Day 22 - Down the hill to Kasi - Trial by fire: new bike, first tour, first time in Asia

November 16, 2024

Day 22 - Down the hill to Kasi

According to Komoot, the road to Kasi was mostly downhill.

But I get ahead of myself. Since we only had about 50 km to ride, we had a relaxing morning.

I suspect a marketing firm would nix this brand name if it were imported into the US

We rode into Phou Khoun for breakfast, and to attend to our phone simcards.

As we had come to expect, the Unitel staff were friendly and accommodating. Had we bothered to read the text we received, in Lao, we would have known that we had run out of data. LAK 75,000 (about US$3.75) later and we were back in touch with the world.

The proprietress of the restaurant we selected for breakfast was a character, and Ian had a carry-on with her.

And we set off to a beautiful, and mostly downhill ride to Kasi. Complete with broken pavement, choking dust, and the massive trucks that make it all possible.

Ian says that the roads were better in 2011, and these trucks weren't on the road.

But the road was terrible. In places it would alternate between 50 m of tarmac and 50 m of broken pavement and rocks. The huge Chinese trucks were destroying the road, but the worst part was that the roads through the villages were the worst of all. I began to ponder that some major corporations, likely Chinese, were reaping a fine profit while destroying the roads of Laos, and making villagers live in a shroud of choking dust. I shudder to think of the short- and long-term health effects of breathing this dust. From Ian’s recollection of his 2011 ride through Laos, there were fewer trucks and the roads were better. The rich get richer… So much for the people’s republic. Of course, it also had an effect on us, well, me. In a patch of powder-fine dust mixed with rocks, I went down.

Minor abrasions, but teeth, glasses and bike intact.

Of course, Ian gave a detailed explanation of his characteristically counter-intuitive methods for avoiding such problems, while he picked up my bike.

I pondered if roadside shrines were in proportion to the quality of the paving.

Truck repair is big business in Laos today. Look at the part leaning against the front wheel.

Not all doom and gloom. All along the ride we had views of these spectacular mountains.

One of my enigmatic observations for days has been seeing playing cards all along the road.

Is this road the world's largest gin-rummy discard pile?

And we took nice breaks.

Mmmm... a soak in a hot spring! Just the thing on a sunny day.

There's more than one use of a road sign.

As we rolled into Kasi we stopped for cool drinks to plot our next moves. Ian couldn't find a place that would serve up a plate of tofu.

There was a good reason. This shop was next door.

We needed to find accommodation, but also the train station, as we had decided to take the new fast train to Luang Prabang in lieu of back-tracking. Although online searches showed closest guesthouse to be 2 km from the station Ian's intuition was that there must be one closer.

We rode the 5 km on a quiet contry road, past farmers harvesting rice by hand and, sure enough, no distance from the station was a very nice guesthouse, complete with restaurant. We picked up tickets for tomorrow's train and then negotiated our stay, arranging to leave our bikes while we ventured to Luang Prabang.

The name of the place translates as Glass Branch Guesthouse. ?

Future proprietor of the Glass Branch Guesthouse.

And we're just across the road from the station.

It was most peaceful at The Glass Branch out here on a quiet country road.

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 1,059 km (658 miles)

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