Cycling, sun and Ice Lollies

So we left Hongsa as we arrived by local tuk tuk thingy and then headed for the slow boat to take us upriver to Pak Beng so we could get a bus to Oudumoxay and then a bus to Luang Nam Tha!!!

Well Dan felt like shit and we all thought he was going to vomit at any time, actaully George didn;t seem too happy about our dodgy position on the edge of the mountain but hey ho, we got down in one peice!!

Dan was still ill when we were told that there were no boats until 5pm, which seemed weird to us but what can you do? The speedboat guy is right there and can get us there in 30 mins so we had to bite the bullet, pay he ridiculous rate ( even after getting100,000 kip off) and chucked our stuff on the boat. We watched a foreigner get into another boat with a helmet and a lifejaket so when our equivalent never appreared we were less than impressed. I was actually shitting a brick and didn't want to do it at all, where as everyone else was fed up and scared but just wanted to go. We squeezed ourselves into position (not much room at all and not comfy) stuffed our faces with fritters (last supper) and remembered what everyone tells you about speedboats on the mekong;don't do it. its too dangerous, people die all the time etc' I said a private prayer a crossed myself and then within seonds we were doing some crazy speed and freakliy Dan started to feel much better and wanted the guy to go faster. It was actually ok when there were no whirlpools under us and the river was fast running but really flat, but when we went over the boulders and were up in the air i felt sure we were going to die. It was horrible and the guy obviously just sped up even more to get over them. This guy, eho I'm not sure could even see where he was going was so laid back just looking at the scenery. Uh, never again, thank god it was only half an hout.

I then had to be pushed up the bank as is was vertical and my bag was really heavy, it was so demeaning!!

Horror of Pak Beng , really touristy, trying to con you for tuk tuks and kids asking for money, horrid, the best bit was the fact it has a bus to get you out of there!!

We had Foe ( rice noodle soup) after our 1.5km walk uphill in searing sunshine and reserved our seats on the bus. An hour later we set off on another local bus which has seen better days and was full of spit and vomit at the first turn. For these people who seem to really rely on public transport, they cannot handle being in a moving vehilce at all and just vomit and eat and vomit, all the time!!

The journey was actually ok and the scenery changed quite a bit, you couldn't see for corn fields(another favourite Laos snack) they were litterally rubbing up against the windows of the bus!! The fields looked lush and healthy and we were sharing the bus with farmers, ie vomiters!!!!


The bus was meant to take 5hrs and luckily only to took 3 which meant we managed to get to the next bus staion in time to catch the delayed(by 2 hrs) bus from Oudomoxay to Luang Nam Tha!!Such I fluke I cannot tell you !! We have loved Laos but its really hard to get around sometimes, everything has to be full before it goes anywhere which means you cannot bank on getting any particular bus, you never know when you will get there as local buses litterally stop everywhere and people think nothing of loading the whole bus to the rafters with crap and animals, so it takes ages for them to load and unload. It would test the patience of a saint. You either need loads of time, no schedule or just stick to a few places to really enjoy the public transport, trying to get off the beaten track is hard!!

Anyway we were all whooping for joy at our luck and then we got kicked off the bus!! As it turns out the bus was really empty and had waited for over 2 hours to fill up and failed so they shoved us onto a minibus instead, whatever, yeh? As long as we are going. Only we are only going as far as the shop in the corner and then we have to collect someones shopping and then we have to go to the drivers house, get this, so he can leave us and go and drive another vehicle for a bit and then we can go!!!

We went up pretty high mountainsd and jungle agin and saw lots of tiny communities and were greeted by loads of people ( I was doing my usual hanging out of the window grinning routine), we saw people returning from the fields, children who were really poor foraging for herbs on the edges of some ridicuously evil looking mountains, woman and children bathing outside at the local well and a beautiful sunset to top it off.

We got to Luang Nam Tha late and it was pretty dead already there were a few stalls open selling foe, so that was dinner and then we had bbq banana stuffed twith stips of coconut, delish!! Bedtime was in a great little place that Dan found, really swanky, but he manged to get it for the price of a dive!!

We had aquired a mate on the way, a little vomoitting novice monk who was on his first trip from the North who had been completely confused when everyone got off one bus and onto another after we were dunped at one the othe bus stations (whihc are always a ridiculous distance like 10km oit of town) he had litterally beem vomitting and crying the whole way, he was about 11yrs old and when all the other Laos people left him looking lost. he followed us!! See were not all bad are we?!! We could tell he was lost and had nowhere to go so we took him to the guesthouse where they gave him a bed for the night and something to settle his stomach. Weird how not one Laos person could see he was lost, or needed help.

Next day we got up early so that we could go cycling before it got too hot. We eventually found some rabbit ear types with baskets(always useful for flip flops and water supplies!) that sort of had a bit of a brake on one side!! We got our map and directions and off we went!!

We spent 7 hours cylcing that day, the first stop was the village near by famous for making paper . We had a good nose around and then this little old lady invited us into her bamboo house on sticks. It was weird it was really basic and just had two very large rooms, one for cooking and the other for living. The old dear spoke no English and got teeny stools out for us to sit on. There was a tv and sound system in the corner and a battered old sofa, spindle and lots of things we just didn't have a clue at all about. Then two girls wandered in who were just neighbours and then the two brothers turned up and didn't seem surprised at all to find westerners sitting their lounge!! They were all really polite and we managed a limited conversation, but it was really interesting to see, esp when the old dear started trying to flog us bags and handmade paper!! ( obviously couldn't tell we were cheap skates!!)ooh and we got to see her at her spindle and I really wanted to try but Dan said that I would just ruin it(ye of little faith) So we ran away !!!

We saw lots of great scenery and tiny villages which belong to all the different ethnic groups here and they were so friendly. We had to do a river crossing at one point which looked really easy to start with but then we soon realised that the current was actually very strong and the river was over our knees so pushing the bikes through was so difficult, I nearly lost it at one point but luckliy I ended up only loosing one flip flop!!So obviously I ended up pedaling the rest of the day without shoes which was quite painful(I know I'm a wimp!!)The locals thought we were crazy and just stopped bathing to watch us. The rest of the cycling was a mixture of rivers, dirt roads, villages, hills(too many) and wats along the way. The final challenge was pushing the sodding bike up to the wat on the hill on our return into town, Dan and George didn't bother and frankly it was so hot and I was shoeless and burnt to a crisp and it was soo steep, but it was worth it, it didn't look like too many people do it ( can't blame them!!)We stumbled across a wat with a fantastic bunch of novices training in it. We were there for ages and they were all really chatty and just loved having their photos taken , also Dan was teaching them how to take pictures of each other. They were all really young here from about 7-15yrs and they were obviously really bored and loved the interaction and mcuking about with Dan and George.


Well with all this hard work we were gasping for cold water, and while we were searching through this huge freezer, we stumbled across the smallest Mr Freezes ever, but my god they were delicious, cold and had great flavour, so good that Dan had 3, one of each flavour, cola(best), strawberry and some weird green coloured one!!!

Next morning, its was back to travelling, we wanted to go to Nong Khiaw, but the tourist info office had no info on how to get there by bus!!!! We asked if they could call the bus station there or the bus station in Luang Nam Tha(10 km away), but they don't have the phone numbers!!!!! Well, we decided, sod it, lets head to the capital Vientiane and then further south to the 4000 Islands!!!!!

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