view from my room at 6 am

Today is my final day covering the north east of Laos. I will take a flight to Ventiane which is just going to take 30 mins. By road it would have taken me a grueling 10 hour trip.
I don't know if I will ever come back to this part of Laos but the whole trip had been very exhilarating and a truly memorable one.

Plain of jars

No visit to xengkhoung is complete without a visit to the Plain of Jars

cliff hanger

Return to Xengkhoung

We are returning to Ventiane via xengkhoung today. That will probably take us more or less 7 hour by road through the mountains and meandering road. We were bid farewell by the Governor who joined us for breakfast. I have been overwhelmed by his graciousness and warm treatment since the first day we arrived to his hometown. This visit has been a very memorable one and one that I won't forget. Last night we were feted with a grand dinner. There was a fashion show of the ethnic groups here with their traditional costume.

We are now on the road. I can't describe how frightening it is to drive through the meandering road that zig zags across the mountains. All I can see is beautiful mountain ranges but the road appears to be hanging on the hill sides and on both sides I can see are deep crevices and clifts 100s of metres high. I keep thinking if Inpone my driver made one wrong move, the 4 wheel car we are driving in would surely fall into one of those clifts. So the usual me keeps nagging him to drive slowly.

Reached Xengkoung at around 230 pm today starving that I could eat a horse. Found this indian muslim restaurant in Phonsavanh. We stopped for lunch before we head to the hotel. as I'm posting this realtime, I'm still waiting for my food to arrive. the weather here is very pleasant as its a few hundred metres above sea level. Will update this post later...

Farewell dinner

My visit to houphan province ended with a farewell dinner....

Overlooking Xam nue at night