Day 159 – Muang Ngoy
Today we arranged a self guided tour of the Tad Mok Waterfall from our accommodation at Phetdavanh Guesthouse and Bungalows. The tour included Kayaking down stream to a village and then returning to Muang Ngoy via a boat. We were given as much time as required to hike to the waterfalls from the village. The tour cost 200,000 LAK / $32.42 AUD per person.
The early morning Kayak down the Nam Ou River took a little over an hour. It was nice, but since we were inexperienced with Kayaking, we did spin out a few times and I was tired by the end. Once we reached the village, the Guesthouse owner’s brother (who was our guide) tied up the kayak and pointed us in the direction to walk.
We had to walk through a small village similar to the one we saw on the way to 100 Waterfalls (Day 156). At the end of the village, an very disorganised entrance fee of 10,000 LAK / $1.62 AUD was charged per person. We then hiked along the only path for quite sometime.
The path goes by the Yensabai Organic Farm. We stopped by, eager to grab a coffee or juice, but when we went, the owners/staff were just about to have lunch. They took us to the back and told us to wait. We walked through the organic fields and could see the areas where the volunteers were making new buildings. We waited for around 20 minutes, with no sign of the staff arriving, so we left.
The hike, is similar to the 100 Waterfalls hike we did, with only one real path to follow. We did check a few times with the Maps.Me Mobile App, to make sure we were going in the right direction. Once we made it to the final waterfall, we realised that this was the first time we actually saw other people. The entire hike was just the both of us (excluding the village and organic farm of course). At the waterfall, there was two groups of people who had come with tour guides. Lucky for us, they were getting ready to leave, so we were able to swim in the waterfall all by ourselves. It was beautiful, but the water was freezing.
We had lunch, before heading back down to the village. Here we found the boat driver waiting for us. We got on the boat, and were back to Muang Ngoy within 30 minutes. A lot easier than kayaking up stream!
As we had a few hours before sunset, we decided to check out the nearby Buddhist temple, Wat Okad Sayaram that is right next to the Phetdavanh Guesthouse and Bungalows. There are a few buildings in the complex, and a lot of young monks.
From the temple we went to the Phanoi Cave and Viewpoint. This also cost 10,000 LAK / $1.62 AUD per person. We were not expecting to go up here, so we climbed in flip flops, which weren’t ideal but we managed. We were also climbing as fast as we could to, get to the top before sunset. We went into a cave, and easily spent 15 minutes walking down the large tunnels. It just kept going and going. We decided to turn around as it was getting dark outside. The rest of the climb to the top of the mountain was steep.
At the top we were able to enjoy views of the entire town and the river. There is a small hut that was empty for the entire time we were there. We only saw a handful of tourists doing this climb to the view point. After the climb, we went back to the Bee Tree Bar to enjoy happy hour once again 🙂
