery. And as if to cap it all, we find a little cafe called “Families” which only goes and serves up the BEST Khao Soi we’ve had on the whole trip so far.

It’s well publicised that this part of Laos is still riddled with unexploded bombs and the like, so if you’re going trekking round here, you either go with a guide or, if you go alone, you stick to the marked trails. We do both.

With Nong Khiaw presenting such good opportunities for activities, we throw ourselves in with both feet, and spend three days wearing ourselves out and pushing back some pain barriers. First, we take a trip on the Nam Ou, our traditional wooden narrow boat glides effortlessly along the river, the chugging of the engine echoes around the valley. The jungle clad mountains tower above us, buffalo wallow in the cool waters edge. Fishermen tend their nets and children play on the narrow sandy beaches, making mud slides on the river bank, giggling as they splash into the water. We make our first stop, Hou Ahoy, a small riverside village inhabited by Khmu tribespeople. A dirt track leads through the trees to this tiny village, stilted houses made of bamboo, corrugated iron roofs. Chickens scratch the earth, chicks everywhere, it’s very rustic here, no lines of tourist shops just a lady sat outside her house selling some bamboo cups which her husband has made; next a man who has made scarves by hand on his homemade loom. 

Next stop we take a trek up to Phanoy Cave, it’s where locals from the village of Muang Ghoy took cover when the Americans were dropping bombs on this region. The climb is steep, the opening high up in the mountain gives way to a cavernous tunnel, we don’t know how they managed a quick get away to this hidden cave! A further climb up this mountain gives way to spectacular views of the Nam Ou and the village far below.  We trek back down passing through a temple and into the village where there are a handful of guest houses and restaurants, would be a cool village to stay in. 

Back in the boat we head towards our next trek to a waterfall. We enjoy a picnic lunch then the trek leads us out through farmland, we walk amongst ancient rice terraces, cross fast running streams and clamber up through the jungle to a clearing, the waterfall cascades down the rocks to the jade coloured pool below, we cool our feet in this mountain water. The mix of trekking: steep mountains, jungle trails, rice terraces, villages, is ever changing and ever pleasing.

Already tired, we’ve taken on the challenge of returning to Nong Khiaw by kayak, and by the time we’ve paddled our way upstream against the current of the Nam Ou, we are absolutely and totally exhausted.

Nong Khiaw has a number of trekking trails leading from the village to viewpoints on the mountains; we take on three of these without a guide. The trails are easy to follow (as they would be, what with the unexploded bombs!), but the climbs are challenging and at times quite testing. We climb to Pha Deng, Pha Noi, and the highest of all, Pha Kao, the views at the summit of each is truly magnificent, but after three days of challenging exercise we are ready for a rest!

So to interrupt this activity with a bit of relaxation we indulge in a double whammy of local treatments, first a herbal steam bath, then a Lao massage, which involves being massaged by hand, and by foot pressure as well as a considerable number of crazy contortions. And that’s contortions by the masseuse as well as by us – it’s quite an experience, and feels pretty good afterwards too.

Nong Khiaw is a terrific destination. We knew this would be a place to enjoy activities but we seem to have pushed ourselves to some limits here, but if you don’t do it in a place like this, you’ll never do it anywhere.

Our regret as we leave is that we overfilled our time here with activities, we really wish we now had a couple more days just to chill in this marvellous scenery. But we are committed by ticket purchases, and so we move on now from this spectacular and beautiful place, as we start our journey out of Laos and towards Vietnam.