On The Road

---

Two days on the road now and the scenery is beautiful! I love how up and close you can get on a bike. The dust, sweat and bugs in the eyes aside, it's great. I am also trying to zen out with the hills. Instead of asking myself, is this the last turn before it levels out, I am trying to appreciate "the moment". According, to the leader of an organized cycling tour I ran into yesterday. I will learn to love hills. I'm not sure I will go that far but so far the hills haven't been too steep. All I can say is I'm glad I'm going South because despite the uphills, the descents are longer : )

Yesterday, I put in 75kms from Luang Namtha to Na Mor. I stayed in a small guest house right next to the Chinese restaurant in town. Not great value for the money but it was a place to crash, there didn't seem to be much choice. The owner of the guesthouse was very nice and together with her sister(?) we had fun trying to teach me Laos.

Today, after lounging around in town, afterall, I only had 50km to do, I didn't leave till noon. A little later than I planned but I was confident I would get to oudomxai in good time. What I didn't account for was the constant, gradual uphill for a good portion of the ride. I didn't also plan stopping several times to adjust my gears after the chain came off three times in the 2 days. I also didn't plan on running into a fellow cyclist which I'd better do since according to Ward, "Laos is the best place in the world for meeting fellow cyclists."

Tomorrow, Christmas day, the plan is to do 85km. Apparently that's where I will find a place to sleep, so I better get my butt on the road early, planning for hills and hoping to meet other riders : )

---