Hidden away on a peninsula on the Nam Ou about an hour's boat ride from Nong Khiaw, tiny Muang Ngoi is the perfect place for a few days' peace and quiet among beautiful scenery. All the accommodation and most of the restaurants are built on the river banks, where people tend to just while away their days sleeping, eating, reading and relaxing. However, there are options for the more energetic: kayaking down the river, trekking through buffalo-ridden rice fields; and fishing with the locals at sunset.

The tourist trail has well and truly found this idyllic village, tucked away on a peninsula on the Nam Ou, but unless you’re here in peak season the locals still outweigh the falang. Flanked by shadowy, majestic mountains on all sides, it’s a pretty spot to hang the boots for a few days, or rather give them a workout on some picturesque trekking. Because it’s cut off from regular roadways by that steep mountain range, Muang Ngoi Neua remains isolated and small (perhaps that’s why the rooster cacophony seems louder here), and the narrow dirt footpaths lined with coconut palms that act as roads are trafficked only by unhurried pedestrians or two-wheeled transport.