The walls are alive with the sound of insects

Another 7 hour boat trek underway, this time a much smaller boat - only 11 tourists and 4 locals travelled onboard.. This time no cafe or toilet though so our snack bag finally began to diminish and toilet breaks were reserved for beach stop offs and finding a good bush.
Arriving before sunset for a change we all set off in different directions for hotels, choosing ourselves to settle into a simple looking place with bamboo thatch walls and a decent enough looking bathroom. Heading back to town we visited Delilahs - a restaurant we'd heard good things about - we had some wonderful food and a good chance to find out about the area from the english couple managing it.
Nong Khiaw has only really been a tourist destination for around 5-8 years and it shows; Hat Sao is the villages name, dirt track roads form a dissected triangle home to 2 schools, several family trades and convenience shops plus a couple of cafes then a few more restaurants and hotels on the opposing bank of the river in the village of Ban Hat Sao. Three large mountain sides surround the villages - from certain angles they appear to be a sleeping woman, sleeping man and an elephant.. Though this was hard to see..There is the Laos village life side by side with the relatively smaller tourist trade at its most reserved, almost unspoilt.. It's known for its trekking so we booked in for a trip down river the next day to see more waterfalls..
Settling in that night, we heard some odd sounds, nothing to really worry about, just scratching or clicking.. Strange but not worth losing sleep over. Next morning I heard it again, routing out the source I tapped one of the bamboo beams to hopefully scare it off.. Dust issued from a small hole.. And again.. Clearly the bamboo on every side was being eaten inside out by some bug or another. Infact i can hear them at work now, but since they won't be bothering this individual i'll carry on ignoring them.

Next morning we set off 40minutes down stream, jumping out at the village of Ban Don Khoun to then walk for an hour til we began the 100 Waterfalls Trek. It's in the name. Treading carefully up or leaping from rock to rock we made our ascent, through the falls and pools, grabbing at trees or bamboo and each other when necessary.. It was a brilliant experience, some awe-inspiring sights at times, though you spent most of this double checking your foothold or next step pausing only a few seconds to gaze in wonderment.. The night before when we'd asked about the trek it was explained as was, a fairly easy trek, a need to be happy in wet clothes.. And leeches. That was saved til last, just as we were putting pen to paper. True to form guess who got the most blood-suckers attached to their feet and legs? Yup.
At first i thought i'd had an allergic reaction to something or was coming down ill.. My fingertips had begun to tingle and my head felt either hot from dehydration or generally woozy.. Stopping soon after noticing these feelings i checked my feet finding a small or elongated black blob on either ankle and foot.. Leeches!! Fortunately i'd been advised to take salt, so a small pinch left them writhing and the pains soon abated. Another was spotted on my calf but instead of putting an end to it since I felt no ill effects I thought I'd let it enjoy its meal. Once we reached the top of the falls we enjoyed a good meal and we all finished fairly satisfied - as did my little blood-sucker, dropping off soon after.

Next day in the village there was a marquee, tables, and a sound system set up to celebrate a baby Basii - welcoming a boy to the family. It seemed a brilliant party, going on for 7 hours, plently of food and beer flowing, the music, singing, speeches et al blasted out at a volume loud enough to probably deafen the front tables.. Shame we weren't invited!!
We have two days to relax here, a plan to head another hour up river was abandoned in favour of doing nothing so we've been enjoying more good food, cake, coffee, beer and even films playing at another local cafe. All in all it's a cool place and will be missed once back in the city, 7 hours back down river.