130 km

It was a long day, but it was made a little easier by the cool morning. We were also doused early and often as we passed through village after village where kids had their buckets and hoses at the ready. I thing they got an extra kick out of cooling us off. But as the day went on we found ourselves dodging home-made water balloons: small plastic bags filled with dye-colored water tied off with rubber bands. So when we saw kids or teenagers with bright red, yellow, or blue hands we knew we had to dodge their dye bombs. We each have only one long-sleeved shirt now to ride in since we left all extra clothes in storage in Bangkok. We kept seeing people on motos riding by with nice jackets and other clothes completely bombed with dye.

What a shame this element is part of the water festivities, because it was not fun. We were both lucky for much of the day, but in the afternoon truckloads of teenagers started passing us on the road and they had perfect, slow-moving cyclists as targets. I continued to somehow get lucky, but Dave took a few bombs. By the time we finally got through this long day we were so tired of dodging groups of teenagers that we were getting pretty grouchy. It took us over eight hours from door to door today, and we were ready to be off the road and away from the Lao New Year Celebrations. Good thing our guest house is quiet and secluded a bit, and serves food in its own restaurant.