Laos

Luang Namtha by Liesl Pfeffer

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Luang Namtha, Laos
May 2018

In Luang Namtha we borrowed bicycles for the day and cycled out into the rice fields around town to visit smaller villages. We saw women washing their clothes in the river, we saw where the villagers make their intensely strong whiskey, we cycled at dusk past families burning their rubbish in the rice paddies, we sat in a hut in a field to try to escape the burning sun for a while, we chatted with a teacher in a local school who stopped us as we were going past on our bikes because he wanted to say hello and practice some English. The next day we said goodbye to Laos, and hello to China.

Nong Khiaw by Liesl Pfeffer

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Nong Khiaw, Laos
May 2018

Oh boy I am so behind. Photos from 18 months ago in Asia. Better late than never. Here we go.

We spent a couple of days in Nong Khiaw. It was our experience in small towns in Laos that due to lack of interested people, most of the hikes we would have liked to go on were simply much too expensive for us, because there weren’t enough people to split the costs. So we ended up finding our own non-guided walks to do. In Nong Khiaw we had read that the hike to the top of the mountain in the village was a must do at dawn. So we set our alarm, despite the fact it rained all night, and got up in the dark and hiked up through slippery paths for an hour or two as it gradually got lighter. It was, until that time, the hardest hike I’d ever done. Not only because it was dark and steep and constantly uphill, but also because it was so muddy and slippery and many trees had come down in the storm which required climbing over or under. I was rather proud of myself for managing it. At the top of the mountain, the dawn had already come, and we were higher than the clouds. All we could see was clouds in every direction. Suddenly, some clouds shifted we saw the green peaks of another mountain. We stayed for a few hours at the top as the clouds and fog shifted around, revealing different peaks in all directions, until all the clouds were gone and we had an incredible view of the surrounding mountains, valleys, town and river.

Flowering trees by Liesl Pfeffer

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Luang Prabang, Laos
May 2018

I really felt at home with the palms and flowering trees in Luang Prabang, they reminded me a lot of Queensland, especially the red flame trees and frangipani trees that I love so much.

Boat by Liesl Pfeffer

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Luang Prabang, Laos
May 2018

We went on the river by boat and saw Luang Prabang from the water. It was quiet and gentle. We saw people fishing and washing their clothes on the riverbank.

Luang Prabang by Liesl Pfeffer

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Luang Prabang, Laos
May 2018

Reaching Luang Prabang was an adventure involving several mini buses and a border crossing from Thailand, including a fairly scary drive on bad roads through mountains during a tropical thunderstorm. We arrived late afternoon and shared a moto-taxi into town with other travellers. The light was so golden and dusty as we sped through the streets in the open air. I loved Luang Prabang immediately with it’s big old french colonial houses, brown flowing river and surrounding lush green hills. .