Laos, It's Not Just About The Bike Anymore

So here is a basic map of Laos.  We have added the colored lines onto the map. They indicate the type of travel used for that specific leg: RED=Boat, YELLOW=Bus, BLUE=Bicycle. We traveled north to south.




We arrived into Laos excited and full of energy. We had 30 days, plenty of time.  But instead of jumping right onto the bikes, we rolled down to the local wharf and landed a leisurely 2 day boat trip down the Mekong River. The slow meandering of the boat allowed us a glimpse into a world seen only by the lucky.  Small mountains hug the path of the river and disappear into the misty background while deep forest covers almost all that the eye can see. On occasion, a small sandy beach appears along the banks, although sometimes deserted, often succeeds in inviting small herds of water buffalo down to the waters edge to drink and bathe.  The banks and surrounding forest are sparsely populated, and rarely the forest exposes small grass huts with it's families playing among the small cliffs or bathing in the water.

We arrive in the city of Luang Prabang. A city that bleeds charm from the cracks of the French villas lining the streets.  But we don't stay long. We are anxious to get on the bikes.  The road ahead is legendary in the cycle tourist community and we are about to find out why.

Here is a link to a website called Bike Toaster.  It's pretty easy to use.  Click on Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng and it will give you and idea of the route we cycled.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/

After every day of cycling we decide on the "Memorable Moments"of that day. We do it every day.  We will use these to highlight each cycling leg in Laos. 

Memorable Moments from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng: This route took us through mountainous terrain and through small, very poor, villages.  We believe that we saw a real slice of rural life.
1) The most spectacular scenery of the trip so far; mountainous, deep valleys, big forest
2)The village children greeting us 'sa-wa-dee", "bye-bye"and the best high fives of the trip!
3) We saw 11 other cycle tourists on this leg

We took a bus to the capitol on account of the road being crap and arrived about 2 weeks after crossing the border.  Plenty of Time? Ok,  maybe not. Time to go to plan B.  Fast forward to the Route 8 loop.

Memorable moments for the Route 8 Loop: We took a bus to the beginning of the loop and began cycling around lunch time.  There are many hills, spectacular scenery that blows the first leg out of the water, caves, friendly locals and great cycling. Alyssa claims that these next 6 days are her favorite time in Laos; Matt also enjoyed his time.
1)Matt and Alyssa were invited over to a local home for Petanque and a delicious dinner.
2) Kong-Lo cave, has a small river passing through it and takes a whole hour to pass through
3) The homestay...if you ever want to experience local life and have a chance to try a homestay, take that chance!!! We will never forget the children, dinner and not knowing proper etiquette, and everything else.
4) Cycling through morning mountain mist
5) Rough roads, probably should of had a mountain bike, but we made it!

Memorable Moments for the Pakse Loop to the Border:  A slow uphill climb to the Bolevan plateau where it's cool (relatively), several waterfalls to climb and swim around and coffee!
1)Turning our 3 day cycle into a two day cycle, with a total 116.1km and 50km were uphill with no break on day 1.
2) A picnic next to a waterfall
3) Our destination was Tad Lo, we had a private bungalow in a place we thought would be quite, but the sounds of the cicadas were almost deafening at times
4) Swimming and playing in and around the waterfalls; one was a 2 minute walk away from our bungalow.
5) Ordered a whole stuffed, roasted chicken for dinner...and ate the whole thing
6) On the way down, it was so hot, the tar on the road was melting and sticking to our tires.
7) Close to the border, we relaxed riverside and watched the sun set on the Mekong for 3 nights, enjoying our last BeerLaos and sticky rice.


We crossed into Cambodia on the 12th of March.

Pictures coming soon!