The rough road to Muang Nan: Sa-Ba-Deeeeee!!!!!!!!!

December 5, 2014

We woke up at a guesthouse where we had pitched our tents the night before in the shade of banana trees, and rolled back down the hill, turned left to leave the paved road that ferried the tourists out to the waterfalls and moved onto a dusty track that Dino was quite sure would eventually loop us back around to join the main road south. And the decision to take this road-less-traveled was quickly vindicated as we were instantly transported back to the real Laos. The day before nobody had waved or said hello to us, the people no doubt tired of seeing tourists pass everyday, but here everybody did. Each time that we passed through a small village or collection of houses the word 'falang,' originally the Laos word for its French colonisers but now extended to encompass all foreign visitors, would spread through the village like wildfire. Young faces sprung up from windows and from behind doorframes and from all manner of nooks and crannys and that adorable chorus of "Sa-Ba-deee!!! Sa-Ba-dee!!!" once again echoed through the bamboo huts and concrete homes of these villages along the Mekong.

I think these kids might have been sweeping the road?

Today was also the day when we all found out how pineapples grow

The road itself was a challenging one. Although it was vaguely following the Mekong it was not at all flat, and rose and fell constantly. Although most of these climbs were very short they were extremely steep and I think all of us resorted to pushing at some stage or another. Then there were the river crossings, a very great many of them, which were at least not too deep, although I shouldn't bother trying to cycle this road in the wet season. The rivers did at least provide some very nice swimming holes, which we took advantage of to cool off from the exhausting cycling. But for all the challenges this was unquestionably one great road, being as it was mostly free from traffic and passing through natural forest and occasionally those wonderful villages. Lacking in food we stopped in one such village to eat but there was no restaurant and so we lunched on pot noodles supplied from the local shop and ate them surrounded by curious children, no doubt surprised by the unusual appearance of us mysterious creatures from far away.

Yeah, it was really steep in many places

Dea was taking it all in her stride. Such a poser! The trash bags in the background really make the picture for me though

Occasional views of the Mekong had us worried about Robin as we could see lots of rocks and rapids

"Where has the slow boy in the orange shirt gone now?""I don't know, he's very slow"

More river crossings and more steep hills

The road had been hard work but at dusk and under the light of a full moon we finally arrived to Muang Nan, the small town that marked our junction with the main road south. After checking in to a rather basic guesthouse we went out to search for food and by chance found ourselves sitting in pretty much the only restaurant in town with yet another bicycle tourist. I'd heard about Heike, aka PushBikeGirl, from various other cyclists, and it was interesting that we should meet her here, sitting as she was under a dim lightbulb in a middle-of-nowhere town in South East Asia.

We ordered noodles, which was in fact the only option, and took a seat with her. Naturally stories were exchanged and the usual tales of cycling across continents were regaled once more, and Dea sat there looking bored, and I sat there looking bored, and the noodles were too spicy. Heike was nice, of course, it was just getting a little old now, all of us telling our stories, three of which I knew very well, and all of us moaning about China and praising Iranians and discussing the merits of Schwalbe tyres. 'Poor Dea' I thought, 'she must really think we're a boring lot.'

Heike had already spent four months cycling across China (she flew out after two to get a new visa and then flew back to continue) and yet, bizarrely, was now planning to go back up to the east of the country. I can't really tell you why. But after that Siberia would come next and so she asked me about it, and I told her it was good apart from the mosquitoes, which made the evenings rather miserable and I said she'd probably need some sort of beekeeping outfit. She tutted and said "there's always something!" and I, noticing that the country we were in had so far been completely perfect and also forgetting that tempting fate is a mistake, replied "not in Laos!" Then Heike thought for a moment and declared that "the problem is that Laos is too easy!"

On our way back to the guesthouse I apologised to Dea for yet another evening spent talking about cycle touring to which she told me that she didn't mind at all, because she really loved cycle touring, and she was very happy that she had been introduced to this world. "When I first met you," she said, "I thought you were crazy but that you were doing something really special, really amazing." I blushed a little. "But now I can see that everyone is doing it!"

The final ride into town under the full moon was beautiful

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 34,520 km (21,437 miles)

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