Muang Ngoi

by JG Learned

The Tai people are considered by most historians to have originated in China's Yunnan Province near northern Viet Nam. A number of successive migrations brought them further and further south and west. By the 6th century AD they had already established themselves in Muang Swa - today known as Luang Prabang - and the Ou River valley.

In the 12th century AD, as a result of Genghis and Kublai Khan's devastating pan-Asian military exploits, the Tai peoples began their greatest southward migration. They followed the rivers down to present-day Laos, Viet Nam and Thailand, into Northern Burma and as far west as Assam. One of the major routes into Laos and to the fertile Mekong River Valley was by way of the Nam Ou River along which they established numerous prosperous muangs. The muang is the basic unit in traditional Tai political structure, an alliance of villages and towns. Groups of muangs became principalities and later, kingdoms.

The inundation of Tais forced the original Mon-Khmer inhabitants out of the valleys and flat ground by to the less arable middle slopes. These people are now called the Lao Teung or Khamu as opposed to the Lao Loum - the Lowland Lao of Tai stock. A third major ethnic grouping is the Lao Sung or Highland Lao. These people of Mongolian and Sino-Tibetan origin live on the high mountain ridges, usually just above a spring at the top of a long valley. They too followed the rivers – right to their source.

The Ou River flows north to south from the Chinese border to the Mekong just above present day Luang Prabang. One of the earliest Tai principalities in Laos was centered at Muang Ngoi. More recently, Muang Ngoi was the headquarters of the Pathet Lao Communist party for much of the Viet Nam War and became the target of massive U.S. bombing attacks. Nothing of its ancient history remains – at least above ground – except for a sense of timelessness. The only evidence of the past is the numerous bomb casings and spent artillery shells from the last Indochina war, adapted and put to everyday use.

Today another minor migration is happening - northward this time. The western traveler has rediscovered Muang Ngoi. The banana pancake has established itself in yet another wilderness outpost.

A 4-hour drive north from Luang Prabang up the Ou River valley brings you to the town of Nong Kiow. Not far from town is the huge cliffside Pa Tok Cave, where during the Viet Nam war the entire population of the region lived in shelter from the incessant bombing. For a while, President Kaysone - at that time head of the communist Pathet Lao forces - lived and directed the war from this cave. In it were a hospital, kitchens, sleeping areas, a school and section for art.

From Nong Kiow, wind your way up the Ou in a long-tail boat, through rapids, sculptured limestone and sandbanks. You may pass temporary markets set up on the shore, where people from far away villages come – a day or more's walk - to buy and sell, or load their heavy bags of rice onto boats, to be sold downriver. In an hour you will approach Muang Ngoi. What do you do when you get there? Slow down. Muang Ngoi has one, short, packed-sand street parallel to the river. There are no street lamps. There are no loud bars, only restaurants, but the beer is sometimes cold and Beer Lao tastes pretty good, even warm. There is electricity for a few hours in the evening. It's quiet after 10:00 and on a cloudless night the starlight is brilliant enough to illuminate the pathways. There are several, simple, inexpensive guesthouses on the riverbank. Relax.

Swim and bathe in the river, paddle a boat or kayak, play with children, fish (here is an opportunity to learn to use a weighted throw-net), hike, visit caves, and eat. Partake of the local cuisine – many varieties of delicious river fish, dried and pressed river weed fried with sesame seeds, hot green-papaya salad, rice birds and home-grown chicken, lizards and frogs, snails and bugs and hot-sauce made from fermented fish. Or, for those with more catholic tastes, fried rice, banana pancakes and Pepsi.

If you are energetic and curious about different ethnic groups and love jungle and mountains, take a 1, 2 or 3-day trek. The guides are good, speak English well and can arrange trips of longer duration for those with the time and inclination. As with everywhere in the world, trekking is easier in the dry season – no leeches, swollen rivers and mud-slick trails. The best months are from November until the end of February, after which the weather becomes oppressively hot until the monsoons begin in June. Contact North by North East to make arrangements for you.

It's much cooler when you reach the ridges populated by the Lao Sung – the Highland Lao. The predominant minority group in the region is the Hmong (who do not like being referred to as Meo - a word of Chinese origin meaning barbarian). They rarely come down to the river, but every 10th day there is a market in Muang Ngoi. Lao Sung, Lao Teung and Lao Loum exchange produce, goods and news with one another. There is fascinating jungle produce bought and sold: for many big river fish, wild boar, bear and deer, great lizards and snakes, squirrels and birds - and dogs - a cooking pot on a wood fire in Muang Ngoi is the end of the road.

You could keep going up the river in stages to China. Or you could travel all the way down to Luang Prabang, and eventually the South China Sea – portaging only at Lipi Falls in Southern Laos. Or you could just hire a long-tail to take you up the river, for the day or for a few hours, through dramatic, unbelievably unspoiled landscapes. Only a half-hour upstream is the village of Sap Jaem, a small fishing community. There is a guesthouse and restaurant here and a lot of fine hiking into the mountains, caves to explore and a cold, clear waterfall an hours walk from the village.

The river is the road, as it has always been. It is an artery of trade and a ligament, connecting one muang with another. It is part of the warp in the fabric of Lao civilization. And it is strikingly beautiful.

It is a journey worth the effort to visit Muang Ngoi, a village once an important center of Tai civilization. Only the ghost of antiquity remains, but the gentle lives of the people on the banks of the Ou reflect the daily lives of their ancestors a thousand years ago. Whether you stay a month or a day, Muang Ngoi will leave an indelible impression. It is a special place. Follow the rivers into the heart of Laos. Follow your heart on the shifting course of the river of life, and learn from one and all.