After 5 days we managed to drag ourselves away from the air conditioned bakeries etc of Luang Prabang and went to catch a bus up to a village in the north. It turned out this was a bit optimistic of us and the 'bus' was two benches and a little cab with about 14 people plus lots of mysterious looking luggage which made about 15 stops along the way to drop off letters, people, unaccompanied bags of umbrellas etc.
Eventually got to the village of Nong Kieu, feeling a bit worse for wear but the amazing mountain and river scenery was enough to make up for it and once we had found a little bungalow over looking the river and had worked how to maximise the effect of the fan we could start to appreciate it there.
Tecnically people go there to trek but 3 day treks in that heat wasn't so appealing so we were happy with wandering around, admiring the scenery and then getting bikes to explore the next day. After a couple of nights there where Jess fully confronted her fear of bugs and we blessed the invention of mosquito nets we got the boat an hour up river to Mong Ngieu Village.
We were warned that if we thought Nong Kieu was laid back we hadn't seen anything yet and this was true - Mong Kieu had no roads, no internet and generator supplied electricity for only 3 hours a day. A very cool place to visit though as the locals didnt pay much attention to the tourists so it was a bit like being a fly on the wall in and seeing what there village life was really like.
Still after a night's sleep with the first half accompanied by howling dogs and the second half by cockerels and very early rising locals we thought it was time to head back to the city. So we are now back in Luang Prabang enjoying the luxury of proper showers and normal toilets before we head south tomorrow.
