Our aim today was to reach Luang Nam Tha but it turned out that it was too ambitious. The boat to Nong Khiaw left Muang Ngoi 30min late (at 10am instead of 9.30am) as we had to swap boats at the last minute for unknown reasons. Then before the biggest rapids some tourists had to get off the boat. Luckily we managed to stay on the boat, apparently the tourists who could not stay on the boat had to walk quite a lot to reach the place where the boat was waiting for them after the rapids. We arrived just after 11am in Nong Khiaw and were glad to learn that there was a mini-van going to Udomxai at 11am. We were the only tourists going this way as most of the other tourists filled up a songthaew going to Luang Prabang, some others were going towards the Vietnamese border. Being the only tourists heading North did not help us! As there was no other passengers for Udomxai, the guy selling tickets wanted us to pay 75.000 Kips each (instead of the normal price of 35.000 Kips each) if we wanted the mini-van to go. Having travelled for a couple of months in South East Asia we knew that they will fill up the mini-van on the way whatever price we will pay, so we stood firm and told him that we wanted to pay no more than the normal price. He finally agreed to sell us tickets at the normal price saying that we will have to wait for the mini-van to fill up at the next town, Pak Mong. It turned out that we only had to wait 30min in Pak Mong for getting enough passengers to continue our journey. The road to Udomxai was sealed but very bumpy. The trip was in total 3h30 long including the 30min break in Pak Mong.
In Udomxai, a rather ugly town where the Thai products are replaced in the shelves by Chinese products, we easily found a nice guesthouse and were surprised to find local restaurants offering good and cheap food.
In Udomxai, a rather ugly town where the Thai products are replaced in the shelves by Chinese products, we easily found a nice guesthouse and were surprised to find local restaurants offering good and cheap food.
