A road less pedalled

It’s been over a month since our last blog update and this reflects the small out of the way places we’ve been staying at on our cycling tour (good internet connections have been scarce).

We bought our bikes in Bangkok and cycled Northeast towards Laos stopping in places like Ayuthaya, Lop Buri, and Nang Rang. We saw many crumbling old temples, one of them overrun by monkeys who jumped on Nick to steal is apple. (Jen didn’t know if Nick was more frightened of the monkeys or the prospect of loosing his apple).

We cycled across the Thai-Laos border at Chong Mek and had to cover 140km to get to a town with a guest house. That was our longest days cycle so far and the last few kilometres in the late afternoon sun were a real joy. We arrived in Pakse tired and pleased with our effort. After a few days rest we went south to Si Phan Don (four thousand islands) at the very bottom of Laos. We stayed on 3 different islands on the Mekong river and had to charter a boat each day to transport us and the bikes between islands. We didn’t have a clue what to do at first and balancing the bikes on make shift rafts was a bit worrying.

We also cycled around the Bolavan Plateau. This is a very fertile area where they grow pineapples and coffee beans. We spent a few hours with Cornilius, a Dutch guy with his own coffee plantation, and he roasted and ground some beans for us. We sat on his porch drinking coffee and trading stories. It could not have been more fresh! He told us how he met and married his Lao wife within 3 days and how they named their baby. They wanted to give him 2 names, a western name and a traditional Lao name. He kept things simple and chose the western name after his own, Cornilius. His wife agonised for 3 days and when they were leaving the hospital she was forced to pick a name in order to register the birth. To Cornilius’ surprise his wife chose the Lao name Johnny.

We spent Christmas on the plateau in the small village of Tad Lo. It was beautiful! We had a bamboo bungalow near a huge waterfall. Like so much of Laos, life in the village was simple and laid back. We had banana pancakes for Christmas dinner and the villagers didn’t have a clue what we were talking about when we wished them Merry Christmas.

New Year was ‘celebrated’ in another small Laos village. I say celebrated… we watched a football match between 2 neighbouring villages in the afternoon and then it was lights out and asleep for 9 O’clock with not a firework in sight. Chinese New Year (tet) will be celebrated on the 26th of Jan and we’re expecting something more than a kick around.

We crossed from Laos to Vietnam just after new year and we’re currently cycling down the east coast towards Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The first week was woefully wet and windy and we had a tyre blow out on the wettest day of all. We were 30km from Hue and soaked to the skin when Jen’s back tyre went pop! We don’t mean a simple puncture, there was a 3” split in the side wall of the tyre. Nick cycled back to the nearest village and although they had several new tyres they were the wrong size. We needed a 700mm tyre but the closest they had was half an inch too big (damn the metric system). The old man in the shop tried his best to make it fit but it simply was too large and kept popping off the rim. As a last resort he got some string, poked holes in the torn tyre and stitched it up like an old case ball. He looked please with his effort and sent Nick on his way to convince Jen it would be OK. It just about lasted and 30 wet kilometres later when we found a hotel some of the stitches had pulled through, but we made it. Hue is a proper city but it still took us 7 bike shops to find the right sized tyre.

Life on the bikes is brilliant. We’ve cycled around 2,000 km and our bums are almost saddle hardy. Each day (especially in Laos) we cycle through little villages and hundreds of children rush from their homes, schools or just out of the forest to say hello to us. They have wide excited smiles and it’s a real pleasure for us to share in their delight. Sometimes when we stop for a break the children gather on the other side of the road and just stare at us. Our height, fair skin and cycling clothes being a rare site to them.

We haven't done anything particularly exciting in the last month; no scuba diving, no skiing, no white water rafting or caving but the interaction with excited rural village people has been very special and given us priceless memories that we hope to always cherish.

We hope you are all well. Happy belated New Year from us both,


Love

N&J

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