Laidback Laos

Been some time now since our last post. Unless you are doing the well trailblazed Lonely Planet routes it is hard to find internet in Laos. It's pretty funny whenever you want to find westerners pick up the lonely planet guide and you will find "Falang" (Laosian for Foreigners).

We spent 31 days of our 30 day visa in Thailand and were charged late fees at the Border... whoops! We arrived in the Capital city Vientiene and met up with Coral's friend another Canadian, Ramsey from Toronto. Thanks to Ramsey and his friend Soo (forgive my spelling) we were treated to some great information about Laos over a delicious Laosian lunch in the park on the banks of the Mekong. We found some wicked spots in Central Laos were few Falang venture.

We headed north to Vang Vieng to meet an organic farmer Mr. T who allowed us to stay in his busy guest house. They really had it going on, many projects on the go with local villagers. They were building a community Library and there was a group of 20 people from a Asian group called AVAN that assists poorer Asian countries to help develop skills and modern practices to increase their standards of living. While Coral and Kevin were farming and working on the projects I decided to take some time off and relax after riding a 7 day push from Bangkok. We met a group of four from the US that I took a lazy day off with. We floated down the river on a tube while many locals were yelling "Beer Laos! Beer Laos! Cold cold! Cmon cmon". Fun in the sun! Thanks Adam, Irene, Allie and Joanna for the good company and many laughs.

On the road again we headed south east towards the Vietnam border to a place known as the Banglor caves. The Laosian country side is breathtaking, we headed up through a steep pass that was probably pushing a 10% grade, no long switchbacks up this hill just pure punishment of our quads. The mountain ranges in this area were unlike anything I have seen on this trip. The ranges were very rigid and the rock formations were stunning. Onwards toward the banglor caves, this lesser known place was off the beaten path and the path was beaten to say the least. Crawling along at about 7 to 12 km an hour we made our way in the deep bush. We stayed a night in a guest house along the river, what a serene place in the mountains far from any sort of civilization. I watched kids play in the river and the local fisherman pulling out dinner for their families, I felt so tranquil and just sat there taking a minute to breathe and enjoy this moment. The next day we had a date with the river men. I had my optimism about placing our bikes on a barely floating river skiff accompanied by my captain no more than a teenager. We headed down the river to the mouth of a 8km cave that passed through a mountain. We had to jump off the skiff a few times to pull the boat up the cascading falls and rapids. We made it to the other side with no problems, but what an adventure!

Two more days on some tough roads, we were still in the thick of things in the Laos jungle roads. Seeing nothing but small villages and astonished faces, we camped out in the jungles scraping by on our rations of food. The final day we headed out of the jungle we came up against some hills that we could not ride up due to steep grades and loose gravel and rocks. Sitting on the 4th hill exhausted, eating our last ration, not knowing how far we had to go, we see a lonely falang heading up the hill. Robert a French worker for a new dam project in the area was going out for his Sunday ride. What a relief, he told us civilization was only two more ascents away. Robert guided us to the village and fooood!!! He returned with a truck to bring us back to the workers compound and treated us to another huge spread of food with desert. Oh yes, we ate again, did I ever say how veracious our appetites were? What an truly amazing time we spent in Laos.

The people in Laos were very quiet and had a very easy going demeanour about them, and not to mention very warm and super hospitable in Laos. Very different volume level from our next and final country Vietnam. We are about 900km from our destination, I can't believe it.

Some big news in the next post, as I have decided to put off my return to Canada.

Steve