The adventure continues! On Day 5, we crossed the border from Vietnam into Laos fairly seamlessly. They charged us more than the advertised fee but we had been warned that this does happen so we took it in stride. We met fellow bike tourer Dan at the border and we agreed to ride together heading into Laos. Dan is bike touring from the UK to New Zealand and has been on the road for 11 months! After a couple pretty nice days of riding in Vietnam, it was a shock to see how quickly the roads deteriorated on the Laos side. The road to Vieng Xai was a dirt road for many sections and when it was paved, it was littered with potholes. There was road construction on many sections of the road too and the traffic management was like nothing I've seen before. While the diggers, bulldozers and back-ho's were doing their thing, a construction guy would wave us through a gap in the action. In one instance, a bulldozer actually blazed a trail for us through the rubble and one of the construction guys helped us carry our bikes over the mounds of dirt! We then had a decent climb up to about a 3,000 ft pass and passed through a few small villages before arriving in Vieng Xai. After another challenging 90 km day, we were road weary and really looking forward to a meal, a Beer Lao and a warm bed. Unfortunately our visit to Vieng Xai coincided with the Prime Minister's special delegates visit so virtually all hotels were booked and we struggled mightily to find accommodation. After striking out at six different places and thinking we might be sleeping on the side of the road, a local guy told me to hop on the back of his motorcycle and we went tearing down the road. He brought me to this guesthouse that was built on stilts over the main lake in town. They fortunately had rooms available so we didn't have to sleep on the side of the road after all!
Day 6 was fairly uneventful which was fine with us after the previous day. We had a short ride to Sam Neua which is a small city in NE Laos. I was hoping to get a new tire for my bike there as my tire is wearing out and needs to be replaced. They only had scooter tires and a few beefy mountain bike tires so I'll have to wait for a larger city (Vientiane?) to get my tire fixed. We did some adventurous eating at the local market and fortunately none of us got sick!
Yesterday (Day 7) we got up early to ride our bikes up the hill to the bus station where we were planning to catch a bus to Nong Khiaw to avoid having to ride about 320 km of hilly, dusty roads through the mountains of NE Laos. We found a guy at the bus station who would take us and our bikes in his minivan - the bikes were to go on the roof with the rest of the baggage. After some fierce negotiating on the extra fee to carry our bikes, we paid the guy and were off on our 9 hour bus trip through the mountains. After no more than 30 minutes of windy mountain roads, I was feeling ill and threw up twice into a plastic bag! Our driver was very good though and safely navigated the treacherous mountain roads to get us safely to Nong Khiaw.
Today we are taking a rest day here in the peaceful village of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou River. There are tons of westerners here which is a little strange as we haven't seen many westerners since leaving Hanoi a week ago. It's been raining this morning but it seems to be clearing so we'll head into town to explore the village.
Day 6 was fairly uneventful which was fine with us after the previous day. We had a short ride to Sam Neua which is a small city in NE Laos. I was hoping to get a new tire for my bike there as my tire is wearing out and needs to be replaced. They only had scooter tires and a few beefy mountain bike tires so I'll have to wait for a larger city (Vientiane?) to get my tire fixed. We did some adventurous eating at the local market and fortunately none of us got sick!
Yesterday (Day 7) we got up early to ride our bikes up the hill to the bus station where we were planning to catch a bus to Nong Khiaw to avoid having to ride about 320 km of hilly, dusty roads through the mountains of NE Laos. We found a guy at the bus station who would take us and our bikes in his minivan - the bikes were to go on the roof with the rest of the baggage. After some fierce negotiating on the extra fee to carry our bikes, we paid the guy and were off on our 9 hour bus trip through the mountains. After no more than 30 minutes of windy mountain roads, I was feeling ill and threw up twice into a plastic bag! Our driver was very good though and safely navigated the treacherous mountain roads to get us safely to Nong Khiaw.
Today we are taking a rest day here in the peaceful village of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou River. There are tons of westerners here which is a little strange as we haven't seen many westerners since leaving Hanoi a week ago. It's been raining this morning but it seems to be clearing so we'll head into town to explore the village.
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