This morning, I wasn’t too late getting packed up and out the door. I definitely wasn’t early though. I went over the road to my favourite Kasi restaurant which is ok.
The thing is, I could go anywhere in town and get a similar level of food, so I’ll stick with the convenient one. I had another Omelette with Rice and it’s now my Laos ‘Goto’ breakfast.
After that it was down the road 200m to Cafe Amazon for a latte. Enough said, it was a pretty basic coffee.
I was underway soon after, and washed down my breakfast with a generous helping of Diesel and Dust. (Not the Midnight Oil Album. The stuff you just don’t want to ever breathe, but do so all the time in Laos). Add in rocks, potholes and maniac drivers and you’ve summed up my day.
Seriously, those ute drivers ! On my trip in Aus, I’d say that 50% of ute drivers were the absolute best on the road. The other 50% were by far the worst – aggressive, out of control and incompetent. It’s the same here but I think I met the maniacs today.
Today’s ‘highway’ was crazy with cars and trucks all over the road as I pedalled along. I like riding on dirt roads and fire trails back home, and today was very similar. Some sets of potholes were perfect pump tracks which was fun but most of the time it was a combination of looking ahead and behind and finding a path through the chaos. Sometimes I simply had to bail and wait for the trucks and cars to go past. They certainly weren’t worried about me.
And then, all of a sudden, there’d be a few kilometres of decent road.
I wear a synthetic buff around my neck to protect me from the sun, as I already smear enough sunscreen over my skin. Today it was also a dust mask that I pulled up after every truck that went past.
I feel sorry for the people who live on this road as nothing would escape the dust. Regardless, you see loads of people sweeping, hosing and wiping things all the time. You also see people having their daily wash using a community tap beside the road. Women wash their long hair here as well, and I know it’s part of their ritual, but it must also be a tough life.
Even with all of that, it was a great ride – the road made it interesting, and I’d prefer the potholes to the traffic I encountered as I neared Vang Vieng.
Today, I was back amongst the Karst peaks, with some local rivers and it was beautiful.
After again being the centre of attention for the last 5 days with constant cries of Falang, Falang, as I neared Vang Vieng I became ho-hum, just another foreigner. My bruised ego can just learn to deal with me slinking back to obscurity again. It’ll have to when I return home, so it’s good to get some practice.
I’m staying at the Maylay Guest house which is very central and I’ve just now discovered it’s noisy too 😁, as it backs onto a bar. So much for the 4pm nap !
I ventured out and the number of tourists was a surprise. It’s a good sign for the place which looks interesting and I’ll check it out tomorrow.
I bumped into David and Maddie whom I met and chatted to in Luang Prabang briefly. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to them then. They’re a great couple and travelling most of the time. As a result, they’re super interesting to talk to, and full of great stories. We’ve agreed to get in touch when we’re home to hear each other’s impressions of our trips. Great idea David. It’ll be a very cool thing to do. There are lots of observations that we make every day and it’ll be good to validate some of them and hear others.
