Thursday, February 19, 2009

Laos

We made it to Laos after riding every possible hill we could find in northern Thailand. We fell in love with the scenery and the people in northern Thailand thanks, in part, to some great advice from Shane's good friend Nicole Ripley, AKA Ripper (Shane told me to write that). We zigzagged our way through northern Thailand using an increasingly battered email printout from Nicole that contained the names of the best towns to visit as well as some key phrases for a couple of lost, hungry farangs. Nicole's email guided us to some of our favorite stops on this trip, including, Chiang Dao, Thaton, and Mae Salong, a beautiful hill tribe village nestled way up in the mountains. Thanks Nicole!

We passed the 2,000 km mark on our bike trip (insert little victory dance)! We entered Laos from Chiang Khong, Thailand by hopping on a tiny little boat to cross the quarter mile wide Mekong. The contrast between the countries was immediately visible. Laos seemed so much more poor and less developed than any other country we've seen so far, especially compared to prosperous Thailand. The roads vary between perfect condition at best and dirt filled mountain biking trails at worst, but we have both fallen in love with this place and are sad to leave it.

The far north of Laos is way off the beaten track, particularly the road we chose, which is the northernmost route and generally used as a truck route from China and Vietnam to Thailand. The scenery was gorgeous. Most of our day would be spent cycling by jungle-like vegetation, interrupted occasionally by a tiny village of stilted houses. I loved passing through these villages because we would be swarmed by half-naked cute little kids that rush to the road and yell "Sabadii!" or "Hello!" and run along us to give high fives and giggle with their friends. The villagers would be so friendly as we cycled by, but the moment we would stop to buy water, their smiles would disappear and they would stand about 3 feet from us and just stare. It was so funny, and I'm sad I didn't get it on video because Shane would be buying water (we learned how to count and say 'water' in Laos, which shocked the hell out of most people) and he would be completely enclosed in a circle of gawking little kids and young women who wouldn't say a thing or return a smile, but just look at him like he was an alien...which he kind of looked like compared to their beautiful dark skin and dark hair. However, the moment we got back on our bikes and said "bye bye!" the smiles returned and it was back to normal.

We were in such a remote area of the country that on the first night we nearly blew past our "guest house" without knowing any better. It was nearing sunset and we entered the village that another cyclist had told us contained the only guest house within 200 km, when we passed a convenient store with 2 guys lazily hanging out in front. Just as we were beginning to question whether we had misunderstood the directions, one of the guys at the convenient store yelled "Hey! You want sleep?" and made the 'sleeping on a pillow' motion with his hands. After assuring him that sleep is exactly what we wanted, he showed us to the back of his house which contained 3 small rooms on a balcony overlooking a river. The room was...less than clean (which is why sleeping bag liners are my new best friend), but the family was really nice and they cooked us a yummy dinner -- so fresh we saw the chicken before it was dead -- and also a delicious breakfast, and they even had cold beer :)

The rest of our time cycling through the north was roughly the same. Tons of gorgeous scenery, even more little villages with even more tiny kids yelling "Sabadi!", and lots more staring at us like we're aliens. We became accustomed to being the only 'falangs' (a term originally meaning French, but now refers to all foriegners) in the villages we slept in or passed through and we actually managed to pick up more words in Laos.

In case you're wondering what our cycling trip has been like on a daily basis, here's a general rundown of what we do. Get up around 6:30 more or less and grab a breakfast of noodle soup and coffee (Laos coffee is delicious, by the way, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to drink coffee without a cup of sweetened condensed milk in it ever again). Then we pack up, and try to hit the road before 8 am. We'll ride for about an hour or so, take a snack and stretch break and then ride as much as possible in the morning while it's still cool. Once it gets hot (around 12:45), we'll either post up at a noodle shop, or in the shade on the side of the road if we've packed food the night before, and eat a long lunch. Then we'll start cycling again, taking snack and stretch breaks until we get to a good place to stop for the night. We ride about 85-115 km a day, which is 50-71 miles, and we will usually take a rest day every 3 or 4 days, especially if we like the place. We'll take longer breaks in bigger cities like Luang Prabang, or Vientienne, where we are now. In general, it's a lot like backpacking, except you eat at restaurants for almost every meal and sleep in hotels at night.

It feels amazing to be fit and strong, and I'm already going twice as fast as I could in the beginning. I'm kind of surprised that I like cycling as much as I do. In fact, I was dreading the cycling portion of our trip for a while, especially when the first part was so freaking difficult. But now I can't imagine traveling any other way. We had to catch a bus once because a spoke on my back tire snapped, and the whole experience of finding a ride, and waiting for a bus was exhausting. The driver dropped us half-way to where we were going (which was in the middle of nowhere, of course), and we had to pay some guys driving a truck full of green beans to take us and our bikes in the back, and drive us the rest of the way. It's so nice to not worry about transportation, and just hop on our bikes whenever we're ready to leave. Long gone are the days of hassling with tuk-tuk drivers or having our bags puked on by carsick locals :)

Now we're in Vientienne, Laos, a huge city by Laos standards and we are freaking out about how little time we have left. As I write this, Shane is purchasing our flight tickets home. It looks like we'll be arriving in Seattle on April 25th! Reality has started to hit us pretty hard...mostly because I'm broke, but also because we're excited to get home and see our friends and family (we miss you guys!!). It's really incredible that we will have been gone for 8 months, and how much has changed during that time!

Speaking of a dose of reality...I got a job leading kids on wilderness trips in different parts of the world this summer with RLT! Woo Hoo! It's the same program that Shane did last summer when he went Costa Rica and Nicaragua, though I won't find out where I'm going until the end of April. Shane is going to be doing it again as well, so one of the first things we'll do when we get home is to leave again.

Due to the time crunch we're feeling we decided a few hours ago to head back in to Thailand tomorrow and book it south, so we are going to have to get used to riding on the left side of the road all over again. We have heard wonderful things about cycling and diving in Indonesia and want to spend as much time there as possible! Only 2 months left and we've got to live it up as much as possible.

Here are some older pictures of our trip with Ramsey, that include some awesome scuba shots.

And here are our latest pictures...hope you like them!

Thailand and Laos