Travel Guide and Transport Info for Nong Kiew, Laos by Hobo Maps -

Bus Service
- If you can't find a bus on the scedule below that fits your needs then consider trying to take a bus that may be passing thru town instead. Since Nong Kiew is not a major town or starting point for long distance travel many of the buses that go thru town have begun their trips elsewhere and their arrival and departure times in Nong Kiew vary from day to day. These in-transit buses don't always stop at the bus station which makes it even harder to know which bus it is, to flag it down and to get on board. You may need a local person to help as they don't all have English signs. The best we can say is to check the other bus schedules on this website for departures from Luang Prabang and Vientiane heading to Sam Neua to catch an eastbound bus and to check the Sam Neua departures to catch a westbound bus. You'll have to estimate travel time for their arrivals. For example, we took a bus out of Sam Neua at 09:00 AM heading for Luang Prabang and it arrived at Nong Kiew about 21:00 but only stopped at the bridge over the Nam Ou river and not at the bus station which was closed. So buses that leave Sam Neua may go thru Nong Kiew about 12 hours after departure. Buses leaving Luang Prabang for Sam Neua should arrive in Nong Kiew about 3 or 4 hours after departure.

Boat Service Downstream
- The Nam Ou River is a fine place to use boats for travel and you'd be wise to do these trips soon as there are plans to build six new dams on the river which may limit boat travel soon. Smaller versions of the typical Mekong slow boats do the trip between Nong Kiew and Luang Prabang with most of the trip on the Nam Ou south of town towards the Mekong and a shorter section on the Mekong from the Pak Ou Caves to Luang Prabang. In the dry season the Nam Ou river may be too shallow for a loaded boat in a certain section which requires the passengers to transfer to a bus for a short trip while the lighter boat continues down to meet the bus about 10 km downstream. These boats leave Nong Kiew about 11:00 AM daily if there are sufficient passengers and the cost was 100,000 kip in 2011.

Boat Service Upstream
- Boats depart daily at about 11:00 AM for the one hour trip upriver to Muang Ngoi. The cost was 20,000 kip in 2011. From Muang Ngoi it's possible to go further upriver by boat to Muang Khua and this is best arranged after arrival in Muang Ngoi.

Both upstream and downstream boats depart from the same boat landing located at grid code JH217 on this map HERE.

Local Transport around Nong Kiew
- the town is not large and all points can be reached by walking. Bicycles can be rented at a couple places by the bridge and there is a cave and waterfall that can be explored on the paved highway heading southeast towards Vieng Thong, Phou Lao junction and Sam Neua.