Ah, lovely little Vang Vieng...home of bars with reclinging futons and non-stop DVD's playing Friends everywhere, and pot smoking capital of Laos (so we're told). We got up early expecting to go tubing down the river as Vang Vieng is this adventure travel place in Laos and one can go caving, tubing, white water rafting, you name it, they have it there. But when we went out for breakfast, we knew we were screwed as it was raining and well, we just didn't want to go tubing in the rain. Besides, we wanted to work on our tans in the tubes on the river, so we kind of hung out in town, I worked on the blog and of course we sat and rehydrated ourselves for the upcoming ride on Thursday, with Beerlao and watching...you got it...Friends. Actually, though we found a place to lounge and we watched the dvd Fantastic Four which was pretty cool. Jessica Alba is pretty hot in that movie, by the way!
We ran into a Korean couple who were riding a Burley tandem bicycle with double panniers, front and back, a huge pack on the back rack, AND, they had this monstrous pack on a double wheel Burely trailer they were pulling. I couldn't believe it! They also had a large handlebar bag on the stoker's handlebar and were riding with thong sandals!!! They said that they had left Korea about 6 months ago and had ridden through China, down into north Vietnam, then crossed Laos to Vang Vieng. They were planning to ride down Laos into Cambodia then up to Bangkok where they were hopeful to try and catch a ship to India. They were on a 5 year around the world bicycling trip. Great kids to talk with. I asked if they had been able to ride the major climbs from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng and the girl said no, that they had pushed the bike up the hills. I asked how much weight they were carrying on the bike and they guy said about 100 kilos in the big back in the back and the big bag on the trailer. That didn't include the weight of the bike and all the panniers. So they had to be somewhere around 300 lbs of weight what with the bike and all...absolutely incredible!! My friend Scott Snider in Boulder would of loved them...
Here are a few pics of them:
Their names are Kim Kwong Suib and Han Soo Ji and they have a website which is: http://www.osavasa.com/. We really enjoyed talking with them and I have profound respect for their mission in seeing the world on a bicycle. Everyone should have that kind of adventurous spirit. We shared blog and websites; good luck guys! We'll stay in touch with your progress and maybe we cross paths again in the future!!We got to bed early as we had a long ride planned for the next day...a full century in miles and beyond. Looks to be around 175K ride. I cleaned Big Red before I went to bed, and lubed the chain which was dry from the rain.
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