A private boat picked me up from the hotel pier to take me up river to Muang Ngoi.

Nong Khiaw is famous for the morning clouds that sit in the valley until mid morning before revealing the mountain ranges again.

The boat takes about 1.5hrs and group options leave from the town. With just me on board mine was quicker than this.

Once the clouds burnt away the views were crazy nice! It was almost non-stop postcard views the whole way, with each view trying to out do the previous.

Muang Ngoi is a small village but succumbing to tourism very fast. Packed with accommodation options and food joints it is an easy place to stay lost in for a couple of days.

I did the walk and climb to a local cave. I do not recommend it to anyone my age or with my bad knees! Fairly short but brutal climb that would also be dangerous the wet.

Lunch in the river was nice and I got some drone footage that I will post. The food was prepared in a small kitchen and the river was the washing up area. Local kids playing naked in the river harked back to a safer past when such things were perfectly normal in the west.

I could easily have stayed a night to soak up the atmosphere more, but I only booked a day trip.

The return journey was a final goodbye to the Nam Ou river. I saw what appeared to be early construction of yet another Chinese dam, I hope not.

Adventurer