After a rest day in Savannakhet where I ate way too much, I was ready and rearing to go.
Sunday is a lazy day around here. It’s good to see they’re keeping up some french traditions.
It was an easy day for us, so a late start but I had one of the nicest coffees ever at Coffee House a km or so into the ride.
It was our first day of proper riding in Laos, and the first 15kms was an amble along your typically dusty but sealed Laotian road complete with livestock, roadworks and smiling people. Everyone waves, smiles and says Hello or Sabadee !
Miles spotted a lady selling Bao Buns which have been fantastic so far, and these were wonderful. He’s great at spotting food or coffee opportunities and in this case, I would have ridden by, completely oblivious.
The lady selling them was a character and one of her customers hung around for a chat as well. They’re such nice people here.
After 15kms though, we parted ways. I wanted to ride the dirt road close to the Mekong and Miles preferred the sealed road (+9kms)to get to Mimi’s Charming guesthouse – great name.
I told him to send out a search party if I’m not there by 2pm 😁, and then I made the mistake of quoting the old song “Tie me kangaroo down, sport”. I said “Tan me hide when I’ve died, Clyde” and instantly, I had an earworm for the next ten kilometres. A rookie error.
The remaining 15kms for this short ride were absolutely fantastic fun. The dirt road included old bridges, single track, double track, interesting people, dogs, some downhill and some sand. It doesn’t get better, and it reminded me of my last trip here.
When I emerged, I had a couple of kms of sealed road to the guesthouse which is superb. Chen, who runs it, is great. The place is super clean, cool, cheap and Chen cooks dinner for you and supplies breakfast, after reading some reviews, we knew we didn’t want to ride past it