On The Road

After a few months and a mere 2300 kilometers (our shortest day a 25 km blink, and our longest a grueling 150km day), Laura and I have completed our bicycle tour of Southeast Asia. On our last ride into Luang Prabang, Laura and I discussed how we really felt like we just started the trip and that we could have easily kept going, and we're pretty sure that one day we will!

Laura relishing our last few km's into Luang Prabang

One thing that happens when you are cycling all day long is you stop for food... alot! This became one of our favorite things to do, not just to taste real local foods (as we stopped mostly in small villages), but also to meet the locals. In Laos, it is very important for an infant to be held, so important that mothers carry their children with them at all times, even while cooking us lunch!

One of two pictures of Christian.
("He who holdeth the camera shalt not see himself on bloggeth")

"I just wanted some water!"

Finding food along the way was never a problem. Sometimes it was even too easy! Local buses would stop in small villages, and women and children armed with generous supplies of bbq chicken, fish, rice, eggs and drinks, would surround the bus (a few fortunate ones would actually board the bus) to sell their goods to passengers.

During one of our longest stretches of road, Laura asked to pull over and take a break and said, "Man, would I love some watermelon right now!" One minute later this guy comes by!!! Ask and you shall recieve!

The famed Lao sticky rice ball. As opposed to their neighbors in Vietnam and Cambodia, Lao people prefer sticky rice that you eat with your hands.

Usually when we road though villages, the kids would scream (and I do mean SCREAM!) "Sah-bah-dee!!!"... which is the Lao greeting. When we stopped they sometimes wouldn't know what to do now that we weren't moving, and would simply line up on the side of the road and stare.

On the start of our last day we met these guys. They were some of the most curious kids we met along the way... so we had to take a picture!

We rode from a city called Savannakhet in central Laos to the South and instead of doubling back, be hopped on a local bus back to Savan. I'm not sure if the bus would have passed the New Zealand warrant of Fitness, but it got us and our bikes there!

It may be hard for many of you to believe, but Laura and I were actually getting up around 4:30am everyday! Because Laura was having problems with heat rash on her arms (a unfortunate side effect of our anti-malarials) and with the temperatures easily near 100 almost everday, we tried to stay out of the midday sun as much as possible. Fortunately for us, we were rewarded with beautiful sunrises and cool tempertures (for a few hours at least!).

At night we would partake at the local restaurants. In the village of Kasi, these friendly teenagers joined us to practice their English!

Laura's ride.

Luang Prabang

Our final route into Luang Prabang was Vang Vieng - Kasi - Kiou Ka Cham - Luang Prabang.

We spent four days in Luang Prabang. It is a World Heritage City because of its incredible collection of Buddhist Wats (temples), and its setting in the mountains of Northern Laos. We spent plenty of time visiting the temples... and there are a lot!

We visited Phu Si, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, Wat That Luang, Wat Manolom, and Wat Xieng Thong, among others.

I was in love with all the carvings and statues in both the new and old wats. The wats still in use usually coated their carvings with gold paint.

A closeup at Wat Xieng Thong (Golden City Monastery).

Luang Prabang has become quite touristy in the last couple of years. The special tourist night market is quite a spectacle. It seemed to be endless (till we found the end) and was full of interesting souvenirs and local crafts. It was also a fun place to work on your bargaining skills. We also found that the street food vendors at the night market had the best food in town... and damn cheap to boot!

Across the street from our guesthouse, at Wat Chum Khong, this loud ritual took place at 4 oclock (pm and AM!).

With a lot of Buddhist Wats comes lots of monks. Luang Prabang actually has hundreds of "novices". Novices are young men and boys that come from the surrounding villages to get an education and learn to become a monk. When they complete high school, they usually go back to village life, and some return in older years.

Boo!

We spent a lot of time talking to these "novices" as they were very excited to practice their english, or lack of, with us.

Unfortunately, knowledge of many of the beautiful crafts that go into making and preserving these Wats is disappearing. This novice was part of a program in which the crafts are deliberately taught by lay people or monks in order to reinstill the knowledge on how to upkeep the temples in the younger generations.

Every morning at close to 6:00am, the locals "give alms" to the monks. Some three hundred monks walk down the roads while local buddhists kneel down and provide them with their food.

Northern Laos

We cycled two days north of Vientiane, stopping in Na Nom, to Vang Vieng, where we spent three days.

The view from our balcony.

"Ohmygaw! Rachel dumped Ross!

Vang Vieng is either a backpackers dream, or nightmare. It is covered with tour companies, internet cafes, massage parlors, souvenir shops and restaurants. Many eateries are like the one above with beds and TV's running western movies and TV shows... why somebody would come all the way to Laos to sit around, eat pizza and watch reruns of "Friends" is beyond me. We met a Lao tourist that said she felt like she was in a different country because there were more westerners than Lao people.

Vang Vieng is located next to a river and surrounded by dramatic karst limestone cliffs. There are tons of outdoor activities to enjoy. Most people take tubes down the river picking beers up at bars along the water. I spent a day rock climbing were I climbed the hardest grade I have ever climbed, did my first lead climb, and later had my first fall off a lead climb... but I'm okay! Thanks to Adam and Sy.

After Vang Vieng we headed north into the mountains of Laos for three days towards Luang Prabang. The last few days were the most challenging days as they were mostly uphill and we averaged close to 100 kms a day. But the challenge was well worth it as we experienced some spectacular scenery and came into contact for the first time with the colorful H'mong people.

Hello!

Mondo's cousins

We think we found which specific H'mnog village Mondo (our dog) came from. The entire village was populated almost exclusively with Mondo clones! Other villages had versions of him too in this region.

It just keeps going up.

Weaving

Laos has a strong tradition of weaving. Some of the fabrics we saw there were gorgeous. In particular, I was knocked out by the traditional skirts that women wear, called "Sinh". Many women wear them for going to work or to the temple.




We saw this woman at our homestay in Phonsim Village. She is doing a type of weaving called Ikat in which you tie the thread in specific places, then dye it. When you weave the tie-dyed thread it creates a white and color pattern that is almost unbelievably complex.

Hands blue from dying.

This is another style of weaving, called Khit, wear there are sticks put in the loom to keep the pattern. We saw a woman weaving it in Ban Phanom, a tourist exhibition outside Luang Prabang.

No sale.

Vientiane

From Savannakhet, we biked 4 days North to Vientiane. Our route was Savannakhet -Thakek - Namthone - Thabok - Vientiane. These days were long, but beautiful - 455 km, including our longest day of 150 kms.

Buddha Park, outside Vientiane

Buddha Park is a modern (1960's) sculptural garden making an update to all the Buddhist carvings I was enjoying at the more historical SE Asian sites.

Vientiane is the Capital of Laos. When we arrived there we had not been to a large city for awhile, so it was a bit bittersweet. It had everything - tons of cultural places to visit, like the Buddha Park, and luxuries like book stores, western foods and hot water (we stuck to cold showers and Indian food). But along with all these amenities were lots of people, lots of tourists, lots of everything, and after coming from small intimate towns and villages, it was a bit of a shock to our senses.

Pha That Luang

Cycling up North from Vientiene, we stopped for a mid morning break at the Vientiene Zoological Gardens (Thulakom Zoo). The conditions there left something to be desired, but at the same time there were many of the "exotic" animals that this region is famous for.

Watchoooo loookin at?

Don't fall in.

We really wanted to get this monkey out of the cage.

Phonsim Village Homestay

We took a bus retracing our route, from Si Phan Don to Savannakhet.

From Savannakhet, we booked ourselves on a 2 day "eco-tour", where we would trek through Dong Natat Regional Forest Park, and stay overnight in Phonsim Village with a Lao family.

Our hosts were Mr. Keeon (sp), his wife, mother-in-law, 4 daughters, and 1 son. Our guide and translator, from Savannakhet, was Tip.

Each of us were took (bucket) showers after our sweaty day of hot trekking. Once separated, the grandma, next door neighbor aunt, and wife, with daughters looking on, took their opportunity to make comments about us, and ask questions. I say make comments, because (I think) it is normal in the culture to "appraise" new people out loud. For example, after inspection, it was pronounced that I was as pretty as a doll, but Christian looked like a boxer.

One of our favorite parts of the homestay experience was the Basi Ceremony. Whenever a special guest comes from another place, a family gets a "san maabeng" centerpiece, woven out of banana leaves and decorated with flowers. They get strings of cotton to tie on like the daughters and grandma are doing in the picture above.

Later on, older men of the village were invited over for dinner. Before we ate, the ceremony commenced with eggs and bananas being placed in our hands. Everyone in the room then swirled around stopping to tie the cotton strings around our wrists, and wish us good health, good journeys and welcome.

Laos kitchens are remarkable for their lack of "infrastructure". Everything is on - and is done while squatting on - the floor. This includes dishes, water buckets for dishwashing and cooking, and the fire (not stove) for cooking. It is incredible what tasty and huge meals this woman was able to prepare for us, her family, and all the visitors.

One of our favorite parts of the homestay was "Making Merit". We woke up at 6. We were given sashes, a proper skirt to wear for me, and some shiny containers to hold the rice and food to be given to the village monks. We then walked through the village to the temple. We sat with our feet in a proper direction (tucked away from the monks and other people) and listened to the monks chant. We then added our food offerings to the collection pots that each monk had. This is what they would eat that day. Making Merit is supposed to bring you good luck in your life.

Another part of the homestay was visiting an English class at the village school and giving a quick lesson. I taught "the Hokey Pokey" to the kids (It has good vocab! Arm, leg, shake it all about!) .

Our host Mr. Keeon, taking a nap in a viewing platform on Nong Tau (Turtle) Lake.

I found it interesting the village made charcoal. They buried the burning logs in this mound. We saw bundles of charcoal being sold on the side of the road all over Laos.

Central to Southern Laos

Our first stop in Laos, Savannakhet, is a fading French colonial city along the Mekong featuring wide streets and crumbling architecture. Without the cars they were designed for, the wide boulevards were very pleasant to walk along.

Look at what she is WEARING

From Savannakhet, we headed south on our bikes. We took Highway 13 all the way down to Si Phan Don ("4000 Islands"), the southern tip of Laos. We broke the route at Pakse to do a loop around (and up up down) the Bolavan Plateau, stopping each night at a different waterfall.

We started out by going Savannakhet - Paksong - Muang Khongsedon - Pakse. The Bolovan was then Pakse - Tad Fan - Tad Lo - Tad Pasuame. We finished off Highway 13 by going Champasak - Don Khong - Don Khon.

Waterfall #1: Tad Fan

We saw these "candle rail" Nagas on our way to Tad Lo. The road was dirt, and everything around was an undecorated shack. The temple and the rails that led up to it were gold painted and shone from the landscape, showing their importance to the village.

Nagas were some of my favorite Buddhist sculptures. The Naga was a snake with many heads that protected the Buddha while he sat and meditated.

At Tad Lo we decided to trade our bikes for an elephant... then we realized that we probably wouldn't be able to find any guesthouses for the three of us (sorry Mun!).

Mun closeup.

Tad Phasoume by night (waterfall #3).

The day we biked from Champasak to Don Khong was 107 km in the intense heat of Southern Laos. There were also very few villages along the way, but there were these helpful "rest huts" where the shade was most welcome.

We relaxed for a few days on one of the 4000 islands in the middle of the Mekong called Don Khon. We did a lot of sleeping, swimming, reading books, eating great Lao food and meeting and spending time with other cycle tourists (and their families!)... hello Livi (Livi's Family), Jut, Tom and Trev!

Laos has dogs for everyone!

The kids taking the boat for a spin.