Again, F%#@ my computer for making me write this twice.
September 28, 2013, Saturday, Vientiane-somewhere 100km Total: 10380km
On our way out of town, we ran into our friend Patriceride around town. We hid from the heat, chatted and had some refreshments.
Cyclist met: 1
After a while of delaying our ride, we finally continued on. The road was flat, with one small climb. Nothing bad. A wasp landed on me, hanging on to my shirt as it flapped my descent. I held my breath and hoped he’d ..buzz off. Nope, I felt a sting in my stomach and saw him doing its best to imitate a car engine piston, ramming his ass up and down stinging my shirt as I held it away from my body. Luckily I barely got nicked and he flew off when I abruptly halted in the middle of the road. Ended in random town that had a ton of guesthouses.
Running total of cyclists: 5
September 29, 2013, Sunday, Somewhere-Vang Vieng 100km Total 10480km
Rolling hills all day. We rode 100km the day earlier and Vang Vieng is 155km from Vientiane, leaving 55km to go, right? Wrong! We’d gone on an extra two loops the day earlier and ended up at the main highway with 80 to go after riding for 20km to get there. Dammit.
Met two French cyclists heading south from China, and a Thai cyclist rolled up as the four of us chatted.
Cyclist met: 3
On our way into town we saw two cyclist hitching a ride on a truck into town and hoped that we’d cross paths later.
We secured a temple to camp at and headed out to eat dinner, our search for the two cyclists was unsuccessful, but as we sat at the Luang Prabang Bakery a couple and I met eyes and we both pointed to each other, “You’re the cyclists!”
Cyclist met: 2
Stivan and Indra, on a two month tour in SEA, pursuing art projects while on the road. Indra, learning and teaching dance moves to locals, and Stivan towing a 30kg red arm chair to take portraits of people in the chair. Yes, he’s towing a red arm chair. What a piece of luggage to have! The chair has already been to South America and through Europe.
Running total of cyclists: 10
September 30, 2013, Monday, Vang Vieng-Hot Springs 80 total 10560
Stivan, and Indra met us for breakfast, though our cyclist numbers weren’t limited to four as we saw two more rolling up the street! Thomas and Manuella. Going the same direction too!(This is rare!) Turns out this is the Swiss couple that Patrice met.
Cyclist met: 2
The six of us moseyed north looking for a good spot to take a picture with the chair, and where is the best place to do it? Right in the middle of the street, duh. It was like the six stooges with us waiting for absent traffic at either end of the road, setting up the shot but needed to disband each time a car showed up. After a few tries we decided to make the traffic wait.
Two medium climbs, beautiful scenery. As I left a gas station for a bathroom break I met a Thai cyclist at the end of his tour through Laos and got the route report.
Cyclist met: 1
We stopped off at a not-so-hot hot springs and checked into the adjacent guesthouse.
Running total of cyclist met: 13
October 1, 2013, Tuesday, Hot Springs-Kewkacham 75km total 10635
Long, long, medium-grade climb to start the day. My favorite, no joke. The scenery made it even better.
The ride beyond the first climb was a ceaseless series of summits, too many to count.We were all fooled, repeatedly, into thinking our day was over, nope! Tricked again. We met two French cousins, riding from France a year and a few months into their journey.
Cyclist met: 2
We had to ride into Kewkacham by headlight cause night comes early in the mountains. Finally felt chilly sleeping at 1400m.
Running Total: 15
October 2, 2013, Wednesday, Kewkacham-Luang Prabang 80 total 10715
A bit of a climb led us to an hour long descent! Such a great reprieve. Though, even reprieves have reprieves; we had another 15km climb to do. At the top we met four Thai cyclists, two on their second year, another couple going for a few months.
Cyclist met: 4
One more long descent, lunch in the valley, back into the heat. The day earlier I was almost shivering, now I’m sweating in sweltering heat. A small climb and then descent into Luang Prabang, where we met Chenwen, a Chinese cyclist from Chongqing and booked into his guesthouse, the Meunne guesthouse, near the motorbike/biking bridge. 20k for dorm style, cheapest in town.
Cyclist met: 1
The five of us cyclists ate dinner at the night market, 10k kip for a plate which you can stuff as much food as you can onto. We had contests, Raj and Thomas beat me out!
Running Total: 20
October 3, 2013, Thursday, Luang Prabang
Raj’s and my plans to leave were foiled when we spotted three more cyclists while at our breakfast spot. I walked over, invited them over and we had a seven person cyclist party. Sophie and Ingo, two Germans, Sophie started from Germany, Ingo riding with her from Krygystan, and Ty a Korean who rode through China. We all agreed to meet up for dinner at the all you can stuff night market stall. On our walk through town Raj, Ty and I spotted a Surly Long Haul Trecker, so I wrote a note and invited our cycling brethren to join us for dinner.
Cyclist met: 3
The note recipient was Aaron, an American who just moved to Luang Prabang with his girlfriend. Both are cycle tourists. And our table was a gay ol’ party of nine cyclists. Wonderful.
Cyclist met: 2
Running total: 25
Hi, just wanted to leave note to say I’m really enjoying following your blog and seeing places I’ve whizzed past from a completely different perspective! I hope you’re loving Laos as much as I did! It’s a bit out of the way and the drive there was pretty hardcore (even in a mini bus) but the Plain of Jars over near Phonsavan was one of the highlights for me of my whole SE Asia experience 🙂 Good Luck with the next part of your epic adventure! Fiona