March 17, 2013

We got up pretty early today so we’d have enough time to pack, find breakfast and get to the ticket counter a few minutes early. I sat with the bikes while Chandler waited in line, getting cut by little old ladies who poke their heads sideways into the ticket window as if to ask a quick question then slowly push their whole bodies in front of the person there. This sort of thing happens all the time and Chandler has learned ways to deal with the situation. Usually this involves getting uncomfortably close to the person in front of him (pretty much vertical spooning) and then putting his hands on his hips creating a little old lady barrier with his elbows. Eventually, he got our tickets and we headed down to the boat.

A boat like ours

Our bikes were loaded onto the roof of the boat and lashed down, while our panniers were piled up inside with everyone else’s luggage. The people aboard the boat were a good mix of locals and tourists, with one person per seat. This was nice to see, because that meant nobody would be sitting in the aisles or wherever else they can fit. A few straggler backpackers were relegated to the luggage area though and were a lot more cramped than the early birds who snapped up the reused passenger van seats set up in the front, away from the engine room.

Confluence with another river

Village on the Mekong

When everyone and their gear were loaded, the boat was pushed out into the current using long bamboo poles. The captain started the engine and we were off, traveling up the Mekong. We had an 8 hour boat ride ahead of us, so we got comfortable with our Kindles, alternating between reading and watching the landscape pass us by. Surprisingly, the boat went through a couple sections of pretty good rapids (nothing the Seahawk II couldn’t handle). We made a few stops at small village landings along the way to drop off locals who had obviously been down in Luang Prabang shopping.

The necessities, beer and a roof to drink it under

Sunset on the Mekong

We got to Pakbeng around 500pm and checked into the first hotel we came upon. Since it was St. Patty’s day, we figured it would be semi-sacrilegious not to celebrate. In the spirit of things, we decided we should have some black and tans. With only Lao beer available, Chandler purchased a regular BeerLao and a dark BeerLao. Hoping they would do the trick, Chan mixed them together, only to find that light rice beer and dark rice beer have pretty much the same specific gravity and eventually mixed despite how carefully he manipulated his spork. Slightly disappointed, we enjoyed our beverages anyways. Erin go Bragh!

Landing at Pakbeng

Attempt at a black and tan, Lao style

March 15 – 16, 2013

Distance: 58.8 miles

We woke up with our alarm feeling refreshed and in excellent moods. We made a quick breakfast of oatmeal and instant coffee before lugging everything back down the hill. We noticed some Hmong ladies bathing in a creek near our campsite the night before and headed there to filter some water and wash dishes. When we had finished up and were all ready to go, a solo female bike tourist rode up to us for a chat. She had stayed at the same hotel as Tony the night before and knew who we were. We talked for 20 minutes for so about the route before saying good luck and starting on our way.

Attempting to get my bike back on the road

As we made it to the top of the first big hill we saw a guy sitting in the ditch on the side of the road with an AK-47. He wasn’t a soldier, just a guy in normal clothes with an assault rifle. We’d seen several people in villages with hunting rifles, homemade looking long arms that looked like they were .22 caliber or smaller, but this was a lot different. This was a little scary, but we didn’t seem faze him, so we just kept on moving. A short while later we are stopped in the road in the middle of a village by some sort of parade. At first glance, I thought it was a funeral and Chandler thought it was a protest. Then we noticed men playing instruments, people dancing and young women at the front of the line holding large picture frames, which looked like they held certificates. We decided the parade must be a part of some sort of graduation ceremony. As we exited the other side of town there was another armed citizen, this time he had what looked like an SKS. We weren’t sure why a graduation ceremony needed to be protected by the local militia but weren’t interested in finding out. Sorry no pictures of the security!!

Parade dancers

The honorees?

We only had 20km to get to the next town with guesthouses and restaurants, but they were all up hill and took us over an hour. Even though we had just eaten, we decided to get a second breakfast of omelets and sticky rice. Properly fueled, we were ready for another big climb. But first, we had a 20km descent, losing all the elevation we had gained the day before. While I much prefer going downhill, I also dread it. The big semi trucks go slower than us down the hills, so that means we catch up to them and either pass them, which is scary, or inhale their exhaust for several miles.

Chandler goofing off

I now assume that all down hills lead to big up hills. We had about 1km of flat at the bottom of the valley before we had to start climbing a 15km long pass gaining another 600m. And on top of that, guess what time it was? 130pm, hottest part of the day. Sometimes I think we subconsciously try to sabotage ourselves. We got lucky though. There was shade most of the way and Chandler stopped by a creek at 215pm so we could dunk our heads and cool off. The climb wasn’t too bad, but I was tired of forever climbing and just wanted an easy day, so it seemed much worse than it really was.

At 400pm, we reached a town we can’t remember the name of which was our goal for the day and a place with a guesthouse. As we rolled through town, we saw that the guesthouse on the main road looked like a dump, plus there was a wedding in full swing which can continue late into the night with music blasting. Laung Prabang was only 25km away. The sun would be setting at about 6pm and we knew the last 10km were all downhill. We decided to go ahead and continue on.

Another Hmong village

More beautiful scenery

Chandler and I got a second wind and the kilometers flew by. There was one tiny little pass to climb and we ended up catching up to some other bike tourists from France that had passed us the day before. We all sailed in Laung Prabang together as the sun was setting, but split back up when the guesthouse search began.

We found a decent little place next to the Mekong River, near all the action. After the past couple days being especially challenging, we were taking a day off. We didn’t do too much on our rest day. Laundry, bike cleaning and errands took up most of our time. We walked through town, looking at the beautiful temples and everything for sale in the market. Chandler was brave and ordered the local specialty, river moss. It was basically river seaweed dried, fried, topped with sesame seeds and served with a tomato dipping sauce. It was tasty but not very filling.

River weed

Chan has a helper cleaning his bike

Hidden Buddha

We also made an important routing decision which was to take a boat up the Mekong to Pakbeng, in order to avoid the pass to the east of Oudomxay. We had read and been warned that the road over the pass was steep, unpaved for major sections, heavily damaged by traffic and flooding and loaded with trucks. Going upriver to Pakbeng wasn’t going to make our route any shorter, but it did promise good asphalt and no major climbs. It was kind of a no-brainer to take the boat, but it takes extra planning for the bikes when using alternative modes of transportation. We found out that it was significantly cheaper to buy tickets for the 8 hour boat ride right at the boat landing (110,000 kip or $14) than to enlist the “help” of one of the travel agents (170,000 kip or $22). We settled back into our guesthouse, downloaded some shows and drank some Beer Lao.

March 13, 2013

We told the woman who showed us the room the night before that we would be leaving at 530am in the morning and could we pay right then. She said no, pay in the morning, she would be up. When 545am rolls around, we begin to wonder where we should leave the money. Under the door leading to the kitchen? Also, we didn’t have 30,000 kip, just 10,000 kip and a few American dollars. Just when we agree how much USD and kip to leave, a groggy young man comes up to receive our payment.

Early morning start

Finally, we set off through town. Nothing is open until we reach the bus station. We notice several restaurants that have clearly been open for hours and pull in. A young girl understands enough English to figure out we want omelets and rice. Knowing we have a big day ahead of us, we order seconds.

The morning started out with a pretty strong headwind, but we escaped it when we went over a small pass and the road turned into another valley. The road to Kasi was challenging, but incredibly beautiful. The mountains reminded us of movie scenes. Shear limestone walls in some parts, others with just a shallow enough pitch to support dense jungle plants and trees. There were a number of steep climbs, where there was absolutely no breeze and I was almost wishing for the headwind again.

Mountains

Lovely scenery

Interesting looking birds

In a small village we ran into another cycle tourist, Ivan from Serbia. We had a nice chat about routes and road conditions. He offered to host us at his house when we go to Serbia and gave us some helpful suggestions on biking through the Balkans. Talking to him had us looking forward to that portion of our trip.

Ivan

We made it to Kasi in good time and stopped for lunch. Chandler ordered fried noodles with chicken, while I ordered fried noodles with vegetables. When the meals arrived, we were surprised to learn fried noodles with vegetables just means noodles with less chicken than normal. Chandler was willing to eat both meals, so I tried to order another one with really no chicken, but she just pointed at my dish and said no chicken over and over despite the small pile of dead bird I had excavated and set aside.

When Chan finished his double lunch, we went to another restaurant to find me something to eat. I showed the cook my vegetarian sign and he nodded like he understood. He then brought me out a soup without any meat in it, but filled to the brim with chicken broth. A lot of people don’t seem to make the connection that soup broth is made from animals and therefore contains meat. I looked at Chandler to see if he would help me, but he was completely stuffed. So, I pulled the noodles out of the broth and told myself it was vegetable broth over and over and over.

We had read online that there is a hot springs and guesthouse 20km outside of Kasi, so we decided go ahead and go there. What we didn’t know was that it was going to be uphill the entire way. And, of course, we were doing the hardest part of the climb in the heat of the day. Chandler and I began making jokes about how good we are at our timing.

We finally made it to the hot springs a little after 4pm and we excited to see two other bikes all loaded up outside one of the bungalows. We headed over to the restaurant and had the pleasure of meeting Josh and Kat. Josh, an American, and Kat, an Aussie, had been teaching in China for the past couple of years and were exploring SE Asia on bicycles before heading to Australia. A short while later, another cyclist joined us, Tony from Germany.

The hot springs

Kat and Josh

Tony

We spent the next 5 hours in the restaurant eating and drinking way too many beers. Our little cyclist party was so much fun. It actually got a bit chilly later on in the evening, which seemed impossible after how hot it was during the day. We ended the night by taking a soak in the hot spring together and wondering how in the world we were going to manage the next day.