Day 7 Bike: Over the Hills

July 14, 2023

The guesthouse cost $5. It didn't include free breakfast or room service, but at these prices what do you expect. It was more astonishing than anything else to see these prices to begin with. With that I realized it would not be hard to live and travel on less than $10 a day in Laos. Whether that's for the long-term or not I have no idea. Locals keep telling me about the devaluation of the Kip which surely means they're hurting.

I've been trying my best to watch carefully what I say to the locals, and especially not tell them how cheap it is. I've seen firsthand in all these villages how little they live on. This all reminded me of a journal where a cycle tourist toured Ukraine (before the war obviously) and experienced a similar phenomenon. The currency was crashing at a quick rate and he let on with a comment about how cheap it was to some local friends he met. He could see from their reaction that it was not a very sensitive thing to say, although they were nice about it. He then learned and his example helped me too.

On that note, when the war is over, an epic cycle tour to Ukraine would be in combination with a humanitarian trip to partner with NGOs in the rebuilding effort. I am already looking into where the help is most needed and how I could contribute. It always helps to think ahead of the curve where the next big opportunties are. That is of course assuming Ukraine wins. If Russia wins there'll be no future along with no tour.

Back to Laos. While some would say this country is poverty, the truth couldn't be any more the opposite. I have found more riches here than you can imagine. It's not about how much money there is. It is about keeping a smile on your face and being content with what is available and the joys of the finer things in life. The locals have been sheer geniuses in that. I have been treated like a celebrity and shown amazing kindness and hospitality. I don't deserve any of that. All I did was come to Laos to ride a bike and test-drive my minimalist philosophy. In so doing I realized it was almost as if Laos was the one who invented this, not me.

The ride started with a visit back to the same restaurant I had dinner last night. The owner was friendly and could speak English so he sold me on another visit.

Since option 2 was decided from yesterday I set off. About 5km into the ride I stopped again at the Sanankham Cafe just in case I had been stupid enough to have left the bag of dirty laundry behind. I pulled into the place and nobody was around. Much to my astonishment, the laundry was sitting right there on the table.

Now it made sense as to what happened. I asked Nash the teacher to wash the mud off the bike, and so logically I set aside the bag of laundry on the table. Then we got chatting and after that I just bounced since my brain had not assigned the laundry as a valuable item. This system will definitely need to be tweaked as I have a bad habit of just setting things aside somewhere.

Well that was confirmation that option 2 was indeed the right call. If I went for the other options, I would have permanently left the laundry behind. It's not the end of the world as I can always buy more, but the point is that my wife bought me one of those shirts so it means a lot more this way.

The road started off very gently in the cool weather and I was cruising right along for at least 15km. This wasn't so bad after all.

Wrong. The first switchback came out of nowhere. The gradient was at least 12% and this was seriously steep. There was some brief respite after that but not long after the road went skywards.

Getting close to the top of the first pass (about 700 meters)

It was just glorious up here with the view. This kind of riding I hadn't done for years. While not exactly the Himalayas, still it was the highest point I would likely see on the tour.

These trucks struggled up the hills big time

Looking over the second summit towards the descent

The descent was rip-roaringly fast and I hit close to 60 km/h. Unfortunately it was not a 'one and done' kind of descent as there were countless more uphill steep sections to suck off the momentum. This pattern would last almost until the end of today's ride, although the majority of the elevation gain was already tackled.

All this steep climbing in the hot sun sapped my strength and I was badly in need of water. I found some at a nearby shop and then stocked up with over 2L worth. Then of course it was more pho at the restaurant.

The music was pumping up until this point, and I was dancing while riding towards the restaurant. As I did so, this caught the attention of some giggly schoolgirls who thought the whole thing was hilarious.

I don't know what they want from me. It's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see

Ain't that the truth. More money = more problems.

A satisfying meal was enjoyed, and after that I was very close to the Mekong River Bridge. This bridge is actually a huge deal. This was put in quite recently because there are no other fixed crossings for hundreds of miles.

Option 3 would have involved an attempted dirt road along the Mekong and then a ferry that might have existed. In all likelihood it did and it never rained today either so that option would have also succeeded. But this bridge was nonetheless a highlight. I cycled across it very slowly to take in what this meant.

It was at this point that I knew I was coming home

With overwhelming emotions I finished crossing the bridge and headed south. I couldn't hold it back anymore. The long wait was over and I was on the way home.

This was now Route 4 to Kenethao. It was not in as good a condition as the brand new Route 11 I had just come from over the mountains but was still relatively smooth to cycle on. There were tons of potholes and rough sections that demanded you keep an eye out especially on descents. If you hit one of those at speed it could be a huge problem so it was hands on the brakes at all times just in case.

Most of the road was rolling hills with steep sections, but as it got closer to Kenethao things flattened out. There was only one more 12% section to get over right near the end. I couldn't believe my luck when a slow moving truck tooted his horn and invited me to grab on. I found a rope at the side and let the truck pull me up this hill.

Thanks for the lift. Trucks can be helpful for something.

No idea what this is but it looks sketchy

It was a short ride from there into town but not before some teenager gave me the middle finger. Whatever. There's been over 500 positive greetings this trip, why fixate on just one negative reaction. He was smiling too, so I just smiled and waved at him.

The search was on for a guesthouse and I wanted the best room they had. They could offer one for $10. Well I give up. It's just not possible to spend money here. They were even giving me change back in Thai baht so it seems that the Kip itself is not even useful here. At least that will make it easy to change money and get rid of it. Many locals pointed in the direction of somewhere down the road and named a place in Lao dialect I couldn't understand. I'll have to pin down exactly where it is, but since they all seem to know there's a place to change money then it's good news.

It was a fantastic room and guesthouse. I asked the lady running the place if they do laundry. She just laughed and made a gesture that I could hand wash it. But then she changed her mind and walked me towards an area where they do all the laundry. There was a gigantic machine so she loaded it all in with tons of soap and then hung it up on the line to dry after I had come back from eating.

That in itself was a very nice touch of hospitality that has been outstanding the entire trip. Before crossing the border I want all the clean clothes and will also spend time cleaning off the bike so I can look presentable.

It was an exhausting but incredible day of cycling. One of the best all tour.

Today's ride: 103 km (64 miles)
Total: 900 km (559 miles)

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