RIDE DAY: Vang Vieng to Thalath

1/22/09
Day: 102.0km
Cume: 1081.9km
Avg: 16.6kph
Max: 54.5kph
Time: 6h7m
Highs: My body's heating/cooling system is finally working properly again!, the long line of kids in front of a country school on the road side all with hands extended to give me high fives, the flats (dead pan), found another neat riverside village to return to (maybe), stayed in small village, met a really nice young cyclist on his way North from Singapore and had a great dinner of bar-be-qued duck, sticky rice and salad
Lows: Not many, long day, up and down all day until I hit the flats

Not an extremely distinguised day of cycling, but not a terrible one. I think I was just relieved that my fever was over and I was finally drenched in sweat again! I had a very nice encounter with David from Singapore who's riding north from Singapore to China in his nine month break between military service and university. I wish him luck with his long journey and hope he will take the TranAmerican cycling route from SF to Boston before he starts school! Thanks for suggestion highway 10 instead of 13!

Just a lot of up and down today. I'm taking two long days of cycling to make it to Vientienne for another period of rest and sight seeing. This seems to be my preferred pattern: ride somewhere and then hang out and site see, relax and recover. It works for me. After this day, I think I decided I'll take Bernadette's (infamous among cyclists here) advice and vary my riding distances. Perhaps 50km is a good distance for the mountains and 80km for the flats, as these distances don't seem to leave me worn out the following day. I can push a 100k or 125k day when needed, but preferably, I'll take more time and ride slower and/or less duration, because I was pretty tired after this day. I think the heat also takes a big toll in terms of energy.

Again, this was just a commuting day. I understand the scenary is going to dramatically diminish over the next few days. Still, I wrote:

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a boy pedals
his bike down the road
a dog trots behind

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cuddled together at the cool dawn--
and if I wasn't paying attention,
I'd have ridden right by--
two nearly newborn kittens
on the cold, black asphalt
warmer perhaps
than the red dirt
lucky
trucks don't pass this way

REST DAYS: Vang Vieng and Environs

I was very disappointed at first with Vang Vieng. I needed to rest, though, because I was feeling a little worn out and the meds were messing a bit with my stomach and appetite. I didn't like the fact that even though I was 4km outside town, it was noisy all day at my first guest house (so much for relaxing in the hammock!). There was construction going on down the street (where isn't there construction going on in Laos?) from 6AM to 10PM with an excavator running nearly the whole day. Worse than that, there was incessant sounds of techno music and, closer to sunset, drunken singing of foreigners. I couldn't figure out what it was until I discovered that the road that led to my place was the same road used by mini buses all day long dropping hundreds and hundreds of foreigners off to inner tube the 4km back to town. The techno music, Bob Marley (same record each day I was there), Metalica, and American Pop Rock emanated from powerful sound systems at the riverside bars serving the inner tubers. I couldn't believe it. In the middle of nowhere, there were foreigners dancing to techno music, swinging on high trapeze wires and zip lines, plunging into the river and drinking like camels. I was determined to get out of town, but didn't really have the energy.

I discovered that my friend Alex from BC was in town at a small place and liked it very much. I met him down there and told him I'd stay if he would go boating with me. Luckily (I didn't realize how crowded town was), I got a room right off the bat and, being a very experience kayaker, Alex was interested in spending time on the river. I'm lucky I stayed there because it was here I realized and experienced that Vang Vieng was not only about "bucket bars" (bars selling small pales of whisky for a fraction of a song), "Happy" meals (normal foods laced with psychoactive and psychadelic stimulants) and TV bars (literally, bars and restaurants with all the chairs pointing in the same direction, facing large TVs mostly showing reruns of "Friends," I'm dead serious!).

It was here that I experience true hammock time, napping and relaxing. The setting is incredible and during the day, the partiers are either on their way out of town hung over, they're hung over or they're out on the river helping their hang over with more drinking and town is nearly silent. The view from the guest house, seeing that it's up on the cliff above "the island," is awesome at sunrise, mid-day, sunset--I took many photos! Down at the river, several bars have river side bungalows containing only hammocks to lounge around in and look lazily on the passing waters or the towering karst. I used the hammock at our guest house, a hammock down at the river and just relaxed the days away. I rested quite a bit, used the VERY fast internet in town to download radio and news to my MP3 player and started and finished Hemmingway's "A Farwell to Arms." (Sorry, really didn't like the setup for tragedy at the end, but loved the story and character development) As I said, Alex and I also took a half day to float down the river about 8km in kayaks, which was pleasant when we weren't around the bars. The Nam Song is lovely.

Other than that, I tried to fall asleep early at night to avoid the sounds of foreigners in the distance or I'd hang out with friends at the guest house and chat. I thank Alex for sharing "Shaharizod" with me one evening, which made the sunset and afterglow so pleasant!!! Then, he put on Beethoven's 5th, saying he'd love to blast that on loud PAs over the rave! Literally, with the loud breakbeats, trance and techno, fire spinners and wild night atmosphere, I felt like I was right back in Black Rock City. Fortunately, not everyone in Vang Vieng thinks that energy is what the place is about. When I woke one morning for breakfast, the guest house owner was playing Chopin piano solos quietly in the office. It made for such a lovely morning looking out across the valley at the light of sunrise illuminating the peaks. I guess, in the end, there's something for everyone in this town and I found the calm I was looking for and needing.

RIDE DAY: Bor Nam Oon to Vang Vieng

1/16/09
Day: 87.79km
Cume: 962.0km
Avg: 15.7 kph
Max: 52.0kph
Time: 5h33m
Highs: AMAZING, BREATHTAKING, scenary, quiet landscapes, villages in high mountain gorges, a small escort of kids biking home from school for about 10km, Karst vallies, unbelieveable beauty the whole day
Lows: Fresh tar gravel!, GRRRRR, TAR GRAVEL!, Inconsistent road surface, fever returned at lunch (though 2IBU made the last 30km amazing!)

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a single cow bell
in the valley made of stone
echoing

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This day requires a video BUT I'm simply unable to upload to either Blogger or YouTube, so this will have to wait until I find a really decent computer somewhere in the world. May have to wait until April when I get home. Will keep you posted.

What can I say, this was one of the best rides of my life! I have no idea how many times I said outloud or to myself "WOW" on this day of cycling. Even though I wasn't feeling my best, this day was simply amazing. A little bit of up and down, but mostly flat. I said farewell to the Lao tourers who began their 30km ascent up to Muang Phu Khun after breakfast. I told them how worth it the ride was beyond there to give them a spurt of hope for that insanely long uphill. I said hello to an Aussy couple (who the Lao had spoken of, oddly enough...I knew they were going to be so surprised and delighted that the Aussies were riding right behind them and going to spend the night at the same place as them!) who blessed me with some GREAT road information and warned me of the upcoming tar on the road. I was thankful because it was really bad. YUCK! Tar gravel: a mixture of 1inch road gravel sprayed with tar to make it stick together and then sprayed again once it's been rolled out on the surface. YUCK! Tar gravel!

At some point, I somehow joined a long column of boys riding their bikes home from school. Mr. Sam immediately introduced himself to me with decent English, asked me where I was going, where I came from, where I live. He had very kind eyes and looked over my bike really well. He joined me and rode next to me. Soon, a small crowd of boys was riding alongside and, from their body language, I could tell they liked or respected Mr. Sam. At the top of a long, hot uphill, he stopped along with about ten other boys and they rested in the shade. When I got there, I did the same, and they waited until I felt rested and mounted my bike before they got back on theirs. We rode down the next hill together, the boys hooting and hollering in the descent. We entered a wide, green valley, outlined with steep karst buttes. One other boy, whose name I forgot, pointed ahead and said "My village." These boys rode with me for over 10km up and over several hills before we all arrived at a small bamboo hut village on the side of the road, overlooking vast rice fields and towering karst mountains. Mr. Sam bid me "sabaidee," looked me kindly in the eyes and rode off down the dusty, rocky road across a small bamboo bridge over the creek at the side of the road. ''These boys live in such an amazingly lovely place,'' I remember thinking to msyelf, half way hoping they'd invite me to visit their homes. No such event occurred. We simply shared a portion of the afternoon on this, their daily ride, with them kindly waiting for me several times as I stopped to cool off in the roadside creek. They thought me quite silly to ride the extremely thin and rocky shoulder so near to the edge around each of the tar gravel patches. When finally I crashed in this endeavor, the remaining boys continued on without me, riding over each and every sticky-gooey patch. I cleaned myself up as they rode off into the distance, ocassionally looking back over their shoulders.

I finally broke for lunch at a small roadside vender in a small village buried in the shaddow of the karst valley. I had a decent bowl of soup, 2 ibuprofen and rested a bit until the meds kicked in. When I finally set out on the last 30km to Vang Vieng, I was feeling pretty good. Even though I knew I wasn't feeling well, I couldn't pass on a quick stop at a set of caves I read was about 15km before Vang Vieng and which the Aussies told me was worth the visit. There were three caves, each a little different. The first was small with a splendid reclining Buddha statue inside, the other two required a guide to find and explore and the guide who came with me was very nice and even spoke a little English. Of the other two caves, one was very very deep and filled with brilliant sparkeling stalagtite/mite structures and the other was very broad and steamy inside and contained a Buddha statue on a natural rock pedestal at the back of the cave. The guide, the stop and the various fees I paid (5000k for the bridge, 5000k for the flashlight I didn't need and 3000k to park my bike) were, in the end, worth it, as I had not really ever explored caves, even in the states! (I know, I know, California has some amazing caves, but I have never really explored them!)

I pedalled on and went straight to the Organic Farm Guesthouse to find out they had no vacancy and rode across the street to the Green View cottages to acquire a bungalow (with an amazing view of the mountains). I settled my gear and set out for the remaining 4km into Vang Vieng proper to see the doctor. I was lucky the doc spoke at least a little English. I was able to convey all the symptoms I could gather over the past three days and her final prognosis was an infection in my throat. When I remembered and told her about my ear infection, she said that I still had it, but it was in my throat (or something to that affect). I was happy I didn't have Denge or Malaria or some other jungle illness, to say the least!!! She set me out on Penicilin for seven days and I decided I'd probably have to rest while the medicine worked and I'd stay in Vang Vieng a bit. This was, at first, very disagreeable and later turned out to be quite pleasant, once I figured out how to do Vang Vieng (for me).

RIDE DAY: Kiou Ka Cham to Bor Nam Oon Hot Spring

1/15/09
Day: 75.65km

Cume: 874.1km

Avg: 13.7km

Max: 49.0km

Time: 5h31m
Highs: Best day of cycling yet with most beautiful scenary, a small village called Hoay Sa Tep, mountain extending forever, many villages, seeing the karst range through the haze, Phu Phra, met two Lao cycle tourers and had dinner and breakfast with them (thanks, guys!), finding out how right the Dutch cyclist was and glad I didn't end up having to stay in Muang Phu Khun

Lows: Muang Phu Khun, a busy crossroads, with terrible food and too much noise, tired by the end of the day, last climb very tough, sadly too much haze to really capture this most incredible landscape on digital film, fever returned, again.

THE KING'S ROAD

So aptly named. Truly, this was one of two of the best days of cycling in my entire life up to this time (the second day being the following day).

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high mountain hillside

wind rustled banana leaves

The King's Road, Laos

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The snapshot can not speak for the grandeur that shook me off my saddle again and again for a break just to look out, shake my head in disbelief and then giggle (because I was there on my bike). I don't even know what to say.

This day was up and down all day. 5km down, 5km up, 10km down, 15km up. At one point, I dropped into this very long descent which I knew, from looking at my map, led to a small village. The air changed. It grew moist, very agreeable to my dry, hot skin which had been baking in the full sun. Suddenly, as I lost elevation rapidly, water began to pour from the hillside all around me and into the valley in small creeklets which passed under the road. The jungle came up, broad leafed vegetation filled in all the creek valley and towered over me. I slowed because my skin couldn't believe what it was feeling, a sort of indescribable joy in the quality of the air and a joy in the sounds a tones of light and shades of green all around. DayParent may disagree with this label, but I felt like I was entering the fabled Shangrala. I was actually entering the quite large and thriving village of Hoay Sa Tep. This is a place I could return to to arrange to stay a week or a month, as there was so much to see, to do, to experience in this valley, I could just feel it in my skin. Again, I felt that sort of discomfort I do when I pass through other villages, the village people live so much of their lives in public, I just didn't feel it appropriate to shoot photos when passing through. I can just say that they live at the confluence of two major creeks in the center of a bowled mountainous regious with small creeks falling from the steep hillsides on all side and in many locations throughout the village. WoW WoW Wow, what a place these people live.

I received a tip off a few days earlier from a few cyclists who were riding through the country with a truck full of gear following them that there was a hot spring about 15km before Kasi. I knew from my map it was mostly downhill to get there, so I decided to bypass Muang Phu Khun to stay at the hot spring. This was lucky, because I wouldn't want to stay in Muang Phu Khun for any reason, unless I was riding the other direction and it was the resting point prior to riding the King's Road. It was loud, dirty, with poor services, bad food and lots of noise. I shouldn't complain, it was certainly better stocked than any village could hope to be, but it was not what I expected of an intersection of two major high mountain roads. I gladly and quickly slurped down my bowl of noodle soup and pedaled out of town and began a very rapid descent. I would be riding down the hellacious climb northbounders cringe at the thought of. It's one in which the road and the grade are visible for up to 5 or 10km at a time, so you know exactly where you're going and exactly how much climbing (or falling, in my case:) you'd have to do. Meanwhile, the scenary was breathtaking: a jagged, craggy limestone karst saw of a horizon to the south. I cried when my camera failed to catch even 50% of the view!

I pedaled on with a last few ascents (barely!) to the hot springs. I was welcomed by a very friendly Lao man who asked me if I was riding and said he and his friend were riding, too. It was so inspiring to me to meet Lao natives riding through their country and especially this, the most challenging and majestic King's Road. I shared dinner and breakfast with them and talked everything from Lao culture to bike parts and gear. Such a sweet meeting!!! After such a long day, I was thankful for the hot spring right outside my bungalow door!

RIDE DAY: Bang Vang Pang to Kiou Ka Cham

1/14/09

Day: 17.63km

Cume: 798.5km

Avg: 7.6 kph

Max: 36.5 kph

Time: 2h18m

Highs: I made it! Very kind guest house owner, met an angle completing a two year cycle tour from Turkey to SE Asia who gave me a great tip that made my day

Lows: Low grade fever, headache, 17km climb

The things you see climbing in the mountains of Laos: small bamboo villages with chickens, pigs, goats and cows running around on the road, adults and children collecting roadside grasses, rubbing them on the ground and then beating dust out of them (I found later, these are sold in bulk to Thailand to make brooms), jungle on hillsides, banana orchards, an ocassional roadside vender, an occassional new building with fancy pillars under construction, a more than ocassional small bamboo shack with satellite dish and the glow of TV inside the small woven door, power and phone lines and stacks of unbuilt cell towers! This would be the first of several days of seeing this. Apparently, the Lao PDR is ensuring cell coverage in this remote mountain area because it is a main artery from the political capital, Vientienne, to the tourism and cultural capital, Luang Probang.

I climbed pretty well, all things considered. I wasn't feeling entirely well (and I'm going to butt in and give a little advanced knowledge I received after gettting to Vang Vieng and speaking to a doctor...she said I was still dealing with the ear infection I picked up snorkeling in Thailand and my body was fighting the infection with fever, so please don't worry at this point:). I downed some IBU which made bearing the heat and the climb easier, but it was still a big climb and a lot of weight on the bike. All things considered, in hindsight, it wasn't that bad, but I think that not feeling at the top of my game made it feel a little long.

I made it to Kieu Ka Cham, though, and just in time to get some food. As I was eating, I ended up drawing the attention of a woman who was very interested in my rig. She was looking over my bike very carefully and pointed at my bike and pointed at me and then came over to talk. This woman turned out to be Bernadette Speet from Holland (http://www.escaper.info/) who was nearing the completion of a two year cycle tour from Turkey to SE Asia. I dicovered later that just about every cyclist I ran into after that point had met her at some place or another! So funny! She was very sweet and became my first angel for the day. She told me she had ridden this section of mountains before and seeing that it was late morning and that I wasn't feeling entirely well, I should just stay, yes STAY after only 17.63km, in Keiu Ka Cham. She said it was a tough section and needed a day to complete (and enjoy, I later found out). For some reason, I thought she was really sweet and I listened to her. Good thing, I slept just about the remainder of the day away after breakfast. I later found out from other cyclists that she's in the process of writing a cycling manual in Dutch for the route she took from Turkey through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, TAjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Mongolia, Laos and Cambodia. How about that? AND, she did it alone! Sadly, I didn't snap her picture! But, I'm tremendously thankful to her, because she ended up being right in more way than one.

So, I stayed and ended up being invited by my second angel for the day (the proprieter of my guest house who spoke good English and was very very kind!) to his ten year old's birthday party for cake and friend noodles. A giant group of children converged on the guest house around 8PM and the party commenced. They were pigging out on lovely cake from Vientienne, then on a huge pile of fried noodles and then the music came on and the whole troop of them danced in a line to dances made up and taught to them by the birthday girl. I was so tickled! If blogger would allow me to upload video, I'd post it here, but I've had some trouble. Perhaps I'll try YouTube and post it here later. So cute!

RIDE DAY: Luang Probang to Bang Vang Pang

1/13/09

Day: 59.96 km

Cume: 780.8 km

Avg: 12.9 kph

Max: 53 kph
Time: 4h37m

Highs: Good road quality, grage was manageable, high fives from village kids, babies waving wildly and saying hello as I rolled by, small villages clinging to ridge top with steep drop off, stellar views!

Lows: Valleys full of haze due to warming fires, so the scenary was muted and my camera couldn't pick it up, late start, very very chilly parts of the ride, even during mid day

I was sad to leave my friends in Luang Probang. Some had departed for towns up the road and others were staying for more days. Perhaps I'd see them down the road. All I knew on this morning was I needed to depart early because I'd have the first of several long climbs up into the mountains. I ended up meeting another cyclist on my way out and talking a little bit too long and ended up leaving about an hour and a half late. This affected me a little later, but I'm always happy to meet and talk with other (friendly) cyclists.

Not far out of town, the scenary already began to change and I began a series of of climbs and descents into beautiful river and/or creek valleys. Skies were hazy, so it was impossible to capture the grandeur of any of the high mountain regions I visited. The lines of hills extending on into the horizon, fading a few shades lighter with each passing range until the most distant was so faint, my eyes could nearly not see it. My camera could see almost none of them, so you'll have to trust me, the mountains went on for quite some ways! In the first valley, the creek was lines again with small gardens surrounded by small picket fences to keep the animals out. Passing through villages, I must have repeated "sabaidee" in the tens of times per village, which was often quite sweet, because mostly very young children would stand up and/or run down to the road very excitedly to say hello as I passed through. I'd often hear faint greetings far above me in the trees and be unable to find the origin, young children in a hut buried in the jungle hillside.

The climbs were tough this day, but not aweful! The road grades were so pleasant, it made climbing not too bad, but still exhausting in the hot sun. Then, I'd ride into the shade and start shiverring because it was so cold. Quite strange. As I climbed higher toward my eventual max elevation at 1400 meters (about 4000 feet), this became even more pronounced.

This did end up being a tough and long day for me, though, so I stopped for a rest on the roadside at some point. It was fine because the traffic was almost nill, I was impressed! I thought I'd make it the whole way to the top, but due to the slightly late start, I only made it up 5k of the 20k climb at the end of the day before calling it a day. Found a place to camp and stayed the night.

BOAT to and Site Seeing in Luang Probang, Laos

Two days boat journey to Luang Probang. Made new friends! A teacher from Canada, a German traveler away for one year and an older backpacker from Utah. What a delightful trip down the Mekong. Lots of great conversation and sights! Five hours of slow boat ride on the first day with a layover at Pak Beng where we took on two European cyclists who had ridden from Huaixai with many great stories to tell! Eight hours by boat the following day to Luang Probang. Riverside villages and gardens, children playing all along the river, fishing nets on bamboo poles, other long thin boats.

It would take me a long time to describe what I have seen and done for the past two days in Luang Probang. I'm going to make a list and maybe return to elaborate: early morning ride along the river to see the gardens, crossed a bamboo bridge after being invited to come to the village for dinner and wisky by the bridge builder, weavers village with paper making, weaving and traditional paintings; night markets, afternoon markets, morning markets; procession of hundreds of monks at dawn collecting alms; cycling with a new German friend to an amazing waterfall park and finally hearing really amazing bird song in the jungle; sharing dinner and whisky in the village, searching the morning market for snake an monitor, our hosts two favorite foods, to share for a future dinner; men fishing for bats at night from the top of the wat on the mountain in the middle of town; full moon light filling the valley; the morning markets: live gophers, rats, mice, fish, a bever, chickens, small birds all for sale on the street; meeting a vender who says she'd bring us snake tomorrow; buying snake!; Lao coffee at dawn chased with lovely, fragrant green tea; amazing hand crafts; museum with amazing royal regalia!, a modern black and white photo exhibit focused on Vipassana retreats in Luang Probang; dining with friends along the Mekong (multiple times!); regional cuisine: olive tapenade, deep friend river kelp with sesame, garlic and tomatoes!!!

Some snapshots:



styrofoam floats
down the Mekong -- what happened
to the coconuts?


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a line of candles
extinguised by the wind
in Wat Tham Phu Si
chanting and bells enter
with a street dog that lies down


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The Mekong River
rolls through miles upon miles
of villages
fishing boats, slow boats, homes
floating an ancient valley


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Haiku: Upon Seeing Morning Procession

may I justly represent
that small part of truth
I embody


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streams of orange cloth--
monks collecting alms at dawn
in Luang Probang

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men fishing
for bats
on Wat Than Phu Si


OR

two men fishing
for bats under the full moon
on Wat Than Phu Si

RIDE DAY: Phaya Meng Rai to Huai Xai, Laos

1/6/09
Day: 66.9 km
Cumulative: 668.1 km
Avg Speed: 16.3 kph
Max Speed: 40.5 kph
Ride Time: 4h 5m
Highs: Surprised/excited villagers in smaller villages, cool temperatures and high clouds, found new sandals in my size in Chiang Khong, ferry to Laos, Easy/smooth immigration to Laos
Lows: Head wind, road quality was at times very very poor, poor sleep last night left me a little grumpy on the road, Gibbon Experience booked until 1/21 (darn), tired today--need a rest day!


Good sleep is so important. I didn't get much rest last night for some reason. It left me feeling lethargic and grumpy for my ride. I think I need a good relaxing rest day or two. For this reason, I will take the slow boat to Luang Probang tomorrow. Other cyclists say to just ride there because the scenary is amazing, but I feel I'm going to need a couple days of rest and relaxation and I don't really care to do it in HuaiXia, so I'm going to boat. I'm sad that I didn't reserve a space to do the Gibbon Experience earlier (a jungle zip line camp in tree house conservation naturalist thing), but oh well. Something else to come back to Thailand/Laos with Sharon to do in the future!

Having the grumps made it at times hard to pedal and do the kms. The head wind was a little tough and my legs were feeling pretty tired. I just kept eating snacks and hydrating and got reenergized when I finally saw the Mekong. I didn't really see the scenery this day because I was too focused on making the border and getting my stamp in time--can't have blemishes on my brand new passport on the very first stamp!!!

Crossing the Mekong was so gratifying. I really wanted to ride my bike across the border and that is what I did, well, sorta. We crammed it in a small narrow boat and traveled the hundred or so yards across the river. Looking back at Thailand, I felt a little sad, because I had had such a lovely time in the country. Now, I'd have to learn a new culture/language/etc. and was looking forward to it, but really enjoying the last moments of Thailand. I'm happy to have received so many rave reviews even in the past few days about Laos from cyclists and can't wait to ride on.

I found a place along the river, nothing special. Got snacks, a new SIMM card and such and turned in for rest. Long boat ride for the next two days!

RIDE DAY: Chiang Rai to Phaya Meng Rai

1/5/09
Day: 74.74 km (24km out of way)
Cumulative: 601.2 km
Avg Spd: ~19.4 kph
Max Spd: 35.5 kph
Ride Time: 3h 54m
Highs: Feeling OH SO GOOD after a really good night of sleep, country roads, very quiet, crickets all around in the rice fields, little traffic, nice country air, change of topography--a few karst peaks, the best timed and tasting Pad See Ew I've eaten in Thailand, "piq" a peppery condiment I haven't seen before, Met a great Swiss cyclist and shared breakfast!
Lows: Rode 12km out of way because no hotel/motel/guesthouse in the small village that was my target, accidentally reset cyclometer after 1 hour of riding...not many others this day


I'll let my snapshots speak for me:

scent of rice straw
stars up above once again
Northern Thailand


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(needs refining)

met three young monks
on the road yesterday --
morning temple bells,
I know they're sitting
in the wat up the road


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these twenty baht bills
have traveled much through the North
their craks tell their tales

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A really nice day of cycling. I was feeling pretty good because of good rest and good food. Sad to hear about news from Gaza on BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera in my hotel room. Thinking about Allen. I woke in the morning and went looking for some new shoes at the local shoe shops, but after three shops of being told they didn't have my size, I gave up. A Swiss cyclist talked to me on the street and invited me to coffee and brought me to a place where I could get an omlette. We talked together and with two Canadian cyclists until 1:30 when I saddly had to excuse myself to make my mileage for the day. It was a late start, but really nice, because the Swiss fella gave me some great info about Northern Lao roads and directions. He'd cycled extensively in Northern Thailand and Northern Laos.

I'd return to Northen Thialand for more cycling in a heartbeat. It's mellow, the prices decrease, people are lovely and there are some interesting land forms. The Swiss fella told me that there are also lots of Hmong hill tribes to visit. Perhaps on another tour. I had to make the border and I wanted to knock out 50km. I did that when I arrived in Phaya Meng Rai at about 4:30, but got greedy for kms and set out to the next village, hoping to find a place to stay. A lady in the next village, 12 km ahead told me there was nothing in that town and nothing until the border at 35 km away. It was late, so I turned back and retraced my ride. It was o.k. because the country was lovely anyhow...learned my lesson, too.

I got my first peak at the karst that is supposed to be all over Laos, jutting up out of the rice fields and enwrapped with banana orchards. Really lovely.

LAOS at Last

I'm in Laos. I owe two posts, but they'll need to wait a few days until I'm in Luang Probang. The North of Thailand is awesome! Very quiet, mellow and picturesque!

RIDE DAY: Mae Katchan to Chiang Rai

1/4/09
Day: 103.66 km
Cumulative: 526.5 km
Avg speed: 18.4 km/hr
Max speed: 57.0 km/hr
Ride Time: 5h 37m
Highs: Teak teak teak! Lovely creeks rolling down out of the hills and along the road, mellow mellow people, lots and lots of waves and thumbs up from passing cars, trucks, lories and motor bikes, early morning fog (felt as cool as Berkeley in August!), last 20 km totally flat and the head wind let up
Lows: Holiday traffic!, narrow smooth shoulder next to a wider rough shoulder in many places and the temptation to ride on the rough shoulder to get a little space from traffic, head wind for much of the day


It was another up and down day. Not too crazy, but my legs were tired from yesterday, so the small hills still felt steep. Saw another young fella cycling South who offered pleasantries but didn't stop...he's probably in the same mode I'm in, trying to get somewhere at a certain time. I was a little jealous to see how little he was carrying---I labored on.

More teak and interesting roadside stands. A woman offered me some bitter fruit on which she had me put salt. I ate it and it went down like cough syrup when I was a kid! I'm open to try anything (well, many things) I guess, so I tried. She gave me two whole fruits (about the size of a walnut and looking sorta like an underripe pear), I put them in my bags and discarded later. She gestured to tell me they are good for my throat. I guess I'm not that open!

I didn't think I'd make it all the way to Chiang Rai, but when I saw the accomodations at the place I was going to stop at about 85km and how flat the road had become, I pushed on. For some reason, even though I was really really exhausted earlier in the day, I summoned some strange force from within and pushed it up to 25 kph for a good portion of the last 20km into Chiang Rai.

I stopped at another neat little "park like setting," a public park alongside the creek for a snack, to journal a bit and to nap. A biting ant woke me up and I moved to a picnic table. Seeing some seedpods on my shirt from some local plants (most likely invasive...the pods reminded me of forget-me-nots), I got a sense of how very little I know about anything about this place. What kinds of invasive plant issues do they face here? How healthy are these forests I'm riding through? I saw one very long tailed bird in flight and wondered how many other AMAZING species I'm missing out on? (I did get to see a weaver's nest at Mai Pan Rai on Ko Phangan and felt David Attenborough coursing through me!).

Good day. Feeling pressure to put on miles. Considering a lay over in Chiang Rai (it's in a lovely location!) and then a truck to the border to make sure I get there in time, but I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I splurged and paid 350B (~$12) for a luxury hotel room with hot water, AC, HBO, CNN, Al Jazeera (in English), in room fridge and free internet. It's nice to get some news...I wish there was a small break in the news from Israel to report on other issues back home. Nice to hear English!

Ride Day: Chiang Mai to Mae Katchan

1/3/09
Day: 84.76 km
Cumulative: 422.8 km
Avg Spd: 14.9 km/h
Max Spd: 69.0 km/h
Ride Time: 5h 40m
Highs: riding through teak forests, passing through a national park, creeks along roadside for miles, kind venders offering directions, having a vender answer my "thanks" with "mai pan rai" ("no worries"), passing through a village specializing in wicker and basketry, seeing Thailand's tallest geiser
Lows: Long sometimes steep uphills (up to 30km), hard time finding a place to stay in Mae Katchan because there's no Latin characters anywhere, missing Sharon a lot and thinking of her on her way home to SF


This was a tough day. It was hot, it was my first day of real climbing to pass over the mountains East of Chiang Mai. The first 20 km went pretty smooth, but then the climb started and the heat poured on! Found a neat spot to stop for lunch overlooking a (manmade) waterfall in a "parklike setting." Good food at the right time in the right place (for the right price). Took a little nap on the table at the cafe.

The forests are lovely, multi-tiered, I wish I had more time to wander through. There's a lot of camping and nature resorts on highway 118, most of which had some form of bridge over the creek. I had to push on, though...I've got places to be and a visa that's getting ready to expire.

I decided to make a b-line for the border at Chiang Khong and take a two day river ferry to Luang Probang. Some other cyclists I met told me they were doing that and it sounds really lovely. I mentioned it to a vender on the roadside and he said "very pretty" so it got a local thumbs up, too!

Climbs were tough, but with a last push over the ridge, I saw a lot of signs designating a change of province and then a steep decent for about 9 km, which was very very nice. I pedaled on to Mae Katchan and wandered around near dark looking for a place to stay. I wandered through town and had to turn around and go back. I asked a handful of people where I could find a place to stay, noone spoke very much English. In the end, I asked one person and then moments later, after passing the hotel I couldn't see (the Thai script on signs is very different from the writing in my small dictionary), asked another woman who turned me around and got me to the hotel (where the two eleven year olds running the place spoke no English). I got an ok room at a cheap price, cold shower and collapsed. Fortunately, there was a small restaraunt right behind the hotel.

No poems today. The heat and the press to put on some serious miles sapped me.