251206 Nong Khiaw at dusk

Only now did it occur to the cat to try & take a 360 degree view from the bridge:


larger version here

The cat is lousy at such things & knows peaNUTS, cocoNUTS & chestNUTS about all that lighting stuff. It photographs fluorescent mouse & human cells for work, not scenery & people. & it travels with only a simple little but tougher-than-nails Olympus mju300 & no tripod.

Nong Khiaw Riverside Bungalows on the Ban Sop Houn side of the Nam Ou:




The cat had seen an earlier incarnation of their website when the bungalows were still under construction, where there was info & photos of how the bungalows were being built using wood salvaged from traditional homes that were being demolished to make way for concrete versions. Wished they had retained that info on their current website.

On the right is a signboard & the menu of Nong Khiaw Riverside's restaurant:



& behind the menu are logs with rectangular holes that used to be the posts of traditional wooden houses, probably belonging to Nong Khiaw Riverside?

Chill starts to set in as the sun gets lower in the sky:



People head home across the bridge on pick-up trucks, motorbikes, bicycles & foot as the first wisps of mist appear:



As it stood in the middle of the bridge, a pair of French backpackers approached the cat & were both surprised & relieved that it could speak English. They asked if there were guesthouses with hot showers on the Ban Sop Houn end...at that point in time all 3 of us were unaware that the electricity supply to Nong Khiaw (& many other parts of Luang Prabang province) had been cut off in the late afternoon when some powerlines were damaged. No wonder Mr Sunset Guesthouse had been complaining about not being able to charge his mobile phone.

Nong Khiaw sunset:



The Nam Ou turns to molten gold:



Could this pass off as some loch in the Scottish highlands?



Last of the boats head back to shore, engines softly chugging through the silence, the way home lit by flickering lamps:



As the cat walked back to Sunset Guesthouse, Ban Sop Houn was pitch black save for the glow of candles lighting up the grocery store across from the temple. 'Bor mii fai', grinned the grandma at the stall.