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