Nong kiew

Nong kiew is a very small and very pretty town 5 hours away from Luang Parabang. The food is nice and very cheap, I've never had so many banana shakes in one day. This place looks like paradise, our hostel was by the river, beautiful steep mountains around, and just one bridge over the river, one road, a few restaurants and massage places, and very few people, a perfect place to finish my book. At night we had a fierce battle against a huge bug that flew into our room, only the next day we will be told it is a harmless bug though it wouldn't matter, it had a horn. The next day Inbal and I went rock climbing, a guide lead us to the mountain, making a trail with a machete. Before we left we asked what should we bring, and they said nothing, we could even come with our flip flops, they forgot to tell us that the way is swarming with leeches! If we stood in one place for more than 5 seconds suddenly out of nowhere they would come, climbing on us from between our toes, from the side, there was no escape. Our guide didn't seem to mind, when we finally reached to mountain he took off his pants and starting pulling the leeches off of himself. He bled a lot but didn't seem to care. Inbal has problems with her knees, she can't let anything touch them ever, so when a leech managed to find her way up to her knee she was in a tragic dilemma - to hit or not to hit? Her immediate solution was to hit herself anywhere possible around her knee, obviously not scaring the leech away. At first I just thought her aim was really bad so I offered to help by precisely hitting the center of her knee, but she yelled no! And finally pulled the leech off of her with her fingers. The rock climbing itself was very nice and after it we went to have lunch in a cave where the guide explained to us that the people hid there during the war when helicopters came. Our guide lives in a village 3 and a half hours away by Lao walking, and a full day tourist walking from the town. He told us that Lao people run in the jungles to get from place to place, and that he had to hunt and collect food from the forest all his life because his village is not close to the road and has no electricity or water system nearby. It was fascinating talking with him, his village really lives on it's own, and the only element of modernism in it is the chief - a guy nominated by the people in the village and works for the government, not sure what he has to do in such a village. After the climbing we spoiled ourselves with a massage - it was a lot better than the one in Luang Parabang and we came out happy and relaxed. At the evening we arranged with the rest of the tourists we met to take a boatride together back to Luang Parabang, the guy that owns the massage place also has a friend with a boat, and a new young family member only 15 days old, and he invited us to see a ceremony they do for him. Their custom goes like this - after a baby is born the mother has to sit with the baby in her arms and her back to a small fire for 15 days straight, they say its good for her stomach, and after 15 days the baby gets a name and some other things are happening. We went to see the ceremony the next morning and it was very nice, and right after it we went on the boat ride back. Taking a small boat down a river with mountains all around is a must! Every once in a while you put you hand in the water and it sprays you, the view is beautiful and constantly changing, the atmosphere is relaxing and you feel whole. You can teach some French people how to play Yaniv on the way, it's also pretty nice.