Day 44 Sunday 15 October Luang Prabang to Luang Nam Tha, Laos

Bade farewell to Luang Prabang after a visit to the bank which fortunately is open on a Sunday and to the Royal Museum which is not. A pleasant drive through lush emerald green rice paddies on the valley floors, across chocolate brown rivers and through numerous villages crammed with children, piglets, chooks, ducks and goats. Generally the countryside and people appear quite healthy and happy, with many of the villages having water tanks and standpipes which have been provided by groups such as World Vision and signs of many Unicef, World Food Program and other aid programs (so you can see where your money goes).

After Uoximaxi the road deteriorates markedly from a country lane to a farm track (this is the Asian Highway) with tarmac sections alternating with boulder strewn sections and potholes big enough to swallow a truck, which they sometimes do. Fortunately traffic is sparse but it is nightfall before we reach Luang Nam Tha. The last 30km are on the best road yet in Laos, obviously very new and apparently capable of 100km/hr or so we think until sweeping round a curve in the dark we find that most of our carriageway has disappeared. After that we take it more cautiously and come across numerous areas where half the mountain side is blocking one carriageway and the other has followed it down into the river. So much for the new road only opened in May to provide a link from China to the sea, through Thailand and Laos.

Reach the Boat Landing guest house, an eco bungalow resort which as its name suggests is at a landing point for river craft at a bend in the Nam Tha. Very nice bamboo bungalows around a garden with roses and bananas. Run by an American with friendly Lao staff from the local Hmong tribal groups and some of the most interesting local food so far, lavae of bamboo shoot borer, rice field crab, fried moss, morning glory flowers and various fungi, all of which were delicious washed down with palm sugar beer.

Weather 28 Sunny
Distance today 309km
Distance from start 8945km
Margaritas - nil