Category 2012 Cycling South East Asia
Another great riding day. It was only 53 km, but included a 16 km pass. Basically, get on your bike at East City IGA and ride up Armour hill for about 16 km. Whoever built this road made it with an acceptable slope (not as steep as Armour Hill).
This pass started at the 17km mark and there was a few km of up and down plateau near the top. This pass rose 550 meters.
Total assent ror the day 798 meters, and total decent of 812 meters.
The road was in excellent shape, with no potholes.
Last night we went for dinner at a small cafe. The owner was alone so when she cooked, she asked Janis to hold her 11 month old daughter.
This may have been the greatest biking day for us ever. It was 100 km with a total assent of about 1,100 meters and a total descent of about 980 meters.
The scenery was striking. The road was in excellent shape, and very little traffic. It was about 35 degrees C but we had a cloud cover most of the day.
We followed the Nam Phak river the whole way, which ment no major ascent of descent. Many of the villages have abandoned both slash and burn techniques as well as harvesting Opium. They are replacing it with bamboo production as well as broom grass (this is the grass that they band together to make brooms.
Many of the small towns we passed were composed of people who use to travel around planting, harvesting and after a few years, slash and burn the fields and then move on...
Read MoreWe took an amazing 5 hour boat ride up the Nam Ou river. They placed our bikes on the boat along with the luggage. There was a slight charge for each bike.
At this time of year,there are many rapids and our 45 foot long by 4 foot wide long-boat took them head on. There were a few hairy moments but the driver appeared to know what he was doing. There were about 6 tourists on the boat and about 12 local people.
Our first stop was one hour up the river at Muang Ngoi. We decided not to stay here, even though it looked like a nice stop. Many years ago, one could live there for $1 per day and all the Opium you could consume. They have upgraded the village and eliminated the Opium dens.
Next we carried on for 4 more hours up river, stopping at various villages...
Read MoreThis was a lovely little ride up and down the rolling hills. It was 32 Km to the guest house we chose right across from the bus station.
We took a bit of R&R and enjoyed this sleepy little town. Again we were overwhelmed with the nice slow pace the Laos people follow. This town had a great atmosphere, with both Lao food and some western choices.
We went to a set of caves outside of town, where the village and surrounding villages spent several years living during the USA Bombing of Laos. It is too bad, as Laos declared itself neutral in the cold war conflicts. Even so, the VC trained in the hills of Laos and the USA bombed the hell out of it. They say for the first little while, the Laos people were in the caves, unaware of who was bombing them, as they had no enemies.
If you use THE GOOGL...
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