Parking lot campout

March 23, 2013

Distance: 31.5 miles Climbing: 3372.7 ft

I was finally feeling better when we woke up and ready to eat something substantial. We decided to wander around before hitting the road. We roamed around a commercial area before finding a grocery store and decided to stock up on food in case we wanted to camp. In other grocery stores we had visited there were always English labels on a majority of the food, not in China. We were clueless about what any of the food was and were a little scared of just grabbing things and hoping they tasted good. Eventually, we found items that looked familiar like soda crackers and Oreos. Chandler also got a thick pancake with an omelet on top. The first bite was delicious until we found the center was stuffed with meat, so Chandler finished that alone.

After our breakfast, we packed up the bikes and headed out of town. We spent a few minutes on the highway before turning onto the older, less used highway. This road has been such a treat for us. There is very little honking from the occasional vehicles that do pass and the relative silence does wonders for our moods. We had two big passes to climb which were challenging, but there was a breeze and shade. The hills were preferred to the alternative, a 2.5 km tunnel on the highway.

Tunnel of doom

Informative sign

Chandler and I were both in the mood to camp and save a few bucks, so at the top of the pass we began looking for a spot as we flew down the hill. The road was cut into the side of a very steep ravine, so there were not many flat options. We found two decent places however one had clearly been used as a bathroom by several people and the other was clearly visible from the road. We kept going, hoping to find something soon. At the bottom of the pass, we entered a small town with a large tourist attraction, a national park which included some caves.

The place looked closed but with a few people milling around, we decided to see if the park offered camping. There was a large map of the area but the descriptions of the different areas were in Chinese, so we had no idea what was where. As we were standing around deciding what to do, a policeman got curious and walked up to have a look at us. Chandler asked him if there was camping nearby and made a sleeping motion, pointing to our tent. The officer made a motion to the very center of the parking lot, and we figured that we had been misunderstood. Again, we made sleeping motions and mimed the shape of a tent. The officer looked at us and again pointed to the middle of the parking lot, then he seemed to think for a minute, shook his head and motioned to the corner of the parking lot.

Chandler looking good

View from the campsite

We weren’t sure if the officer understood exactly what we were asking of him and decided to just hang out in the parking lot until it got dark. While we waited, we watched people feeding some large fish in a nearby pond and made dinner on our stove. When the sun was finally setting we began to set up our tent. As I was blowing up our mattresses the officer walked over to us. We were sure he had finally figured out what we were planning and was coming over to tell us to leave, but he just told us to move our tent away from an unsupported slope that was in the slow process of eroding. He didn’t want anything falling on us in the night and he informed us, someone would be there all night if we needed any help. We could not believe our luck. While it wasn’t a Walmart, it certainly would do.

A sick ride to China

Apr21

March 22, 2013

Distance: 74 miles on the bus 35 miles on the bikes

We woke up early, checked out of the hotel room, loaded up the bikes and had breakfast. It was a couple of days ride to the Chinese border and I wasn’t in the best condition to ride the pass on the way. We decided to take a bus to give me a little more time to rest. We rode over to the bus station where Chandler searched for some snacks while I guarded the bikes. When the bus finally pulled into the station, we were prepared to battle with the driver to get our bikes on the bus. The driver barely gave us a second look before nodding yes and climbing on the roof to stow them away.

We found seats and waited while the bus slowly filled up. Eventually, one other westerner and about 20 Lao and Chinese loaded up. The bus wasn’t packed so Chan and I each took a seat on either side of the aisle instead of cramming together. Chan bought some dumplings from a guy through the bus window. Finally, the bus started up and we pulled out of the station. After making a few stops in around town, we headed out of town. As the bus picked up speed, it began to shake and bounce, but settled down when we hit a certain speed.

The landscape was beautiful as we flew through the countryside. I began to think we had made a mistake by busing it to the Chinese border. However, once we began up the pass, Chandler and I both noticed that while the asphalt looked good, there was absolutely no shoulder and the road was very winding. I was back to being happy we hitched a ride.

After a little while I was starting to feel a little carsick but munched on bread and stared at the mountains in the distance. This approach worked well for me, but the little girl in front of me did not follow the same approach and soon enough she was puking. A large supply of red plastic bags was tied to a metal pole near the front of the bus, which we realized were there for just for this sort of thing. The girl set off a chain reaction because after she threw up, the girl behind Chandler frantically tapped him on the shoulder and motioned that she needed a bag. Then the guy in front of me, next to the original puking girl leaned out the window. The crowning moment was when the little boy directly in front of Chandler vomited all over his mother, their seat and the aisle floor, which caused his mother to start puking. We were officially in the Barfmuda Triangle. The whole situation was completely ridiculous, there was nothing to do but laugh.

When we made it over the pass, the vomiting stopped and we were able to “enjoy” the remainder of the ride. The bus arrived at the border a little before noon and everyone unloaded to get stamped through. We got stamped out of Laos and rode our bikes to the immigrations building on the Chinese side. Chandler guarded the bikes and declined the aggressive offers of the horde of money changer ladies while I got stamped into China. The process was easy and straightforward. The guard looked through my passport, scanned it and typed some stuff into his computer before stamping it and returning it to me. I then walked out through the door into China. Without my bike. I had to go to the road crossing gate to get back to Chandler and the bikes, but a guard with excellent English immediately came over to help. I went back to Laos and guarded the bikes while Chandler got stamped through. Then he came back and we rode back into China together. It was a little confusing but the whole ordeal only took about 30 minutes and was really pretty simple.

Suddenly, we were in China! The signs were in a new language, there were cars everywhere and few bicycles, the affluence was obvious. We peddled along a newly paved four lane highway through the border town excited and amazed at being in a new country.

The border town had a lot of buildings but was curiously very quiet and seemed nearly abandoned. The banks were all closed even though it was the middle of the day so we had no money. The nearest city was Mengla which was about 30 km away. The traffic on the highway was light, but moved very fast, and there was no shade from the blazing sun. After a few miles we decided to get on the old highway and away from the traffic. This was a good idea as I still was still feeling weak and tired. The old highway also offered a shady tree lined path the entire way. About halfway to our destination, we realized we had little water left. When we finally reached a town with an ATM, the machine rejected our card.

I was getting desperate to be done riding and only drinking the smallest of sips when we found an ATM on the outskirts of Mengla that would take the card. We then immediately bought and drank a liter of water each and a sprite and a coke and they were awesome. Disaster averted, time to find a hotel. As we rode into Mengla, I felt like we had entered a Chinatown of a major US city and would eventually make our way back to the “normal” part of town. The only thing was that Chinatown never ended.

The guide book had two hotels, but one was expensive and the other sounds like a dive, we figured there had to be something else. After doing the initial bike through town, we stopped at a place that looked decent. Chandler went in to check out the prices and look at the room, I stayed outside and got a major headache. The air smelled like someone had poured gasoline over everything. Chan deemed the room to be subpar and I was tired of losing brain cells, we moved on.

The super expensive hotel refused to book a room for us, but gave us directions to a small place around the corner. We checked in, carrying bikes and panniers up a few floors, happy to be done for the day.

I was still not feeling 100% and not interested in eating. Chandler went to find dinner by himself while I watched Superman 2 on TV. In an attempt to avoid eating mystery meat (read: dog) at a small restaurant he was able to communicate that he wanted chicken, by flapping his arms like a chicken. He ended up with stir fried chicken feet, which he reported was as gross as it sounded. He ate the vegetables around the chicken feet and filled up on rice. New country, new food!

Couple of days in Oudomxay

Apr21

March 20 – 21, 2013

We ended up spending a couple of days in Oudomxay while Jenny recovered from a fever. Our guesthouse was comfortable and had good wifi, so it wasn’t a bad place to regroup. I spent most of my time exploring town while Jenny lay in bed waiting for ibuprofen to kick in. There were a couple of restaurants with English menus in town but there wasn’t much else geared towards tourists, which was OK with me.

There were two major markets that I came across. I spent a while searching through the Chinese market fruitlessly looking for a pressure gauge for our tires. One of the more maddening things about searching for something in a market like this is that there are about 30 different shops selling the exact same stuff with some very minor variations. This required me to describe a pressure gauge with my hands over and over again resulting in a full range of responses from complete bewilderment, mild hostility, to earnest helpfulness, though the closest thing I was offered was a low pressure gauge for a paint sprayer. The other market was a pretty large produce and meat affair, including at least one dog on offer. I was able to find bananas, sticky rice and some bread to provide Jenny with some nourishment.

Veggie market

The highlight of my wandering was finding a small cycle touring operation, Samlaan Cycling. There was a friendly guy there who dug up a spare Schwalbe tire that was much better than the spare tire we are carrying. He let me borrow their big floor pump which made it easier to swap Jenny’s front tire to the rear and put the new tire on her front wheel. I rode back over with the pump in the afternoon and when he saw my bike he said he had seen us way back down by Phoukoun a week earlier while he and his boss were scouting out touring routes. Pretty random! We had a good chat then I rode off to find an “herbal sauna” I saw on the local tourist map.

At the top of a short but very steep hill I found the sauna/massage spot run by the Red Cross. For a couple bucks I had the sauna all to myself. It was more of a steam room, with a boiler of sorts perched above a fire fed by long logs. The boiler had two pipes running to the separate male and female steam rooms. At first the wall of steam was overwhelming, but I was able to relax and take in the steam which was infused with local herbs. Quickly I was soaked in condensation from the steam, so I stepped out onto the porch which overlooked a small river. A man came in with a gigantic metal kettle of scalding hot herbal tea. The light breeze quickly dried me off and was a little chilling, so the hot tea was nice. I had a couple more rounds of sauna, then headed back to see how Jenny was doing.

Sauna fire

The next morning I climbed a flight of stone stairs behind our guesthouse which led to a small plaza where a number of university students were studying. At the end of the plaza was a large building that served as a local museum. I walked in and was greeted by a young man who knew a bit of English. He turned the lights on for the exhibit hall upstairs, as I was the only guest, and walked around with me briefly describing things. The exhibits seemed a little bit random, but were interesting regardless. The first few items were a collection of pottery, drums and other ancient artifacts from the nearby Beng District. Next, there was a display of several dozen firearms from the period of armed conflict in the middle of the last century. There were also a few handmade rifles used by villagers for hunting small game. The rest of that side of the museum was an assortment of artifacts from the period of time that Oudomxay was a Chinese military base, including some typewriters (which were curiously QWERTY) a large projector from the cinema, and a collection of a Lao alphabet lead printing type for a letter press printer. Tucked in another corner was a collection of villager tools, clothing and ceremonial items, including mousetraps, wooden platform shoes used for walking on muddy fields and vertical banners attached to poles used to celebrate the birth of a child and to promote good luck. Nearby were a couple of bizarre homemade contraptions that turned out to be machines used to crush poppies for the production of opium. I left the museum and wandered around the eastern part of town where a new large concrete stadium was under construction.

Bamboo sandals

Close up of child's birth announcement banner

Opium machine

Letterpress type

When I got back to the guesthouse, Jenny was feeling a little better and decided to go back with me to the sauna in the evening. We both indulged in a Lao massage first, which was only a few dollars, then had a bunch of rounds of sauna. The place got really busy by the end, and a little weird. There was one Lao girl who kept pouring milk all over her skin, so the whole place ended up smelling a bit like rotten milk, then a crew of backpackers rolled in. One of them didn’t bother to observe his surroundings, dropped trou and started walking around stark naked in front of the locals, including women and young girls. This resulted in a pretty awkward moment, as the local people were clearly embarrassed and a little offended. We chose this exact moment to make our exit- hopefully avoiding any perceived association with this band of idiots. We were both feeling pretty good and went back to the guesthouse to put together a plan for leaving Laos.

Sweaty Chandler

Sauna makes everything better

Way to plant Jenny

Apr11

March 19, 2013

Distance: 44.7 miles Climbing: 2890.4 ft Descending: 2385.2 ft

I was feeling slightly better when the morning came. Chandler let me stay in bed as long as possible before convincing me it would be better to be sick and rest in Oudomxay than in this weird sooty town with the squat toilet and no running water we were currently in. Eventually, I got up, dressed and waited downstairs as he carried all the panniers and loaded both bikes.

We biked out of town before stopping so Chan could make us breakfast and I could have some time being sick in the bushes. After eating a little for me and a lot for Chandler, we headed off slowly. Chan quickly got ahead of me, but stopped several time so I could catch up and take a break. I had zero energy for biking and just wanted to lie down on the pavement to snooze. We didn’t have far to go with a small 300m pass and a big downhill into town, but it could have been 1000 miles for all I cared.

This little piggy went to school

Small hills today

At one point, I was lagging far behind and when I caught up to Chan, I noticed he was eating ice cream. I asked him if he got me one and he looked surprised and asked me why I didn’t I get one from the ice cream motorcycle guy who had just passed me. I couldn’t handle it anymore and burst out in tears that I didn’t have any money and felt really bad. Chandler immediately apologized and pulled out the second ice cream he had bought for me. I didn’t have much of a sense of humor at this point.

Even fake ice cream can cheer you up, sort of.

The “ice cream” (actually frozen taro flavored water in a soggy paper cone) perked me up a little and we were able to climb the pass pretty quickly. The trees shading the road and slight breeze also helped. Soon enough we were at the top and sailing down the other side.

Lots of banana plantations in these parts

Larry the bird

About 10km outside of town, there were a number of short, steep hills. Chandler cruised right up them, but I had no energy left and walked me bike up most of them. We crested the final hill of the day and started descending through small villages. Eventually, I was peddling through the dingy outskirts of Oudomxay and still had not caught up to Chandler yet. Since there was only one road he could be on, I assumed he was waiting for me at the first hotel he came upon. When I passed two hotels next to each other and came to an intersection, I knew we had become separated.

I did what I was taught to do as a child, and sat down on the curb and waited. (Way to plant Jenny). I knew Chandler was probably looking for me and it would be best if I just stayed in the same spot instead of biking back to where I had last seen him. I did decide that if he didn’t find me by 5, I would find some internet and email him my location. Luckily, he rode up to me, completely out of breath, 20 minutes later. He had stopped at a store in one of the villages on the descent to buy me a sprite, and while his back was turned paying for the sprite must have continued past him without seeing him or his bike. When I didn’t show up, he biked all the way back up to the top of the last big hill where he last saw me and started keeping an eye on the ditch by the road in case I had crashed or gotten sick again. When the ditch turned to gravel parking areas of town, he booked it into town.

Somewhere around this point I realized that my rear tire had a bulge in it. On closer inspection we realized the sidewall had split after the outer sheathing tore next to the rim. Not good. Looks like Chan had a project for tomorrow…

Jenny’s tire bites the dust.

As we biked together looking for a hotel with internet, we were happy to discover we had come up with similar plans about finding internet and emailing the other if we were separated for a while. We found a nice guesthouse near the center of town and once again, Chandler took care of everything while I lay in bed. I immediately went to sleep for the evening while Chandler went out in search of food and ibuprofen.

Back on the road

Apr11

March 18, 2013

Distance: 50.1 miles Climbing: 3553.1 feet Descending: 3054.5 feet

We had no problem waking up early after a few days rest and were eager to be off when we saw cloudy skies. We stopped in at an open bakery where Chandler ordered the set breakfast of eggs, fruit, bacon and bread, while I had my standard bread and an omelet.

The road immediately started up hill and I could tell what kind of day it would be, a tough one. The sun burned the clouds away and we were quickly baking in the heat. We passed through dense jungle and small villages. We both had an incredibly hard time finding a rhythm. We would descend down short steep hills only to have to immediately shift gears and sweat our way back up another hill. These hills always seemed to occur in villages where people would wave and ask question. It is quite difficult to interact with the locals while trying to huff and puff up a hill.

Trying to catch up

Little piggy

Misty Jungle

At one point, we passed through a high valley where the locals were practicing some slash and burn agriculture. We have become used to ash snowing down on us or smoke clouds billowing into the sky, but this area was different. We felt like we had entered some post apocalyptic war zone.

Slash and burn

The heat became unbearable around 1230pm, when we decided to duck into a small restaurant to get out of the heat. Chandler was able to get some soup which came with the pile of greens that he added to the soup and would eat bits of periodically, mirroring the actions of the locals. I was able to convey that I’m a vegetarian, so the owner fixed me up some eggs. The eggs tasted a little funny, but I was hungry so I ate them anyways.

Super safe bridge

Around 300pm, we still had a ways to go to get to Beng and got back on the road. About half an hour into the ride my stomach started to rumble. The road mellowed out and we didn’t have to go up and down so many hills. By the time we got to Beng, I was crying and in serious need of a bathroom. Chandler got us the first guesthouse we came to and carried all of our panniers up the stairs while I was sick. It was a pretty basic place, with clean sheets, but it had a shared bathroom with big barrels of water hauled from the creek and a squat toilet. Squat toilets are not ideal when emptying one’s stomach.

Chan and a stupa

After spending some time getting to know the lovely shared bathroom, I was able to lie down and snooze while Chandler went out to find something to eat. He went the wrong way the first time, and walked about a mile to the other end of town without seeing anything that resembled a restaurant. He did see a group of young kids rooting around in piles of burned trash along the roadside picking up pieces of melted metal. The whole town was actually covered in a dark haze from burning trash somewhere on the hill beside the town. While the people were friendly this was a particularly dirty spot and the first place we’d seen people scavenging so desperately. He came back to the guesthouse and asked the owners where to eat and they gestured in the other direction, where Chan found two roadhouses within 100 meters of where we were staying that he somehow missed on the ride in. He ordered the only food he knew how to say in Lao, “feh” and enjoyed his second bowl of noodle soup of the day along with a pile of leafy greens.

A Few Days Off

the things that we do

Author Archives: cjengel