On To Vang Vieng...Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, Laos...Tuesday, January 29,2008

We left via VIP bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng today. We rode the bikes out early, and got there around 7:15 a.m. as the bus left at 8:00 and we wanted to get there early to get the bikes on the bus and find a good seat. We had been told that they would put the bikes up on top of the bus and strap them down, but when we got there, the bus they had going wouldn't allow for anything on top due to vents and AC so we had to take front wheel off and stow them underneath which was fine. We were amazed at the number of "backpackers" getting busses...all the cheap local bus that takes 9-12 hrs to get there (stops at every little village along the way) with no AC. We saw kids with backpacks bigger than they were, hauling these huge packs on their backs..many brand new. Course they aren't doing what we would consider "backpacking"...closest they get to backpacking is from bus station to the Guesthouse!

Our trip was to be 6 hrs. It didn't take long before we realized quickly that we had made the right decision in not riding to Vang Vieng...first we knew it would take us 3 days as it was about 381K and the climbs, heat and very narrow 2 lane road without any shoulder just didn't look that safe to me. The scenery was just incredible...steep climbs with beautiful vistas of the mountains. Laos is a very mountainous country. We went through numerous small villages, with huts made of bamboo. We could tell what we thought were the people who were living well as they would have a huge satellite tv dish outside their house. I feared for the little children along the road as the bus driver would drive through these villages in excess of the 30K speed limit...probably double that and didn't even slow...just blew his horn. Many of the women on the bus got motion sickness from the many many sharp hairpin curves (and he was taking them pretty fast as well). So we were really glad to not have ridden this. We did see one cyclist with panniers on hte back side of the mountain who was riding up...very slow!!!

We stopped for a pee break 3 hrs into the trip...and everyone bailed off and headed for the jungle. The smokers were smoking up a storm on one side of the bus and the peers on the other side...........ha!

We stopped again at 4 hrs for lunch stop and we had a wonderful lunch at a roadside stall.

We arrived inVang Vieng around 2:00 p.m. and located a beautiful Guesthouse bungalow right on the river for only $15 a night. Beautiful room...another Hyatt...no SQUAT TOILET! We even each have our own private deck on the front of the bungalow. We booked 2 nights. The plan is to book tubing on the river for tomorrow and enjoy the place.

We rode around town (or Colin did while I was spending time updating the blog all afternoon) to get our bearings, then went to a bar for late lunch (Hawaiian pizza..great pizza!!), a Beerlao and relax at these bars they have all over town which are futon beds that you lie on with table in front of you...all the while you watch Friends on big tv. It is the craziest thing you ever saw..and these bars are everywhere! And they all have Friends playing on DVD on big screen....you'll hear laughter all up and down the street. Friends was the only program we saw on any tv's. Great fun!

Watching Friends.......... Beautiful downtown Vang Vieng, Laos

We went and had massages the headed back for dinner and to watch more Friends. I must address one thing here...and that is that when riding a bike, and looking into the local bars, you must maintain focus and watch where the hell you're going. We were riding along the side of the street, looking into the bars to find a place to watch Friends on the futon recliner, and I wasn't watching where the hell I was going...when suddenly, I look up and BAM...ran right into the back of a big ole SUV....hit the bumper straight on with the tire, bounced back and I laned with both feet on the ground. Talk about luck!! No damage to Big Red..she took it all in stride...wheel is still running straight and true!!! I know...I know!!!

Luang Prabang and Waterfall..Monday, January 28, 2008

We decided to get up early and take the bikes out to this waterfall 35K southwest of Luang Prabang. As we hadn't really been on the bikes since last Friday, we were really chomping at the bit to get onto the bikes again, albeit without the panniers since we wouldn't need them today. So we set off around 8:30 for the waterfall, cruising through the rural countryside, and everyone singing out "Sabaidee" to us. We loved the ride out there. Beautiful country, Laos, and I really do want to return and see more of the country for a much longer time and a more leisurely pace. The people are just so friendly here.

The local gas station attendant in rural Laos......

We arrived at the waterfall, and wow...awesome!!! There were sanctuaries there for save the Moon Bear which is an Asian species of black bear with a white marking like a moon on it's chest. They had maybe 25 bears there that some international wildlife association had rescued from poachers. Poaching of the bears and tigers (Asian tigers are in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and China) are a big thing for the bones and penis's (I'm not making this up) and bile which the Japanese consider as an aphrodisiac and buy this stuff on the black market.

Moon Bears Asian Tiger

We continued down the trail and came upon the first set of falls. You then walk further and end up at this huge waterfall cascading for about 70 meters............see pics..........

As we were hiking back down the trail to the parking area, we came across the two little girls and it was a true Kodak moment......

We had lunch at this great little food stall...I had this wonderful grilled fish..........

Following lunch, we rode back to Luang Prabang. On the way out, we'd seen this woman who was weaving silk textiles on a loom so we stopped on the way back and each purchased a beautiful handmade silk shawl. Some were just just incredibly intricate patterns.........

And that concluded the day....we arrived back in Luang Prabang and just as we got into town, it started raining. We had not seen rain in all the time we'd been here but it really started pouring well..it felt great to be riding in the rain. Unfortuantely, it continued to rain most of the evening and we didn't get out to go to dinner until late. All the markets were closed and we ended up getting food at the local food stalls...me and my fresh Spring rolls...Colin and his French baguette bread! Ha!

Luang Prabang..Wats, Wats and More Wats...Sunday, January 27, 2008

Well, after arriving on Saturday the 26th in Luang Prabang late in the evening, we were itching to check the place out. We found a great place down the street for breakfast with Kaffe Lao Dam (black Lao coffee) and then took off on the bikes to check out the ancient Buddhist Wats in the area.

I'm not knocking the Wats..believe me, I'm not. I've seen Wats all over Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and now Laos...and well, you get Watted out...believe me. But there is still something mystical, soothing and calming whenever I go to visit a Buddhist Wat and seeing and hearing the monks in their saffron robes chanting. It just gives me this feeling of a higher power in the universe. There are many very old Wats within Luang Prabang area, and I think we visited half of them. But the city has become the #1 tourist place in Laos and we were just shocked at the number of foreigners in the small city...they were everywhere. Restaurants in the evening were teeming with Aussies, Americans, Brits, Chinese and many many other people from elsewhere. Most of the guesthouses we tried to get into were completely booked solid. So this is a good thing I think for Laos and the people. But still, there was much evidence of very poor people but everywhere we went, the people were smiling, waving, and wanting to talk with us. Everyone asked where we were from and almost all were so admiring of America, despite George Bush ..and that made me feel very good. Colin and I both thought that the Lao people were perhaps the friendliest and nicest people we have met in Asia. But back to the Wats.........

This is a beautiful Wat which sits on top of a mountain in the middle of the city of Luang Prang.

We concluded our Wat tour on the bikes, rehydrated with our favorite...Beerlao...and had lunch. Cruised the evening looking at the markets and to bed.......

GoodBye Thailand...Hello Laos....Friday, Jan 25, 2008

This post is a little late given it's already Monday! Ha! But I wasn't able to find an internet cafe to work on this until today.

Ok, to bring you all up to speed.......or slow in our case! We left Chiang Khong on a ferry across the Mekong in the morning. The day before we had given our passports, $35, and a pic with a Laos app to the hotel guy running the hotel as they would get us our visas (for a nominal charge of 200 baht). We just didn't want to screw with it. He told us we could get the passports at 8 a.m. on Friday with the visa. Well, 8 a.m. and the guy was nowhere to be found...8:30...nothing...9:00 and he still wasn't there and we're sitting on our asses waiting. Finally he strolls in and we go...hey dude...where's the passports and he goes...let's go, let's go. We say..go where, and he says to Thai immigration to get your passport stamped to leave the country. Now we knew we could of done that ourselves and saved us 200 baht each in the process, as that was simple. But then we find out the dude didn't have our visas and we would have to go across to Laos and get it on our own anyway!!! So we say...give us our 200 baht back...we'll do this ourselves and finally after much delay and words, they give us our money back and we go merrily on our way. We find a ferry to take us and the bikes across, then we arrive at the dock in Laos............

Big Red Settled into the ferry.....

Well Hello Laos! At the ferry landing.

We had absolutely no problems getting our visas...in and out in 15 minutes. We then were planning to search around for either a slow boat (2 day trip) or fast boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. A guy came up to us and asked if we wanted a slow boat as he needed 4 more people for his party to fill the boat (1st lie). We told him we thought we might be interested in paying for a fast boat and rent the whole boat for us and the bikes (we'd been told the night before at a rental agency that the cost would be 10,000 baht or about $350. I told Colin I was prepared to pay $250 of the cost just to save us a day. Anyway the guy went on and on that no fast boat would take us and the bikes (2nd lie) and that it would cost us probably $500 (3rd lie). So we opted to go with this guys group and the slow boat he said he had chartered (4th lie). We picked up some food and the guy gave us the rundown on the boat, then sold us an advance room at Pak Bang in a guest house (we were glad we did buy it too!) for 400 baht each. The slow boat he said was 800 baht (divide by 30 to $) and we'd have to also pay 1/2 of that for our bikes (5th lie). So we shelled out 1200 baht ($40) to the guy and found the boat. To find that the boat was not his boat but a full public boat (and he was of course gone) and was it ever overcrowded. We had difficult finding a place to sit and had sat on the gunwhale until some guy put down a wooden bench for us along the side. And we sat on that damn bench for 7 hrs on the river....wanna talk about excruciating agony??? Then the boat stopped at every village and picked people up along the way...and the space we had for our feet suddenly was disappearing and you felt like sardines in a can. Awful!!! NEVER AGAIN!!! And always trust your instincts...and double check!!!!

Did you think I was joking about the overcrowded boat???

We finally arrived in Pak Bang, a small overnight tourist town on the Mekong around 7:00 p.m. There wasn't any dock at all, the boat just pulled up to a sandy shoal with big rocks and everyone for themselves! I was trying to get off using the gangplank and some rather large German woman in a hurry pushed me, and I fell into about 2 ft of water with my bags. Then you trudge up this large sandy beach area and little kids are begging you to carry your bags to the top. Well, who am I not to suppor the local economy? So I divied up the 4 panniers, 2 to a kid, and also a guy begged me to carry my bike to the top as well. Again...it's the local economy! So we got to the top, I gave each kid 2 $1 bills and they were like falling all over themselves. I gave the guy who toted Big Red, $4 in 1's and he's got a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon...Cool!

The boat landing at Pak Bang

We got to the Guest House which was your basic guesthouse, no hot water, but First Class in my book...cause No Squat Toilet!!! We found a great restaurant for the evening, had our favorite, stir fried morning glory, chicken and rice and Beerlao!!

I had told Colin that as the boat was supposed to leave at 9 that I'd like to be at the boat around 7-7:30 so we could get the bikes loaded and find a decent seat. We ate at the same restaurant in the morning and had these delicious thick bannana pancakes...yummy! It was interesting as we got up and moving around about 6:30 (long after the cocks were crowing!) and waiting there for me, were the 2 little kids and the guy who had hauled my bags and bike from the landing. I told them to meet me at 7:30 at the top of the landing (which they did). We got the bikes aboard and a decent seat on the boat, only to lose out on that (again) when the boat became seriously overloaded with people the captain kept picking up along the way. I am not exaggerating (which i do sometimes admit to doing)...the engine actually started overheating and they must of shut it down and we just merrily went with the current till they got it running again.

Our boat....am I exaggerating??

We kept asking her to play Cumbaya......

One of the coolest parts of this trip (which really was pretty bad) was seeing all the little kids along the shore whenever we put in to pick people up...such big grins and they would wave and say Sabaidee...(hello in Lao)

Two more t'shirts gone! I wish I'd had a couple hundred!

We finally arrived in Luang Prabang just about sunset........

Sunset over the Mekong.........

We got the bikes unloaded (in the dark), packed up the panniers and rode off into the sunset and Luang Prabang to look for a guest house. It's always a hoot us looking for a guest house when we arrive anywhere, cause we have no friggn idea where the hell we're going and we're looking for a place to sleep! Ha! After about an hour and a half (everything was full), we finally found a great place (another Hyatt....no SQUAT TOILET!!) with hot water and only $10 a night. We booked three nights..........

Laos Here We Come...Thursday Jan 24, 2008 ..Chiang Khong, Thailand

We decided given that we have this terrific guesthouse we found (I'll post pics later people..sorry!), that we'd stay here another night. But after last night, now we wish we hadn't. Thai people (and I know I'm generalizing), at least up North, do not eat late. We finished things at the internet cafe around 8 p.m. and was lucky to find any place to eat. We finally strolled down to the Bamboo Guesthouse which is owned by this eccentric (and ecclectic) Thai guy. It was so cool. He serves Mexican food and wow...it really was great! Highly recommended in the Lonely Planet and when I commented to him we wanted Mexican given the LP recommendation, his response was...don't believe it...Mexican food no good here, but we tried it anyway. Homemade salsa with chips and washed down with a cold Singha (national beer of Thailand). What was really interesting, was that Colin, my Brit biking buddy had never had Mexican food...yep..that's true! And he has traveled all over also! So, I played like a Thai person or Chinese person ordering all this Mexican food for us! Started off with chicken fajitas, then moved onto chicken burritos and polished it off with chocolate brownie with chocolate dripping all over it..ah..it was great! But the place was just incredibly cool...he had music playing in the background and it was all the old 60's stuff, of Grand Funk Railroad, Beatles, Cream, and all the halucingenic good stuff!!! We loved it so much, we're hitting the place tonight. I'll take pics tonight to post.

But after dinner, we wandered around the streets and it was TOTALLY DEAD!!! We had seen this (and I kid you not) bar that had advertised Country Thai music and we thought hm..this might be interesting. Well, at 10 pm there were only 2 people in there other than the live band playing!! Needless to say...we didn't stick around. So we were pretty good boys last night, and in our rooms by 10:30.


Today we got the guesthouse people to handle getting us our Laos visas as we didn't want to go through the hassle in the morning when we leave. Initially, our plan had been to take a high speedboat down the Mekong from Huay Xia in Laos, to Luang Phang which is the ancient capital of Laos and on the World Heritage site. Supposed to be small scale Angor Wat in Cambodia which I've seen several times. But the Lonely Planet guidebook strongly advised against the highspeed boat due to many accidents (some fatal) and after talking with a Brit who lives at the guesthouse, he strongly advised us not to do it and take the "slow boat". So that's what we're going to do tomorrow. We hadn't wanted to do this as the slow boat is a 2 day journey and stops overnight at Pak Bang about 1/2 way. But it will be much safer. We wandered around town, got our daily massages (I'm addicted to Thai and oil massage...at only $10 or 300 baht for 2 hrs, wouldn't you??), and chilled. Found a great roadside bbq that had grilled chicken which had obviously been through a rub as it was just wonderful. Colin had to stop me from buying another (1/2 chicken). Here's a pic of us getting our massages today:

Happy Massage Lady!

That is actually Colin's leg...

The busy street of Chiang Khong!

I've gotten many emails from everyone saying they really love the blog and like reading about our adventure...yeh well we are having an outstanding time...wish many of you could experience this type of adventure. Life is all about creating memories...and this trip will fullfill that goal.

Another Hot Day...Chaing Kham to Chiang Khong - Wed. Jan 23, 2008

We left the hotel this morning in Chiang Kham around 7:10 and hit a 7-11 (why is that these things are everywhere in Asia but you can't find them in US???) for great coffee and whatever else we could find to devour. Rolled out of town at 7:30 and promptly realized we weren't on right road. Finally found where we needed to go. This was a great ride today, flat to rolling hills although I just couldn't seem to get into the ride today and not sure why. Felt like I was fighting the ride all day and struggling. It was brutally hot today so maybe that plus my not taking my daily dosage of chocolate milk in the afternoon had something to do with how I felt.

The damn maps did us in again...this has been a recurring fiasco. The maps had us at 90K total distance and we got out on the road only to discover we would be riding somewhere around 107 (it ended up 108.8)

We rode north on highway 1021, a nice good blacktop road with huge mountains looming on our right hand side covered in trees. I'd been concerned that we might have to ride some of those passes, but my fears were un-founded as we pretty much rode a great flat road at the foot hills. Reminded me a lot of our rides on CO 36 with foothills to our left. Only the trucks and traffic is just so generous and courteous to bikers here..no even even came close to us.

We saw these buildings alongside the road while riding...your guess is

as good as ours what they are!

We arrived in Theong around 11:00 a.m. and stopped for water. We found a great little highway noodle shop and stopped for lunch. I love the Thai noodle shops...for about $.50 you get a big bowl of steaming rice noodles in a "soup" with pork, chicken or beef and they taste good and are really nutrious. Here's a pic of Colin at the shop...........

Colin after polishing off bowl of Thai rice noodles with

pork and enough hot peppers to burn place down!

We took off and rode to Chun Phu and stopped for a Kodak moment before continuing on for Chacern. Finally arrived in Chiang Khong at the the border with Laos on the Mekong River at about 2:30. Found a great guesthouse overlooking the Mekong and Laos for only 300 baht (under $20 a night). It had hot water, and Western toilet (this is my measure now of what I decide is a great place to stay for the night!!)

Beautiful Buddhist stupa we saw alongside the ride.

This is a "slow boat" on the Mekong looking out from our
guesthouse

Out on the ride today, we met two guys who were riding road bikes from Chiang Khong. Turns out that there is a big cycling festival going on in Chiang Khong this weekend beginning Friday. Will have cylco, road, mountain racing and a crit. The one guy was a Brit from Liverpool who has been living in Chiang Khong for 3 years and is opening a cycling museum...funny the people you meet on these trips.

Dream Ride - Phayao to Chiang Kham Thailand - January 22, 2008

Ah, you live for a ride like today!! Incredible ride. Nice and cool in the morning when we left the hotel in Phayao at 7:05 and got underway. The sun was just breaking the horizon, golden ball coming up slowly through a foggy haze. What a truly beautiful morning...thank you God, Buddha, Mohammed or whomever for giving me an extraordinary life and this wonderful experience and adventure for so many years. I'm still in awe that I've been so fortunate to experience all this while I ride by rice fields and see people in back breaking work from sunrise to sunset. One gets a really big guilt feeling for all I've been blessed while I see those less fortunate toiling away in the fields...but as someone once told me..."maybe they're the blessed ones..not us".

We rode highway 1021, a great secondary road NE to Chun then to Chiang Kham. Another map error today; the map showed total distance at 96K but we saw a road sign early on that the distance was 80K...yahoo!!!

We stopped several times and took pictures of various wats (Buddhist temples). Then we saw this beautiful temple of 3 stupas on top of a mountain with steep steps to climb to the top..yeh, we had to do it..wouldn't of been right to pass up this opportunity and besides, we had been really flying today on the road so up we went. Very beautiful area; several Buddhist monks lived at the temple.

We arrived in Chiang Kham about 12:30 pm, found a good hotel. Colin's room was 350 baht and mine 450 (I got the big room) but still less than $15 for the night. Has cable tv, ac, hot water and NO SQUAT TOILET!!! We've been amazed at finding good accomodations for such a low price...unbelievable. Only drawback is that the city is kind of boring..not much to do or see. Can't even get a massage here today! Oh well!!

Rest Day...Phayao, Thailand January 22, 2008

We took a rest day today after yesterday. And besides, we felt that we had been trying to ride every day as we both love it so much, but we talked last night and realized we were missing all the cultural aspects of the area we were. So, day off to explore and enjoy the area. Some pics........

This is the largest Budda in the Lanna Style in Thailand

Phrae to Phayao...More Climbing Sunday 1-20-08

We got away this morning from our hotel in Phrae. We were very nervous about this leg of the trip, as the maps we had showed the distance at about 170K, a grueling day in hot sun, climbing in the mountains and long stretches with no water available. So I got with a young man at the hotel this morning and told him that if we flagged down a truck, I would like him to translate into Thai for me a note we could give to a truck driver that said we were very tired, and could he please give us a lift to Phayao and we would gladly pay him. Lonely Planet said this is not unusual and is done a lot...so we figured as last resort.....

So we got underway, and maybe 20K outside of town, we see a big sign which says...120K to Phayao...I'm going, what the h...??? Turns out it was a total of 147 there, not 170K!!! But the problem was heat, humidity, intense sunshine, and long steep grades to climb in the mountains. We pushed on, stopping at the top of every climb to try and recover and re-hydrate. I'll tell you what..climbing up a mountain pass with 60 lbs of gear on a bike is like...HELL!!! There were so many times yesterday when I said...what the hell am I doing? I should be setting on a beach in Phuket enjoying life!!! But I'm more in the adventure of it all and this is really nothing more than what I've experienced in many of the different ultra runs I've done. It's a challenge, adventure, and experience all rolled into one. I have profound new respect for 1 friend of mine who is house sitting for me in Longmont who does this bike touring (by himself) stuff, and thinking nothing of loading 100 lbs of gear on his bike and taking off. My hats off to you Scott! YOU DA MAN!!!

The Long and Winding Road

Up Up and Away!!!

We finally reached Nghao, a sizeable city only 50K from Phayao and stopped and loaded up. I bought a chocolate milk (thanks Scott for the tip on this recovery drink!), a small energy drink, 2 bottles of water and a Coke and downed it all. Then bought more water, and left with three full water bottles and another liter in my bags; I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to run dry again!!!

We found reached the 50K to go mark and it was like Hallelujah!!! From there, we stopped every 10K. We had a pretty good stretch from there as the elevation at Phayao we knew to be only 1305 ft and we were already at 1400+ so I was pretty certain that we wouldn't have much more climbing...I was wrong again! We finally reached a top altitude of about 1565, some downhill and then straight shot into Phayao with a great tailwind. We rode the last 30K in excess of 30K an hour (big deal, eh?? Ha!) and it felt like we were flying. Rode triumphantly into Phayao and stopped to ask in my broken Thai...Do you know where we can find a hotel? Actually I knew one word from my book...for hotel...and I used it...and the girl says...we have a hotel, no guesthouse...in perfect English...go figure! Ended up finding this "hotel" that really wasn't all that bad...except...a squat toilet. God I hate squat toilets!!! I mean, hell my body just wasn't made to squat till my ass touches the ground...never was meant to be. Plus, I had knee surgery and the furthest I can squat is till my legs are parallel with the ground...which is why I love squats for weight training. But when you use the squat toilet, you have a small ceramic trough under you, and if you don't aim just right...well, you get the idea! Anyway, AC, squat toilet, but it had hot water (a luxury up north) and we got it for the price of 150 baht (or less than $5 for the night). We immediately signed on for 2 hr Thai massages, for 300 baht (about 30 baht to the dollar). We were totally spent. Downed all our water, jumped in the shower, and went to the night market for "dinner". I would prefer to use the term GRAZE, cause that's about what we did...everything in sight, we ate. But great day of riding. More to come.