The Lao Royal Family

After spending three nights in Lurang Prabang Jen and I felt that it was time to move on. During our three days we rented bikes, visited some incredible temples and been educated about Lau Royalty after visiting the palace museum. When we finished walking round the museum we could not discover what happened to the Royal family of Lau as it was not mentioned in any of the displays that we could see. This was a mystery that would be solved later.






A few months ago Jen was reading a magazine published by Lonely Planet. In this magazine the founder of the travel guide empire always writes an article about somewhere he has visited. In the article that Jen read Mr Lonely Planet had visited a small village called Nong Kiaw which was a four hour drive North East of Lurang Prabang. Whilst in this small village Mr Lonely Planet took part in a hike which had only been discovered in October 2008 called the 100 Waterfalls. He raved about it in the article so we had to go and visit, even though we really should be heading south through Laos to reach Cambodia.


The journey to get there was a mission and adventure in itself. We arrived at the bus station and got hassled by locals straight away, we waded though them though and made our way directly to the ticket counter. We were pleased that a ticket to get to Nong Kiaw cost only 35,000 kip (3.20p) but then turned to see the bus we would be riding in, at that moment the price totally made sense because...

...we were to make our way in a Tuk Tuk.

The same type of bus that does short journeys through Lurang Prabang was going to take us through the bumpy and sometimes dirt track roads to our destination. Not only this, we were to be packed in the back like sardines in a can. I did not even have room to allow my arms to hang by my sides because there were too many people on our hard seated bench.

Spatial awareness is not something the Lao people have gotten to grips with yet, which is why I had a 75 year old man to my left on the bus resting his hand on my leg and often asleep on my shoulder. At the start of the journey I got out my MP3 music player and he gave it a curious glance, I offered him an ear piece and he was soon listening to all my music for they entire journey. He liked Jack Johnson, he did not seem to care for Justin Timberlake and he fell asleep whilst I played songs from the classic chillout album. The journey might have been uncomfortable but I did make a new friend


When we finally arrived at Nong Kiaw we found a hostel that had small wooden huts overlooking the impressive Mekong River and limestone mountains.





The village was basic, families would wash in the streams from the sides of the road and electricity was only for set periods of the day when the generators kicked in. We booked a guide to take us on the 100 waterfall hike and the next day we set off bright and early to begin our journey.





It turned out that the 100 Waterfall Hike is not a journey looking at 100 waterfalls but a hike UP 100 Waterfalls as water hits you and you get totally soaked. It rates in my top 3 experiences so far on this trip because the scenery was stunning and in case I forgot to mention. WE WERE CLIMBING UP WATERFALLS! It was at the top of the waterfalls that our guide then made us local food on palm leaves and Jen managed to direct the conversation towards the Lao Royal Family and what happened to them. "We kill them!" Our guide proclaimed, whilst making a quick cutting motion along his throat with his index finger.


Mystery solved then.


bx