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.