Introduction to Laos: Mountains and Mishaps

Well, I came to this internet place with full intentions of unloading some glorious pictures on you but apparently their connection craps out everytime I go to upload. So instead I present to you a verbal assemblage of the last 3 days.

Wednesday, March 25 (? okay, Ill be honest, I dont even know for sure what today is)- I awoke in Houxyai and despite my best efforts to have an early start, my comfortable hotel bed and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button distracted me until the late hour of 10am. Feeling that I was getting such a pathetically late beginning to a long day of riding I opted to get food down the road. Incredibly stupid decision. I was assuming that Laos was like Thailand (some kind of restaurant, food stand or at the least convenience store every 50m). Laos is NOT like Thailand. I didnt find food until about 30km of the hardest riding Ive done in SE Asia yet. And even then all I could find was some peanuts and some sort of chocolate-powder covered corn snack. Imagine a cheeto but more disgusting. At this point (probably about 2 or 3 pm) I was completely drained of all energy, not to mention every bit of salt in my body. I finally found a town where somebody could prepare me some real food and sat down to some fried rice. I could barely hold the fork properly because my body had been pushed so hard. I've never had hand cramps until now! This being the situation and my destination being over 50km through more unknown terrain (should have bought a map...mistake #2) I asked if I could stay there. Luckily there was a rudimentary (I mean RUDIMENTARY folks) guesthouse there because an ecopreserve was nearby. Spent a wonderful sleepless night in Don Chai due to the generator fumes drifting through the slats of my wall and roosters deciding they crow whenever they want, not at dawn.

Thursday (Okay, okay...we'll just call it Day 2)- I wake up, actually manage to get an early start this time and enjoy some cool mountain riding. That is, until I hit THE CLIMB. Probably the most brutal climb I've had since Montenegro's climb to Lovcen. One of these long, steep, neverending, demoralizing climbs. Through a construction zone. Man, I must have heard 20,000 excited cries of "Farang!" (foreigner) from construction workers that day. Finally drop into the town of Vieng Phokot and sit down for lunch around 1pm. This is where I had intended to be the night before. Oh well....find a restaurant packed to the gills with Laos businessmen from the nearby coal company (always a good sign). Had some fabulous chicken pho (noodles, broth, veggies) and a lovely lap (buffalo mixed with mint, cilantro, lime juice, chilies and toasted rice). As I was sitting there another "FARANG!!" came up and sat at a nearby table. We eventually fall into conversation and somehow end up deciding to go about 10 or 15km down the road and campout for the night. He had been hoping to camp in a bamboo farmer's crashpad he had found, but didn't quite have the nerve alone. Bolstered by strength in numbers we went down a crazy dirt footpath, he on motorscooter, me on bicycle. Beautiful riverside campsite for me while he hiked just a bit further and spent the night in the hut he had found.

Day 3- Woke up this morning, got a wonderful early start and enjoyed some of the most pleasurable riding weather in SE Asia. Cool, overcast, clearer than usually. The one drawback was the "pleasant breeze" from the morning had turned into a "soul-rending headwind". Regardless I pushed on and after one brutal 10% climb had a great downhill cruise all the way to Luang Namthon. Had a bargain lunch of fried noodles for 10000 kip(that's right, 10000 kip is a bargain) and then in a noodle, bike and beer induced buzz made the mistake of checking into the first guesthouse I saw. Mistake only in the sense that it cost me 6 dollars when I could have gone 2 streets back and found something slightly grungier for 3 dollars. That's right...at the point I am in my budget, a 3 dollar mistake is worth kicking yourself over for days.

Anyways, Im happy to be here in town...rounding up supplies and trying to figure out a few things wrong with the bicycle. I had a chain break on me the day I left Thailand (due to a hasty install way back in Ranong most likely) and due to some clunky shifting and some strange noises I'm suspecting something was a bit too hasty about the second installation. I've also got a mystery noise coming from the front wheel. It's one of those things where as soon as you pay attention to it and try to solve it, the noise disappears. Scoundrel! And then the last thing, the most important thing for the mountains to come, is that I cannot consistantly drop into my highest gear. This is THE most frustrating thing in the world as you lose all momentum attacking the hills. Many Laotian hills have suffered a string of expletives about my bicycle due to this. I hope I've at least got it temporarily working.

Okay, this has gone on long enough. If you've read this far, congratulations....your boss should probably be looking over your shoulder more! As for me, I'm off to hunt down some supplies for the mountains ahead, meet up with some newfound friends for dinner and perhaps treat myself (at the ghastly sum of 3 dollars per hour) to a massage. On second thought...I already wasted 3 dollars today....

Lovely Laos

Well, I finally managed to pull myself out of the wonderful Thai border town of Chiang Khong. Made it all the way across the river and into the equivalent border town in Laos before getting distracted again. Tomorrow I will ride north and hope to find myself in Luang Prabang in about 4 days time. I've got all the time in the world but the budget is pretty dismal at this point. Might have to swim back home. I would like to recount some stories or write you all a nice entry but the internet cafe Im at seems to be shutting down. Not sure how easily Ill find more web access as I head further into the countryside but Ill be sure to check in once I reach Luang Prabang.

Failure to takeoff

Ahhh, the glorious Chiang Mai. I didn't really like the city at first, on account of all the tourists, but it has grown on me. If you go a little outside of the old town there are some real neat cafes and bars. There is also a cool little bike shop and bicycle scene with a few regular fixie cruises and lots of street/BMX riding. I could see myself living here for a little while, getting to know the city better, doing some mountainbiking in the surrounding hills. Alas, I have more road to cover, countries to see and people to ride bikes with.
So its onwards to Laos. We were supposed to depart about 3 days ago, but our buddy Paul (whom we met in Ayuttahaya) convinced us to stay a bit longer. So tomorrow its up early and heading for Chiang Rai before moving on towards Laos and finding out about the boat situation.
With that being said, I'd like to take a moment to express some feelings. Lately I am beginning to feel a bit exhausted. I love life on the bike but at some point you just get tired of constantly moving, constantly being out of place. Change becomes the norm and you really desire to turn it all off for a second. Oh well, Im sure before long I will be sitting on a couch in the US complaining about how boring life is when nothing changes day to day. Just wanted to rant a little bit and let you all know that yes, i'm not a total lunatic and would like to sit still every once in awhile. Anyways, maybe Im just feeling this way because Im tired and a bit cranky about having to move on from this city when all Id like to do is rent an apartment for a month and do absolutely nothing. So I'm going to go to bed and then tomorrow get up early and ride my bicycle far away. Cheers to that!

Just our luck

Well, the doc says that most likely I just had a bad virus that my body is purging out although the whole-body rash thing seemed a mystery to him. The funny thing is that while I was checking in and having my vitals taken I was describing the rash to the nurse. I speculated to her that it may be alcohol-triggered since the first time I had a few brews the night before and last night when I had one about an hour later I had some mild rash re-occurances. Anyways, I said this all to the nurse and the old lady being checked in beside me (how did she speak such good english by the way...) interjected "oh no, thats not alcohol, just singha" (a thai beer). "My husband has that problem...everytime he drinks Singha he gets a rash". What this lady said was actually coinciding with the facts but I have yet to test the theory. Not sure I want to!
Anyways, the doc saying that I don't have some crazy bug-borne illness was a relief. However, there is rarely any respite for me lately for as soon as I cleared that hurdle another one arose. Our plan was to ride from here (Chaing Mai) to Chaing Khong and cross into Laos. On the border crossing we were going to get a riverboat to take us down to Luang Prabang because there is no direct road there. Unfortunately, the largest drought in 20 years has caused the Mekong to dry up and apparently the cargo boats are not running. So now we've got to reformulate our plans. I really haven't the slightest clue what to do, so I'll just have to tell you all about it later.
On the upside, I got my bicycle cleaned to the highest level since I left for only 400 baht and I signed up for a cooking class. Tomorrow I'll be learning how to make 6 different Thai dishes! You can check it out at thaicookeryschool.com. I'm taking course #3.
Okay, I'm off to go lounge around the pool while its hot and check out some temples once the sun dips a bit. Be back soon with the updated route I hope!

Adventures in the Plains

Pao (pronounced Poo) is the Mick Jagger of Thailand and now a dear friend of the hobo crew. We met Pao while riding into Singburi (which has a strangely disproportionate amount of cyclists for a town in the middle of nowhere) and he invited us over to his “house” for a drink. His “house” was actually a giant bar, in the style of a Western Saloon. How awesome…the wild west of Thailand! Anyways, he fuelled us up and rode with us over to show us a nearby hotel. After the usual process of showering and making the hotel room smell like a herd of sweaty buffaloes we headed out for some grub and then stopped back by the Gypsy Bar for live music. This is where the whole Mick Jagger bit comes in. Pao’s band is apparently one of the longest-running and most popular rock bands in Thailand. They started in the Phillipines about 25 years ago with heavy counterculture messages in their music and have kept it going strong. Pretty wild.
The next day was equally outlandish. We woke up rather woefully and headed out of the hotel with our sights set on Noi’s house, about 30km north. Noi and her friends had met us the night before and invited us out to their small village to do some fishing. No fishing ended up ever taking place. However, we were escorted to a croc farm, fed delicious Thai seafood on the lakefront and the ladies made sure our beer glasses were never anything but full! I’m pretty sure life couldn’t get any easier than the expat with a Thai wife deal. Alas, that is not my fortune or fate (yet).
Not a whole lot to mention from the day after the Noi Episode (honestly, the rest of the trip will pale in comparison to that). Found something slightly out of place in the small city of Uthai Thani. A fixed gear specialist shop! What in the world it is doing there I don’t have the slightest clue. Maybe there is a big market for strange, super-heavy poorly made steel frame fixies in the plains of Thailand. Beats me.
From Uthai Thani it was onwards to another rather quiet town called Phitlok. Not really a destination so much as a necessary stopover to help us reach the famous (?) ruins of Sukothai. I'm not much of a ruins fan and while these were certainly impressive, I enjoyed the ones I had seen further south in Ayuttahaya much more. We did have a great time riding around the park (in which all the ruins are standing) with some German girls and two great guys from England. Big cheers go out to Nora, Sina, Sam and Rufus!

From Sukothai we headed north towards Chang Mai and begin to encounter our first real consistant hills and the first challenging climb since I left Greece. Great riding due to the change of scenery but unfortunately just as the riding was getting good I seem to have caught something. I woke up yesterday morning with a full-body rash which was absolutely brutal by last night (after riding a necessary, and hilly, 100km in the heat) when it coupled up with a fever. Decided to play it safe and get the train for the last 100km to Chang Mai this morning and will be going to the hospital in the AM. The rash and fever seem to have subsided but were replaced with the most crippling stomach problems yet. I'm hoping it is just a bout of my ol' friend food poisoning but only time (well, and a doctor) will tell.

That pretty much brings you up to speed. For brevity's sake I had to leave out a couple interesting episodes but perhaps I will recant those in a future installment of Bobo's Tales of Adventure and Mischief. Until then keep all the spinny parts spinning.

I am alive...just a bit spaced out

I will give you folks some updates tomorrow when I get to Chang Mai and have some time to sort out all my thoughts. Sorry for the lack of interesting stories, they are accruing, trust me!

Check out the new pics though.