An Overnight Trek in Nong Khiaw, Laos

While I was traveling through Southeast Asia, I decided to visit the small town of Nong Khiaw. This village is located in northern Laos and is known for its beautiful scenery and multi-day treks.

Day 0 – Arrival

I booked transportation from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw using the website 12Go. A tuk-tuk picked me up from my hostel at 8 AM and then dropped me off at the bus station, where I boarded a van with three other travelers. Apparently the roads were awful during the 4-hour drive, but I had taken motion sickness medicine which made me sleep the whole way.

Upon arrival we all shared a tuk-tuk into the town, and I checked into my private room at Meexai Guesthouse which was surprisingly nice! After getting settled, I had lunch at Home Cafe and then walked around town to book an overnight hike. After talking to a few different companies, I went with DK Adventure since they had three other people signed up for the next day. Once that was taken care of, I went to dinner at Pizza & Pasta which was absolutely horrible. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing and hoping I wouldn’t get sick from the food.

The village of Nong Khiaw

A quiet street near my hotel

Day 1 – A Half-Day Hike

Thankfully I woke up feeling okay, and I had a productive morning preparing for my hike. I then went back to Home Cafe for a yellow curry that was really good. Before long it was 2:30 PM and time to head to the tour company’s headquarters. I met my other group members (3 young women) as well as our two guides (a 24-year old and 13-year old!). We then had a short van ride to the bottom of the mountain.

We began hiking as soon as we arrived. The 13-year old was our leader, and he was surprisingly fast! It took 2.5 hours to hike up to the camp which was difficult for me, especially because of the elevation gain and the heat. There were also thousands of mosquitos, so I reapplied bug repellent several times along the way. I had to take a few breaks, but I successfully made it to the top! After dropping our bags off at the campsite, we climbed up a hill to see the sunset. Unfortunately we couldn’t see much because of the clouds, but the scenery was still pretty. We then went to our tents which had been set up by our guides.

Trekking through the trees

The view from our campsite

For dinner, our guides made us kebab skewers which were pretty good considering our location. They also gave us happy water, otherwise known as strong rice wine. After dinner we played card games as a group and enjoyed getting to know one another. It was a fun night far away from civilization.

Camping in the clouds

Our campsite kebabs

Day 2 – A Quick Descent

The weather was quite chilly overnight, and the ground was hard, so none of us slept very well. We woke up at 5:30 AM to see the sunrise, but there were too many clouds so we went back to bed for another hour. We had fruit for breakfast and then left the campsite around 7:30. I was worried that I wouldn’t have time to shower or pack before my 10:30 AM bus, but we took a shortcut and only had a 1.5 hour hike down. It was super steep, but I was glad to finish the hike more quickly.

Scenery on the way down

After making our way to the bottom, we took a short boat ride into town. I then got cleaned up in my room; I was very thankful I had booked it for two nights instead of one! Before long a tuk-tuk picked me up from the hotel and drove a group of us to the “bus” station. We had to wait until our van was completely full before heading back to Luang Prabang. It was a very cramped ride (we had 5 people in a row meant for 3), but the Dramamine helped me sleep which was nice.

Eventually we made it back into the city, where I said goodbye to my hiking buddies. While Nong Khiaw is very small and the journey there is uncomfortable, the scenery was really pretty and my overnight hike was certainly memorable. It was another unique travel experience that I’m thankful I got to experience!