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Published: February 8th 2007
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The Only Way to GO...
It's a long way from England! Eight months ago the scenery was much different and you could get a pint of beer on the Village Green.... Day 251, 6th February
Uthomphon - Savannakhet
The sun rose above the tree-line in misty clouds giving it a somewhat moon-like appearance at first - maybe that’s what the circular white disk on the Lao flag represents? We had managed to survive last night, the soldiers never came back, only the sound of distant gun-fire in the night. I began to wonder about Stephane and Toby - where were they free-camping? Were they okay?
After we’d packed up our tents it was only a short 30-mile ride into Savannakhet, and to help us the road surface was new. Nick had a milometer on his bike he’d bought in Beijing and was now counting down to his first 5,000 kilometres. When he hit the magical number, his Chinese “Hunter” bike immediately started to self-destruct - as if by magic! His seat post fractured and the saddle nearly fell off. We patched that up and a mile later a spoke broke and he had a puncture. Once repaired, he started to pump up the flat and the pump snapped in two! Chinese technology……
It took less than 2 hours to get to Savannakhet and we arrived before 10am. We
Umbrellas Eh ?
That's a neat idea to keep the sun off our bonces... do as the Romans do! discovered that the town was small and dusty, but a town nevertheless. We found the Hotel Santyphab and booked in. Twin rooms were 20,000 Kip each with no running water and geckoes running up and down the wall. I tried to catch one and its tail dropped off! It’s true - they shed their tails when you try to catch them and the tail sits there on the floor and wiggles like a worm!!! It freaked me out, even though I knew it was no real hardship for the gecko - it would grow a new one! A couple of hours later, Stephane turned up, he’d not been shot or anything, and had been camping near us.
Even later, I went on an exploration of Savannakhet. This place is so cool and damn right lazy. Rickshaws were just parked up and the drivers asleep in nearby hammocks - no hassle at all. I noticed that all the shops have beds in them where the owners just sleep the day away, you could go in and walk off with anything! I saw an army post where the soldiers were either sleeping or playing a game of bowls on the dusty
Lao Postes
Lao stamps in my journal. ground. Nobody seems to care, or really do anything - it’s just a chillin’ out kinda place. I like it…
As the sun set, we went to a bar next to the Mekong and looked over to Mukhdahan in Thailand. We drank Beer Lao and watched people. The place is full of backpackers busying themselves trying to chat-up women and failing miserably. Rory announced that he needs to get to a special clinic in Bangkok for foreigners cos he reckons he’s picked up something funny from Hanoi - it burns when he pisses or something! Something to do with the Swedish Connection in Halong Bay? I went back to the hotel to write letters and to read up about Thailand. I was just dozing off when a paraletic Nick burst into the room, swirled like a Dervish to the window, and puked from the balcony into the street below - Yes Savannakhet: The blokey Bikepackers have Hit Town!
Total Miles: 11366.34 Todays Miles: 31.08 Average speed: 12.8 Time on bike: 2:24
Day 252, 7th February
Savannakhet
It was just a day of chilling out, using the internet, writing, walking along the river and visiting
Delapidated Bus
This is the alternative to breathing nice clean air on my bike! Buddhist temples - there’s a lot of them here and loads of orange-robed Buddhist monks roaming the streets with umbrellas too.
Later in the day, I noticed a newspaper office and decided to do what the other dudes had been doing for a change - “Media-Whoring”! I spoke to an English-speaking reporter and arranged an interview and photo-shoot for the rest of the guys at 4pm. It turned out to be the most laid-back interview yet. Afterwards two of the reporter girls asked us if we wanted to join them for the rest of the day. I ended up being a night of partying and drinking, going to a crap disco out of town and whizzing around on the girls’ mopeds with them on the back for hours. We must have cruised every street in Savannakhet, up and down, kicking up dust and yahooing like crazy. The girls seemed to love it!
We’d changed $10 earlier to stay another night, and back at the hotel we got chatting about our plans. Scott and I want to cross the Mekong straight into Thailand from here, the others want to go up north with Nick who leaves us tomorrow. Toby
Drinkable?
Is that stuff drinkable? Or shall we stick with the BEER? Yeah! (This is actually an ec-friendly electricity generator). had turned up with tales-a-plenty about his ride here from Vietnam - he hadn’t been shot or anything bad. So, we only reckon on about 6 weeks to Singapore, there’s a lot to see on the way, a few places on the Cambodian border I’d like to see and the coastal areas of Thailand… we’ll see eh?
Day 253, 8th February
Savannakhet
Had a good sleep last night and went for breakfast with the guys, the last meal as a group of six. Well, five actually - Stephane has locked himself in his room for some reason, we think he has a woman in there? Just before nine, Nick said his goodbyes and left for the north. Three months he’s been with us, I’m sure we’ll miss the bugger!
The others decided that time is short and that a trip up north isn’t really feasible. I’d love to go north through Laos, but alas, this shall have to wait till another time.
Later on we had a drink by the river and went to another crappy disco. It was crap! But we were invited to a clandestine restaurant in someones home in a backstreet
Savannakhet
The view from the top of our hotel. where you had to climb through a hatch into the roof space where you could eat. Stephane was on the prowl again, like a vampire, we all said. Maybe he’ll end up with one of the lady boys, there are loads around here and they’re not shy to announce the fact…
Tomorrow is another day, and another country - Thailand. I’ve never been there before and don’t know what to expect really. For almost seven months now we’ve been cycling through eithe communist or ex-communist countries with the exceptions of Hong Kong and Macau. And tomorrow we enter a Kingdom… We’ll be cycling on the left for a change, just like in England. Then after Thailand - Malysia, a muslim country. Before the end point of the trip in Singapore. A lot can happen in six weeks, however, I don’t think it will rival the crazy times we’ve had already in Russia, China, Vietnam etc…….. Or, will it???
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