RIDE DAY: Vientienne to Pak Ngum

1/26/09
Day: 79.96 km
Cume: 1288.2 km
Avg: 16.7 kph
Max: 27.7 kph
Time: 4h27m
Highs: Seeing the Friendship Bridge to Thailand through the forest, the wacky and absolutely outrageous Buddha Park, three kids running off with my camera and shooting all sorts of wacky pictures at the Buddha Park(after I showed them how to use the camera), off roading through the countryside, planting rice with some farmers and then joining them for lunch
Lows: Dirt roads and Lao trucks (and truck drivers) don't mix well with bicycles, doubling back after getting disoriented at the Buddha Park

30km offroad today. It made the day a little slower, but much more interesting. There are many photos to go with this day, but I'll have to upload them another time.

Some farm kids called me off the road (probably out of a joke), but when I called their bluff and actually took my shoes off and went out into the rice field, they invited me to help them plant rice, which I happilly did. I've seen so much rice being planted and growing and being seeded and every other phase of farming rice, it was nice to participate, if even or only a short while.

All the stops made this day feel like a really long day. It was quite pleasant though.

A surprisingly prolific day of writing today...I think I was relieved to leave the city and return to the countryside. Here's a small sampling:


a stream of orange cloth
lines the boulevard -- monks search
for alms through traffic

-----

a line of women
sits and waits to share alms --
what if no monks come?

-----

small forest temple
hiding in Vientienne
filled with bird song

-----

I hear a cow bell
I hear a temple bell --
same resounding call

-----

gasoline
in old beer bottles
how appropriate

-----


PHOTOS TO FOLLOW when I can find a computer that won't die if I challenge it with JPGs.