First job this morning was to check the view. Clear and stunning, but I’m used to that now ! Gee the mountains are high here. The valleys and hills look like they’re of Alpine proportions, and I can stare at them for ages.
I ate a bit of the breakfast that I bought last night and left the rest. Google told me that there was a famous viewpoint and restaurant in 6kms, and who’d doubt google, especially when the most recent review is only 3 months ago ? I should have.
The viewpoint and the restaurant are permanently closed – aaaagggggghhhh. I was so annoyed. I did an immediate google review in the hope that nobody else makes the same mistake.
So, I had some chocolate wafers and cocktail peanuts, and hit the road again. I thought I’d leave the mentos for a treat later on. I had plenty of water though, and it was nearly all downhill. “Amazing Blundell diet fuels super athlete” – I think not.
Still the views were brilliant, and more and more of the mountains were Karst peaks as I descended. The road didn’t improve, and when I was down from the mountains, the scenery looked very familiar – rice paddies and karst peaks. So nice.
On the way into Kasi, I stopped at the first decent looking restaurant and devoured a large noodle soup. Claire texted out of the blue, and recommended a place that she and Miles stayed at in Kasi. Its quite nice and feels a bit more luxurious than the last few nights, but at the same price.
The highlight is the Cafe Amazon a few hundred metres from the hotel. That means ok coffee by normal standards, but compared to a can of Nescafe, it’s bloody marvellous. I’m now on my second, and I’ve also finished the mixed berry frappe which was a godsend.
If it seems like food is a major part of a cycle tourist’s life, then it really is. We eat and drink so much that we want it all to be healthy-ish and nice and readily available. (Just check Andrew Haycraft’s blog and you’ll see how good he is at finding food and explaining what he gets. I draw the line at chicken feet though mate !)
When it’s hard to find, it’s a hassle because you really can’t skip a meal and ride on. You always end up paying a price for that. My usual routine before Laos was to arrive at a hotel, check in, shower, wash riding gear, then grab lunch and go and get water and snacks for the next day.
So, In Luang Prabang, I loaded up on snacks for 3 days because I knew they’d be hard to find later on. Dinner is much easier because guesthouses are usually near restaurants, and it’s easy to order what others are eating or point at pictures or just go for Pad Kapao Moo if all else fails !
The next few days should be fine on the food front. I’ll be in Vang Vieng tomorrow and might have a rest day there, then it’s two days to Vientiane. Tourist places are great to eat things you don”t get in the villages – like bread and decent coffee.
Dinner tonight was at a restaurant over the road – Larb Beef with sticky rice. In Thailand I was at the point of handling their normal level of spice. Proud of the work I put in to get to that level of chilli. But here in Laos, it feels like another level and I doubt I’ll ever get used to it.
Tonight, I’m at the Sengmanee hotel for 100k kip. As I mentioned, it’s quite nice, on the way out of town to the south, and near restaurants and some convenience stores, but it does look like the Communist Party headquarters don’t you think ?
