The Nam Ou: Laos Rice Bowl River Changing Course

For eons, Laos 270 mile long Nam Ou has cut a path of incredible beauty providing easy transport and fertility to the northern interior.

The warm Lao Lao straight from the still was surprisingly smooth, like sake. The old women broke into a broad smile, pleased at our appreciative reaction, considering that distilled rice whiskey is not valued by western visitors. Even if we were able to speak Laotian, there’s a good chance we may not be understood. Northern Laos is home to many of the over four dozen ethnic groups, with their own languages, that comprise nearly 40% of the national population. We’re on a bougainvillea bedecked semi-paved street in the pleasant Nam Ou village of Muang Ngoi.

Excursion on the Nom Ou

We reached Muang Ngoi by river boat from Nong Kiau – a 90 minute trip up river. Arrangements were made through the Nong Kiau River Side Resort for a day long river excursion for US $60 per person including lunch and English speaking guide. It’s certainly possible to make the trip for a fraction of that price – minus lunch and the guide – by walking down to the town dock and negotiating with the boatmen. Hundreds of narrow six to eight passenger craft, fishing boats, bamboo barges piled with produce and larger freight boats, ply the Nam Ou (“nam” means river) for its entire length. It’s still the north’s interior highway.

A few short years ago Muang Ngoi’s electrical supply was dependent on generators. Well before the end of an evening they were shut off and the village resumed its languid 19th century life. Although electric lines have recently connected the town to the grid, a short walk into the forested mountains reveals ingenious small hydro generators in the swift flowing streams. Providing power to light a few bulbs in a bamboo house or perhaps a TV for a couple hours, they’re indicative that in northern Laos the 21st century is still in the future.

Muang Ngoi and the Secret War

Before backpackers started trekking the area in the 1990’s Muang Ngoi was nearly blown into oblivion by the intense bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the 1960’s-70’s Secret War. As if bombs really were made into plowshares, it’s common to see large cylindrical shell casings turned into handrails or small ones into flower pots. Except for the serious issue ofunexploded bombs, the war is a fading memory for this Buddhist/Animist culture. A sleepy village with simple accommodations and cafes, Muang Ngoi is still a backpacking, trekking and kayaking center to explore the stunning mountains, river and even more remote tribal villages.

At the village school, a simple but modern concrete complex, middle schoolers played volleyball while an elementary class was busy with an assignment at desks the teacher set up outside on this pleasant sunny January day. The high school is in Nong Kiau, reached by the most reliable transportation – boat. Roads exist but must traverse mountains, are usually unpaved, subject to washouts and can take longer than the river.

An easy 20 minute hike into the forest behind Muang Ngoi, at the edge of the karsts that mark this geology, are the Tham Kang caves carved by the inexorable erosion of water on limestone. The deep, cool caves were refuge for the Pathet Lao and the villagers from relentless night bombing. Today the site is the epitome of peace. A traditional bamboo bridge takes one across the stream to a small cafe built on bamboo stilts over the water. A weaver of brightly colored cotton and silk cloth, one of many dozens of talented women traditional weavers, has her open air workshop next to the caves. Her cute, coy toddler plays nearby with a small puppy.

The Ban Samsaath weavers village

An hour further north up the Nom Ou lies a famous traditional weaving village, Ban Samsaath. Surrounded by lush green countryside, the unpaved dirt street and the simple wood and bamboo house/barn/workshops are a brown foil for the rainbow hues of cloth. Rack upon rack of scarves, shawls and wrap skirts line both sides of the long main street. Weavers are at work spinning, making the natural dyes and creating the items on hand looms following centuries old designs. The villagers rarely apply pressure to buy, but at prices that average US$5.00 for beautiful, high quality hand craftsmanship it’s difficult not to patronize all several dozen weavers.

Weaving is women’s work. Yet in traditional community style, clusters of men are working on a variety of projects from construction to making/repairing farm and fishing tools. A group of children entertain themselves with the age old game of “let’s pull a big cart around.” Brown grains of sticky rice dry in the sun along with racks of freshly made rice cakes. At one home, a young mother granted the extraordinary permission to film her children helping operate a pre-industrial rice huller. Ban Samsaath is not a tourist village creation; it’s real life in northern Laos.

Changing course

The return trip downstream allowed for quiet reflection, especially since the motors of river boats make talking difficult. It’s a cliche, but each turn in the river, each bending arc of sunlight playing across the water and overlapping mountain hills was memorable but our knowledge as to the future of the Nom Ou made the journey poignant. The infrastructure improvements do benefit both the people and tourism, but the region is being prepared for a more significant change. With major investment from China, plans are being finalized for a series of seven hydroelectric dams to be constructed along the Nom Ou. Already south of Nong Kiau pilings are being sunk and major improvements underway on the road connecting to Luang Prabang.

For eons Laos Rice Bowl River (Nam Ou) has carved a land of stunning beauty, witnessed horrendous acts of violence, fostered an internationally acclaimed home weaving industry, provided fertility for village farms and the magnificent river fish so prized in Laos cuisine. But soon seven hydro dams will bring electricity to an energy hungry southeast Asia and alter river life as it’s now known, yet in this culture, the teachings of the Buddha on impermanence will most likely have more influence than traditions:

“Life is comparable to a river. It moves ... it changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.”