Day 160 – Muang Ngoy to Luang Prabang
That sinking feeling
Today, we left the town of Muang Ngoy after checking out from Phetdavanh Guesthouse & Bungalows. The only way to leave is by boat. Tickets for the boat are 25,000 LAK / $4.04 AUD per person and can be purchased up the stairs from the pier. When we went to the pier, we were surprised to find so many people waiting to leave. Two boats arrived to take us to Nong Khiew. We couldn’t fit on the first boat, and waited for the second one to start loading.
Our boat was not boarding passengers for a while as there was a small leak, and the driver was trying to fix it. After the leak was “fixed”, the remaining passengers all crammed into the boat. It was not as crowded as our original trip to Muang Ngoy (Day 157), but I couldn’t call it comfortable.
As we could see the dock in Nong Khiaw, the boat started to sink! Water was pouring in from the back. Somehow the driver found out and pulled in front of the first boat and quickly unloaded the bags and passengers. The bags on the bottom were drenched. Luckily ours were either above other people’s bags or protected by the pack cover.
At the dock, we boarded a tuk tuk to the bus stop. It was a reasonable amount and since we weren’t too sure what time the bus would leave, we wanted to be there ASAP. At the bus stop we bought tickets to Luang Prabang for 40,000 LAK / $6.46 AUD per person. The journey was uneventful and after several hours we were in Luang Prabang’s Northern Bus Stand. To go to Phonsavan, we found out we needed to be in the Southern Bus Stand!
We changed our plans and caught a tuk tuk to the city centre for 20,000 LAK / $3.23 AUD per person. The city centre is right near the night market and very close to Downtown Backpackers Hostel 2. We were able to just rock up and book a room albeit it smaller private room. We then booked a bus for tomorrow to Phonsavan from a close by travel agency for 130,000 LAK / $20.99 AUD per person before going to sleep.