Luang Nam Tha

The first thing I did in the morning after breakfast was find alternate accommodation.  Most of us had ended up at the Bus Station Guest House since it was about the only place open in town when we arrived.  The town seemed to shut down about 2200 hours in Laos.  It was great to get a bed for the night but the place was just way too noisy

The main street where most of the accommodation and retaurants are is the kind of place that even in daylight you wonder if your in the right place.  It’s kind of empty.

The new place is about 50 cents more expensive but they claim to have hot water.  Still I noticed that it’s solar hot water system and since it’s been overcast for the last few days I doubt that there is any.  Still it is quiet and the bed and pillows seem to be comfortable which is a bonus.

I wanted to do a 3 to 4 day kayaking trip in Luang nam Tha National Park but when I went to see about it they told me that the next one would not leave until the 22 November.  That would mean 2 days of cooling my heals waiting for the trek.  Given that I am heading into my last week I really did not want to do that.  The only trek going was a one day trip personally I did not see the pint of pay for that since I’d already seen Hmong villages and weaving & paper making both on this trip and on others.

I sat on it over lunch and thought about what I wanted to do.  I’ve decided to leave the North and try to head down South for my last week perhaps to the islands and the ruins I thought of flying back to Vientianne but the plane is booked up until the 28 November.  So that does not do me any good.  So I decided that I would try and catch a bus tomorrow afternoon to Udomxai and try to arrange a plane from there.  I got told there was only 1 bus and that was at 0830 in the morning.  That really did not do me much good since my washing is still back and since it is raining it does not look likely that it will dry in time.  I gave up and decided tomorrow could look after itself.

It is strange to be in a place that despite how small still has an Internet conection.  I made use of it but kept it short as it was very expensive when compared to the rest of Laos.

In the afternoon I went for a walk and saw the old village and the Wat.  Then in the late afternoon I joined Kate and Moses at the Boat Landing Guesthouse for a drink.