More waterfalls, more monks: More men with rifles across their shoulder blades

January 26, 2015

Within a few hundred metres of rejoining the main dusty road I followed a sign for the next waterfall of Tad Tayiksua and turned left onto a minor dusty road. On this bright orange dust trail I found almost no traffic, which was a great benefit in terms of me not getting covered in orange dust (which is a hell of a pain to get out of orange t-shirts.) In fact this road took me through untamed jungle and had the feel of being part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, the network of secret roads that the North Vietnamese Army had to ferry men and weapons south. Whether this road was ever actually part of the Ho Chi Minh trail or not, I don't know, but it felt a bit like it should have been, weaving through the wilderness as it did. Eventually I located Tad Tayiksua, which, if I were to list all of the waterfalls I have ever seen in order of how good they were, from best to worst, it would be the one exactly in the middle. It was quite impressive, but not very impressive, it wasn't possible to get very close, and there were a couple of trees in the way.

Then I carried on along my secret orange road and found a nice place to wash in a river. I loved it out here in the wild, just me, no one else. But as I got back to the bike a motorcycle came along with two young French tourists on it to spoil my reverie. "Oh what the hell are you two doing out here spoiling my reverie? And you better not try to give me any money!" Is what I would have said, if they'd stopped, but they just zoomed straight past me and in fact I only knew that they were French because I could hear them speaking to each other in their funny accents, as they sped past and covered me and my orange t-shirt in orange dust. "Oh bloody hell, I've just washed that!"

Come to think of it my orange shirt probably didn't make me so very visible on this road

Soon after that I got back to the main paved road and carried on east until I saw a tree that I rather liked the look of, which is a strange thing that happens with me sometimes, and I took a picture. When I cycled past the tree I then stared at it more, and because of this I saw a sign on the trunk saying 'waterfall this way' and so I followed the sign and saw yet another waterfall. This one felt more special, but only because I had been led to it by a magic tree, and to be honest I was getting a bit sick of waterfalls by now. On my all-time best-to-worst waterfall list I ranked this one 59th.

If you ever see this tree, I advise you to follow its instructions...

The construction workers were moving the rocky debris stuff from one side of the road to the other, so the arm kept swinging back and forth. I think only a driver of a 4x4 truck would feel important and invincible enough to make a dash for it in between the swings

My main road joined another main road going south towards a town named Attapeu and became just a little bit busier than I would have liked, with just a little bit too much beeping. But as the sun began to drop in the sky I had my usual concern about where to camp. I tried stopping early because I couldn't be bothered with all this cycling business anymore, but there was quite a lot of agriculture now because I was down the other side of the plateau, and quite a few people around too. I did slink off the road and find the sort of place I might usually stop early at and do something I like to call 'chilling' until it was time to put up my tent to go to sleep. It was in an area of more wild scrubland, but I wasn't there two minutes before I heard someone trapsing through the bushes. I didn't even wait to see the rifle across his shoulder blades, I was out of there.

I didn't know what this billboard meant exactly but it did nothing to encourage me to wild camp

With armed men patrolling all my usual haunts I was a bit lost about where to sleep until I came to another temple and thought I'd just ask if I could sleep in that again. The complex covered quite a large grassy area, and as I rolled in through the main gates I heard the sound of monks praying in the main temple. But I could also see one standing on the balcony of one of the accommodation buildings, and so I left my bike and went over to ask him if it would be okay to camp here. The monk looked down at me from the balcony. He was in his late teens, and seemed to say yes to my requests to camp, although communication was difficult. I asked him where I could put the tent, but he lost interest and went back to playing with his I-phone.

I tried waiting for the more senior monks to finish praying, but these ones seemed to be pretty into it and the chanting was going on for some time. So I tried bringing my bike over to the accommodation block in order to get the teenage monk's attention. He was joined by another monk up there as well, but he too was much more interested in his I-phone than in coming down to help me. So I scouted out an area behind the accommodation block for my tent. It turned out there was a lake behind there, and great views, and another great place for my tent. But all of the grounds of the complex were covered in litter. It was horrible, they clearly just threw their litter straight out of the windows. If I was in charge here I'd organise those monks to do a bit of a clean-up. I know they aren't supposed to do any work, but I'm sure donning a pair of rubber gloves and going around collecting up all that rubbish into a big trash bag would be a far more meditative process for them than their I-phones.

The back of the accommodation building and the litter strewn grass

Based on the trash that was everywhere and the attitude of the monks it seemed to me that no one around here gave much of a f*ck about anything, and so I assumed no one would give a f*ck if I just put up my tent and went to sleep. And my assumption proved correct. I did just this, and none of the senior monks nor anyone else disturbed me or asked me what in the name of Jesus I thought I was doing sleeping on their land. So I just slept on the grounds of a Buddhist temple and slipped out quietly in the morning. It is a funny world sometimes.

But it had nice views.

And no men with rifles.

Perfect night really.

I prefer camping by waterfalls, but I suppose this'll do for one night

Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 36,353 km (22,575 miles)

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