November 22, 2014
Our journey commences: The paradise I'd dreamed about
We didn't leave the guesthouse until one in the aftrnoon, as I spent most of the morning cleaning my mud-caked bicycle for the first time in forever. As I was taking it apart and giving it a good going over I found that I had a broken spoke on the back wheel. It had snapped off at the nipple but got itself jammed into the rim further around so that I didn't notice it. Well, that certainly explained the massive kink in my wonky back wheel. It was on the drive side too, so I had to take the cassette off to replace it, which was okay by me because I still felt exhausted and didn't really want to be cycling anyway, and any excuse to delay our departure was quite welcome. But once I had the wheel fixed and the bike cleaned and my clothes washed I was pretty much out of reasons to put off riding and the excited girl next to me (keen to start our cycling adventure) and the slightly annoyed guesthouse owners (keen to get us off their property) meant I had little remaining choice but to get on the bike.
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I would have happily stayed another night at that guesthouse, but Dea was itching to get cycling. The irony that this amazing girl had shown up and was so eager to start cycle touring at the exact moment that I wanted to stop was certainly not lost on me. But her enthusiasm encouraged me and so we rolled out of the guesthouse and down the road. "This looks like a good place to stop for lunch Dea!" I cried out desprately as she zoomed on ahead.
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We did stop for lunch after an hour or so, at a little place where the previous evening's Lao lesson came to fruition and we were able to successfully order food. It was a tiny little place next to the road where a couple of guys were building a wooden stand just next to us. One of them had a little English, and spoke to us:
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"England and Denmark"
He smiled and racked his brains, searching for more English. Finally he found another question.
"And what is your nationality?"
The rest of the afternoon was an absolute delight, spent cycling on a relatively peaceful road through small villages of bamboo huts where scores of young children waved and cried out to us. "Sa-Ba-deeee!" they chorused, the Lao word for hello. We waved and "sabadeed" right back at them. The atmosphere was so friendly, so welcoming. Laos really did look like the paradise I'd dreamed about.
We camped that night just past Namor. We turned on a side road and found a place on a flat plot of land that looked like it had been cleared to be used for building a house. It was within sight of the road but in this safe and friendly location we had no concerns. Children walking home along the road squealed with delight and waved to us at our campsite. There were no worries here. As darkness fell we were left alone and we just laid outside of the tent and looked up at a clear night sky where shooting stars and fireflies competed for wishes. Illuminated by a thousand twinkles of light Dea and I talked for hours. I really liked this girl. It was all getting dangerously close to being perfect now.
And then we went to bed and Dea snored.
Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 34,141 km (21,202 miles)
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