March 1, 2007
To Muang Xai Beng: sabaidee-bye
We wake at 6:15am and eating banana pancakes at 7am, and on the road by 740am. Feels good to be back on the bikes. First destination is 52km then we will decide to continue on to the guesthouse the Belgians said was another 29kms.
We follow the river up, Patrick says "I can see rocks on the bottom like in Idaho!" The road isn't flat but rolling with some short steep hills. The highlight for today isn't necessarily the landscape, later in the day the hills are barren of trees and full of slash and burn patches. The highlights today are all the villages we pass through...like a parade waving and saying Sabaidee to everyone, mostly children.
Anytime we stop, a crowd gathers. Patrick takes pictures of boys playing on fallen limb of a tree like a teeter totter; a boy sharpening a knife; women spinning cotton into thread; weaving looms; a village shucking corn.
And a new word forms....Sabaidee-bye...some say sabaidee then shout bye as we are passing by.
When we get to Muang we don't see the guesthouse mentioned in LP but a few others and decide to continue on. Tomorrow we will be happy for a short day. We reach Muang Beng about 3pm. We check into a guesthouse, clean but basic. The room has windows and a small balcony. The toilet is downstairs and in back, mandi style.
Before dark we look for milk for tomorrow's breakfast and find soymilk and drinking yogurt for Patrick. For dinner we have fried noodles at the restaurant next door. There is a sitting area outside our room, and we catch up on journal until dusk and the mosquitos start to bite. We go to the room and then hear the generator start up and we have electricity. The beds have mosquito nets, and we get our own sheets and pillowcases out and fix the beds. We don't know how long we will have electricity.
Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 5,941 km (3,689 miles)
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