From Luang Prabang I went further north by bus to the village of Nong Khiaw (variously spelled). At Nong Khiaw I stayed at Nong Kiau Riverside (www.nongkiau.com) on the bank of the Nam Ou, which I can recommend as an excellent place to stay.
The journey, in a minibus crammed with luggage and cargo as well as passengers, took about four hours. After a while the driver and about four other men sitting up front began drinking Beer Lao out of a cup cleverly created by cutting off the top of a plastic bottle. They passed the cup around among them, and consumed about four bottles of beer before we reached Nong Khiaw.
The scenery at Nong Khiaw is dramatic and incredibly beautiful. Jungle-clad mountains slope straight down to the narrow river, which divides the village. There's little to see in the village itself, apart from admiring the scenery, but trekking can be arranged and there are caves nearby. Riverside is a collection of cabins high above the river on the sloping hillside. It has its own, very good, restaurant, which serves Lao and Western food and French wine. Baguettes for picnic lunches can also be supplied.
On my first afternoon I went for a walk beyond the village looking for caves described by Lonely Planet but could not find them (later I realized I had walked in the wrong direction). Next day I walked along a rough jungle track above the river until mid-morning when I caught a boat upriver to the village of Muang Ngoi.
The riverboat was long and narrow with hard wooden single seats on either side of a central aisle. On the way upriver I saw elephants hard at work on the riverbank, the only working elephants I saw in Laos, supposedly the Land of a Million Elephants.
Muang Noi is an isolated village on the riverbank with steep hills around it. Inaccessible by road, it can be reached only be riverboat. It's become a centre for trekking and other outdoor activities. I walked along the long main street, lined with palm trees and guesthouses and cafes for backpackers, then turned off it into the jungle. There I found some brick steps that were all that remained of a temple destroyed by bombing in the Second Indochina War. I sat nearby and ate my baguette in lush, green surroundings. Then I walked to the other end of the village to the main temple, Wat Neua.
Finding a boat back to Nong Khiaw was not easy as services are not frequent. I hung about on the landing stage for a while, unsure whether one was actually coming. Then I found a berth in a boat that might have been chartered by other tourists rather than a regular service. Whatever the case, the boatman's wife allowed me to join them and charged me an outrageous sum for the privilege. Lesson: pay your fare at the ticket office (yes, there is one) and not to the boatman's wife.
Next day I returned to Luang Prabang in another cramped and uncomfortable bus full of backpackers returning from even further up country. Unable to get a seat on a flight to Pakse, I stayed for a couple of nights at Sayo River Guesthouse before setting off south-east to Sainyabuli and Pak Lai.