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.
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