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| Akha Nuqui on the packed bus |
Rising at 5:30 AM to the public address system, we packed and breakfasted and were taken by our previous tour guide to the bus station. Tickets to Hat Sa cost a few dollars each, but the bus filled up with baggage in the aisles, and a half dozen extra passengers standing and leaning on other passengers. Some of the passengers included a large family of Akha Nuqui that were immaculately dressed, adorned with silver, very photogenic, but they did not want their pictures taken. Luckily, the trip on this overflowing bus was only an hour and a half, and we ended up on the bank of the Nam Ou River.
After buying our tickets for $12 each, we asked for a toilet prior to the four-hour trip, but finally understood that there were only the bushes.
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| Close up of silver headress of Akha Nuqui |
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| The two ladies from our bus buying last minute items at the Hat Sa dock |
Except for a German couple, we were the only foreigners in the area. The boat started at 9:15AM with six passengers, stopped six times to pick up people on the banks of the river and to drop people and passengers off, with delays of five to twenty minutes per stop, and arrived at 2:00PM. The boat went through rapids every few hundred yards, and we got a bit wet as waves sloshed over the sides, but we kept our cameras dry. We had been expecting a larger boat with bench seats like we had experienced on the Mekong River.
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| Nam Ou River Rapids |
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| The 5 hour Nam Ou Slow Boat Hat Sa to Muang Khoa |
Arriving at Muang Khoua, we jumped into the water barefoot, then put on shoes to carry our bags up the hill to our Manhchai Guest House, a small family- run place for $10 per night with fan and hot private shower. This is across the street from the Sernally hotel that we had stayed at previously. The owner was very sweet and let me us an outdoor drying rack for our freshly laundered clothes. Dinner was at the most popular river view place, and we had an early night.
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