March 11, 2013

We slept in knowing we had a short ride of only 35 miles or so ahead of us. The woman running the kitchen didn’t speak much English, but she knew coffee, omelette and bread. Magic words to us. While we waited for breakfast, she brought over bananas and a pot of green tea. Chandler and I began discussing ways to convince her to follow us and be our cook.

Breakfast

When we finally hit the road, we were in excellent moods and excited to reach Vang Vieng. There were a number of steep hills to climb, but we paid them little attention because was so beautiful.

River and mountains

So scenic

There was little traffic, just a few buses and motos. They gave us plenty of room on the road. The road conditions were also good. A few pot holes, but nothing you couldn’t avoid. We did hit a few road blocks of cute baby goats and herds of cows. But, those are my favorite kinds of traffic jams.

Stampede

Goats

At one point in the day, we passed a group of kids out on their lunch break. They all lined up and gave us high fives as we cycled pass them. I felt like the star athlete on a sports team, it was awesome.

We stopped for a break shortly after being cheered on by the students. Chandler got some soup and I just had a soda. We chatted with another tourist from europe exploring Laos by motorbike and were back on the road after 30 minutes or so. It was hot and hilly, but not too bad, but we both hit the wall. The next 30km took us forever. We were beginning to become grumpy with each other when we hit the edge of town. Seeing the name of the cave advertised had us laughing and lightening up.

Must be a typo

Vang Veing has a reputation of being a major party town, with lots of drugs and drinking. The Laos government recently cracked down on attractions promoting bad behavior. We were pleasantly surprised to find a subdued town in a beautiful setting and decided to get a hotel in the center of things. The first hotel was priced at the high end of what we were willing to spend, but they had wifi. So, Chandler went to check out the room. He came back and said one word: POOL!

Chandler does not like swimming pools, so the fact that he was willing to swim in this one was very exciting for me. We spent the next hour playing in the refreshing cool water until dinner. Everywhere in SE Asia should have a pool.

I love swimming

March 10, 2013

We got up at 530am to get an early start and get out of creepy town. We had everything packed up the night before, so we were able to get on the road pretty quickly. We were hoping to find a restaurant in the next town, but nobody appeared open yet. We passed through a few more towns stopping and making an eating food motion with people just shaking their heads no. Once Chan and I started snapping at each other, it was obvious we needed to eat or the ride was getting to become very unpleasant.

Sunrise

Chandler bought some eggs and we decided to make breakfast on the side of the road using our stove. Before the trip, we purchased a new stove that could run on gasoline or diesel fuel and this would be our first time using it. It took a few minutes to figure out how to prime it and get it going. Soon enough eggs were cooking.

First time using the stove

With breakfast out of the way, we were ready to bike. The road was in good condition and relatively flat. The scenery was beautiful as usual. Chandler saw a ferry across the river that would cut out 10 or so miles from the ride. The ferry was just a floating metal platform with an engine, but it was quick and only 4000 kip or $0.50 for both of us.

Waiting to cross

We tried to go to a restaurant on the other side of the river, but they only had soup. We had a couple of sprites to cool down. Further into town, we found a restaurant miraculously with an English menu posted outside, but they were closed for the day to clean. Eventually, we spotted a donut stand and stopped for a few. There were two flavors and because I didn’t know what either kind was, I bought a few of each. The first donut was filled with condensed milk and were delicious. The second was filled with dried fish with the consistency of yarn and not delicious. After, we bought more of the Laos Krispy Kremes, the man working the stand gave us a melon for free. The melon was small and green, like a mini honeydew but had a texture similar to an apple. It was interesting and we really appreciated the man’s kindness. We figured our snack would hold us over for another hour, when we would get to Phon Hong where were planning on staying.

We made it to Phon Hong in good time and were hoping there would be a guesthouse on the north end of town. When Chandler spied a cafe, we u-turned and headed over. As we pulled up, so did another man on a moto. The sign in from of the cafe was written in Vietnamese, so Chan ordered a cafe sua da, and the girl working at the stand nodded. Then, the man asked me what we wanted, then repeated our order then told us the girl didn’t speak English (duh). Then he indicated he spoke english, which was a bit of a stretch. As we sat down, the man sat down between us introducing himself as Chicken. We were pretty tired at this point and not interested in entertaining our guest. His body language was a little strange, but he was asking us normal questions so we went along with it. After the some small talk, he left, saying wait here for him. Our coffee wasn’t even out yet so we weren’t going anywhere.

Our coffee arrived and we began to relax, but the guy comes back- he had changed and was now stinking of cologne which barely covered up the booze on his breath. Chicken sits down, tells us we need to follow him out of town to a restaurant. We lie and tell him we already ate in town. This seems to annoy him so he picks up Chan’s coffee and take a really gross gulp with backwash and everything. Chan is stunned, and pissed of course. He tells him we’re not going anywhere, that we are trying to relax and he needs to chill out. Chicken keeps handing Chan his coffee saying “let’s go, me take care of you.” He takes another swig of Chan’s drink as if this will help the matter. Chan is just staring back into the cafe with his arms crossed ignoring him. Finally, he tries to guilt us into following him by saying “fine, I just go alone”, which is fine with us. He takes off on his scooter with the kickstand still down. Good riddance.

Now that our coffee break was ruined, we waited a few minutes to ensure the drunk guy is far enough away from us, before hopping back on the bikes. We didn’t want to stay in town with only one guesthouse, it would be easy for our “friend” to track us down if he really wanted to. We passed a dive of a guesthouse and one that was closed. Then we saw a pretty nice sign for an eco-resort, which was a few kilometers down a side road. It looked like it was probably an expensive package tour type place so we decided not to risk a potentially fruitless ride out there. We pressed on.

It was hitting 2pm, the hottest part of the day and there was a large pass in front of us. We found a shady spot and sit down for a snack of Oreos and almost immediately a guy on a moto coming down the pass u-turns and rides back up towards us. We scramble back onto the bikes with our mouths full of cookies and take off without saying hello. When we reached the top of the pass, we both felt really bad about blowing off the guy who was probably just curious. We still had our guard up big time after the incident with Chicken.

Smart guys staying out of the sun

We continue cycling through beautiful scenery, saying hello to friendly people, hoping to see a guesthouse. The back side of the pass was markedly less traveler friendly, but we did find some cold water and a pepsi when we really needed it. I was getting desperate to end the day at this point but had begun to mentally prepare myself for another 40km of riding. Just when I was about to lose it, another cyclist rides up to us headed the other way. We stop and chat about where we are from and where we are going. He was from the Boulder area in CO, and had just packrafted a few days down a river starting near the Chinese border. Pretty cool! The best news the cyclist gave us was that there’s a guesthouse only 2 miles up the road in Hinheup! Horray!

Sure enough, guesthouse and restaurant appeared where we were told they would. A clean bed, hot water and a safe place for the bikes. We were so hungry, we ate dinner before taking showers and putting on clean clothes. They cooked us up a huge pile of stir fried vegetables with rice and an egg, a perfect meal!

Dinner

When we were in Vientiane, Ian transferred all his movies to our computer, so we spent the rest of the evening laying in bed, relaxing watching the Big Lebowski.

March 9, 2013

We were completely unmotivated to leave Vientiane early. It might have had something to do with staying up very later or having a few beers, but maybe not. We didn’t end up leaving Ian’s house until 1030am. We then had to stop by Three Sisters for one last noodle dish, finishing lunch around 1130am. On the way out of town, we stopped by the Patuxai Arch and the That Luang Stupa for a few photos. We finally made it out of town a little after noon.

Saying goodbye to Ian

The Patuxai Arch

An Alaskan and the Stupa

The ride out was not really interesting, because we were just cycling through industrial suburbs of the city. After a while we ended up on Highway 10 which was a more quiet meandering road than Highway 13, which is the main route north.

We started looking for a guesthouse after about 20 miles. We followed a sign on the main road and after a kilometer or so, found a brand new looking building with nobody around and the gate locked. We kind of stared at each other and the gate for a minute, thinking about what to do when a girl on a motorbike drove up and let us in.

Another man drove up a short time later and told us the price was 30,000 kip, but raised it to 50,000 kip when he found out we wanted to sleep there all night long. Then he raised it to 80,000 kip. What should have been a pretty simple transaction took well over five minutes with the man and the girl chattering back and forth (flashbacks to Vietnam), and for some reason seemed to be very confusing for them. Clearly, we were getting ripped off, but we were not in the mood to find another place to stay, we agreed to the price. Now the man wanted us to eat chicken at his house. We said no, and he said yes chicken, and we said no and went inside.

Sometimes we joke, but with some seriousness, that we like to stay at crappier places just because it gives us some extra motivation to get up and get going early the next day. This was a “motivating motel”.

We spent the remainder of the evening doing some much needed laundry in the sink and reading. I had a bit of an encounter with a couple local kids and their kitten. Animal cruelty seems to be everywhere in Asia, and these children were no exception when they picked up the kitten by it’s hind leg to swing it around. I really didn’t know how to react to the situation. The kids and I don’t speak the same language and I couldn’t take the kitten away for very long before they had to leave, so I just tried to set an example of being nice. I couldn’t handle watching the poor kitten get harassed, so we left to find dinner in the market.