12 km

We rode around and were regular tourists this morning. First we saw Wat Si Muang, the site of the city’s lak, or pillar, so it’s well-used by locals and has an active monastery. There’s also a crumbling stupa that is probably of Khmer origin, atop which a nice old stork was hanging out. It looked like he had a damaged wing, so the monks must feed and take care of him. The monks this morning were busy carving wood panels, probably for a renovation project. Behind the monks quarters there was an aviary with two huge birds, as well as a cage with two monkeys swinging and howling. I noticed a lot of the statues were of female Buddhas and other female characters, more so than at any other temple we’ve seen.

Then we rode to the Arch we saw when riding into the city yesterday. It’s called Patuxai, and was built in the 1960s with cement bought by the United States that was supposed to have been used for a new airport. Thus, some people call it the Vertical Runway.

We paid 3,000 kip each to climb to the top and had a great view of the city.

After being tourists for a while we got down to the business of shopping–grocery shopping. We have one week left of riding in Laos and we must not leave this town without peanut butter and whole-grain bread! And more, much more.

75 km

We have arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos! Never have we been so happy to see a city. Laos is extraordinarily beautiful and the people have been sweet and welcoming, but we needed a bit of a respite from traveling in the wee villages.

Before coming to Laos, we’d heard from other travelers that you don’t go to Laos for the food. It’s not that it’s so bad, but it’s not great either. The Lao people have been conquered, colonized, broken up and put back together by others so many times that they lack a unifying food culture. There are a handful of Lao dishes, but nothing like in other Asian countries. And more than any other country we’ve ridden so far, it is challenging to find vegetarian options. We have mostly been eating sticky rice, omelettes, fried vegetables, or vegetable fried rice.

Right away we found the vegetarian buffet listed in the Lonely Planet Laos and it was awesome. For dinner, we went straight for Indian food. We are finally feeling better and so happy to be able to eat!

88 km

We had yet another cool morning to ease us into our ride before it became hot. The rainy season must be getting started. We sure hope so. Before heading out of town we rode along the Mekong and saw a form of fishing we hadn’t seen before.

We both were going back and forth between feeling OK and not-so-great all day. Last night’s rain really cleared up a lot of the smoke we’ve been seeing in the air. Villagers use slash-and-burn on a small scale as a way to clear new fields for farming here, but we’ve also been hearing talk of how the Chinese are logging and burning huge plots in northern Laos, making money from the timber and then encouraging farmers to grow certain crops that the Chinese want to buy. We don’t know how true that is, but as we ride north we are seeing more and more smoke in the air and it’s really sad. This should be some of the cleanest air in Southeast Asia.

94 km

We felt mildly better starting out today, and we were lucky to have cooler temperatures with cloudy skies. We were still unable to eat much, but somehow we still managed to ride a solid day and make good time. I guess it’s the 4,500+ kilometers we’ve ridden so far that kept us going. Our bodies are just used to riding.

After about 30 kilometers we reached Phonsi, a small village on the Nam Kading, one of the most pristine rivers in Laos. There’s a sign announcing 1-hour boat rides to the Tat Wang Fong waterfall. Our Lonely Planet Laos book said to follow the small gravel road for a few hundred meters to the river and ask around about a boat. We got to the water’s edge and walked around for a few minutes until we saw a longboat coming down river. When a couple of fishermen got out, the driver pointed up river and said, “Waterfall?” We said yes, then found out the price was 120,000 kip, or about US$15. It sounded like a good way to take a morning break from riding and get into the wilderness a bit more, so we agreed.

It was another cool day with some good cloud cover, so the boat ride was really pleasant. We were often amazed at how shallow the water was, yet we skimmed right along in the longboat. The water level during the rainy season would be rushing well above our heads.

As we headed up river, we saw a huge strip mine on our right, an anomaly that was hard to reconcile with the pristinely forested bank of the other side of the river. Soon after, we passed the mine and were in the most wild area we’ve seen so far.

At one point, Dave and I had to get out so the boatman could run the boat up through a narrow little rapid. He got stuck the first time, but on the second try he slid right through.

After that we were at the small but rushing waterfall. We swam and snacked upstream before enjoying a smooth and scenic ride back to Phonsi.

Our destination was Pakxan, a large and industrious town on the Mekong. We found the BK Guest House mentioned in our guidebook (off the highway on the road closest to the river), and it was so cute with beautiful gardens and a lovely host that I had to mention it for those riding the same route. This was a little oasis we really appreciated. We had a fan room with a screened window by our heads, through which we enjoyed a cool breeze all night after the evening rain. For dinner, we walked about 50 meters down the street to the BK Restaurant (the sign just says “restaurant” as far as I can remember) where we had our first real meal since being sick. The food was good and clean and fresh, and the cook was very helpful with our requests for vegetarian options of the dishes. The Lao phrases we’ve learned are well understood when the cooks are this engaged in figuring it out with us.

My poor Love got sick last night and spent today sleeping. He’s exactly two days behind me in getting whatever this sickness is, but at least he doesn’t have it quite as bad. I’m still not feeling well enough to eat anything but bananas and a few crackers. We started taking antibiotics and are anxious for them to kick in.

41

I slept through the night and woke up this morning a little hungry. Dave had said it should pass in 24 hours if it was from the food, and it seemed to. I decided we should ride today. We are down to our last couple of weeks of cycling, so we now have to actually stick to a schedule. So, no cave boat ride for us. We made the short but hilly ride to the junction with 13 so that the next three days would only be moderate in length. We climbed some steep hills, and my stomach became angry, but the views were beautiful and I knew the day would be short.

We found a guest house by riding about a kilometer south on 13 and it has decent basic rooms. I couldn’t face the sights and smells of a Lao restaurant yet, so Dave went out to eat lunch, bought fruit and brought me back some rice and an omelet. I needed to be horizontal for a while so I just stayed in. I sure hope my stomach feels more solid tomorrow.

Sick

I think I must have food poisoning. I started puking last night around 1:00 and was up many times. This is the worst I’ve ever felt with any kind of stomach illness. We ate both lunch and dinner at the guest house, so I can only think it must be from that. Especially since in the middle of dinner I walked by the tiny “kitchen” in the back and saw two people squatting barefoot peeling garlic onto the bare floor. Dave is fine, thank goodness.

At about 11, Dave rode down the main road and found another guest house with cleaner, a/c rooms (we’re in a fan room with mosquito netting) for about a buck more so we decide to move. I barely made the 1 km ride to the new place but it was worth it. I spent the rest of the day sleeping and visiting the bathroom, waking only now and then when Dave would remind me to drink water or juice.

Obviously I cannot recommend our first guest house, the Xok Xai. Not only was the restaurant bad, but the rooms were over-priced considering the new room we got was far better yet only 10,000 kip more, about US$1.20.

58 km

We started the day riding through misty, foggy mountains, enjoying the cool, high-altitude air because we knew we’d be going lower today.

The road was great all day, because from the start we were on scenic Route 8. We climbed and descended to ride through several narrow green farming valleys. Tiny villages spread out along the road in these valleys, and many people could be seen walking along the road with tools for farming, with the women carrying woven baskets on cords over their shoulders. The valleys were mostly cleared of jungle forest and planted with crops like rice and corn, the higher slopes supporting rows of coffee trees.

We ended our day’s ride in Ban Na Hin. We plan to see about renting a moto tomorrow to ride the rough 40-odd kilometers to Tham Lot Kong Lo cave, where we can take a 7-kilometer boat ride through the cave. It’s been recommended to us by a few people.

Since we arrived in the early afternoon, we decided to hike in to see Tat Namsanam waterfall, which is supposed to be spectacular in the rainy season. We got to hike through the jungle forest with huge trees, vines and all the insects you can imagine. We rode about 2 km from our guesthouse (Xok Xai) up the trail and then hiked about 2 km. The second half was quite steep and rugged, and we found ourselves climbing over down trees and ducking under vines to follow the trail. When we finally arrived, the waterfall was… not spectacular, but pretty and held all the potential for spectacular come rainy season.

We ate at the guest house and enjoyed talking with a German backpacker before heading to bed.

76 km

It rained last night, so today started out very cool and the air smelled like a floral forest. We enjoyed a long cool morning while we cycled about 40 km on nice, packed dirt and gravel. The road surface looked like it’s been prepared for eventual paving. The newest of the many dams in this mountainous area has just been finished and the large reservoir will be filled by the end of this coming rainy season. They will allow recreation and water sports on the reservoir, and our host at the restaurant last night told us he expects the tourism in the area to really grow. I’m glad we’re riding this road while it’s still very quiet and not yet paved. This is some of my favorite riding on this tour because the mountains are lush and green and rugged and it smells so fresh and green.

At about 40 km the road narrowed and became steeper. This part of the road was even quieter and wilder, with the forest closing in around us, offering shade and the sound of thousands of whirring and buzzing insects. I have a smile plastered on my face, it is just too much fun.

Near 60 km the road passed through a couple of small villages, then widened as it dropped down to a flatter valley. It stayed quite rough all the way to Lak Sao. Coming down into the busyness and dust was like coming out of a dream. We found a room at the Souriya Hotel on the third floor with a beautiful view of the mountains along the road we’ll follow tomorrow. We spent the afternoon hiding from the heat in our a/c room watching movies on satellite TV. We’re much like my beloved Shasta dog these days: either running hard or flopped out on the floor.

79 km

We first heard about “The Loop” from Hans, who gave us his copy of Lonely Planet Laos, and between his description and the book’s, it sounded like something we had to add to our trip. Instead of continuing north on highway 13, the main north-south highway to Vientiane, we will add probably three days of riding first east on highway 12, then north on 8B, and then take route 8 west back to highway 13. Some people continue from there back down to Thakhek making the full loop, but if you don’t have to rent a moto and have your own transportation, you can just continue on to Vientiane, which is what we will do.

This loop gets into pretty remote, non-touristy and rugged areas of Khammuan and Bolikhamsai provinces, very close to Vietnam. It climbs 600 meters and gets into mountain highlands that should be a bit cooler and pretty wild in places. The Thakhek Travel Lodge, where we’ve been staying, has a very helpful book where travelers write descriptions of their experiences with The Loop, though most people ride it on motos, not bicycles.

The first 45 kilometers were on a pretty new chip-seal road surface. We expected to be climbing, but the grade of the road was so gradual we hardly knew we were gaining elevation at all. At about 45 km the surface turned to packed dirt and gravel, but still a pretty smooth road. Then at about 65 km the surface degraded to a very rough and loose rocky road. Then it became very steep and narrower at 71 km for a climb up to the plateau.

By the time we got to the really steep climb it was nearing noon and very hot. There were no trees shading the road and it was very dusty every time a vehicle came by. I think I’ve mentioned the heat here. Well, this was just too much for me. Without riding fast enough to get a breeze, I just couldn’t handle the heat while climbing a hard hill. I was feeling light-headed and nauseous. So when we saw one chance for shade, we took it.

We ended up sitting there for a couple of hours, resting and reading and waiting for my stomach to calm down. Finally, a breeze started working up and we set off to finish the climb. at about 78 km the road topped out and we were in our night’s destination, Na Kay. Taking a right at the police box, we immediately found a basic guest house on the left. A woman we met there cooks at a restaurant about a kilometer down the road, so she waited for us to shower and then she walked us there. This was a great restaurant, with a nice raised wood deck with a great view, and the food was wonderful. The sign over the entrance says Mitthaphab Restaurant, but the menu says Friendship Restaurant. The woman’s brother, who recently built the restaurant, spoke very good English and we enjoyed talking with him. Then he drew us a very helpful map of our ride for tomorrow, showing us where to avoid road construction and where the road will turn difficult. He was apprehensive about us riding it on bicycles, and we tried to reassure him we would be fine. We all enjoyed watching the clouds build up in the distance while the sun set.