The table set was a stunner: The whole cycle touring world was with us

December 1, 2014

Having done a good distance and cycled so late the previous evening we returned to our usual form and had a slow and lazy start in the morning, taking our time to pack up before moving on. Having laboured to complete the task of taking down the tents and getting back onto the bicycles, two kilometres down the road we'd all had enough and decided the only thing to do was to stop. We chose a little wooden shack of a noodle restaurant as a good a place as any to take breakfast.

My language sheet... it made more sense when I was drunk actually

As we were sitting there enjoying our bowls of noodles we were interrupted by the sight of another touring cyclist going our way, who doubled back and came over to say hello. Adam, a 40-year-old Australian, had just resumed a world bicycle tour that he had started fifteen years earlier, when he got only as far as South East Asia before "life got in the way." Now free from certain commitments that had held him back he planned to cycle for ten years, or as long as he wanted, and he had a refreshing attitude and a typically Australian way with words that made me look forward to my own future adventures in that country as much as he looked forward to his adventures away from it. We asked him how far he'd come today. "Oh about 60 clicks" he said. We four all looked at him with a mixture of confusion and admiration, confusion because it took us a while to work out that by clicks he meant kilometres, and admiration because the guy appeared to be able to cycle thirty times faster than us.

"We've done two clicks" we said, so we're a bit slower than you, "but you're welcome to join us."

"Ah yeah, sounds good," he replied, "I'll slow down and shoot the sh!t with ya!"

Adam seemed keen to blend in to his surroundings

But it wasn't just Adam that would be joining us, for as he sat with us and shot the sh!t, another two more cyclists appeared. This time it was two faces that I recognised as Michael and Jocelyn off of A Father and Daughter Tour Around the World, and, having read bits and pieces of that journal myself, it was a little strange to see Michael and Jocelyn in the flesh. Michael was much taller than I imagined, and was strangely reminiscent of Santa Claus with his big white beard, but still it was as if the two of them had just jumped out of the screen and come to life. They, of course, had no idea who I was.

Jocelyn and Michael, off of 'A Father an Daughter Tour Around the World'

Quite the collection of cyclists we had now

So our peloton had grown to seven now, quite a considerable number. Suzy and Adam soon raced away at the front though, and left the rest of us trailing, but they must have been going too fast to notice an interesting temple with a large Buddha outside that Dea and I stopped to investigate. We noticed that there was a young monk sat at a table with a couple of other boys and he invited us into the grounds, and so I went over to talk with them. I was glad for my Lao phrases, for I was able to ask a few simple things, and being able to say words like 'fish' meant I could understand the purpose of the net that the boys were making by hand. The young monk smiled a lot and was very friendly, and so I asked if I could take a photo of him, and he agreed.

Judging by the size of the holes they were only going to be trying to catch really big fish

Then, remembering our 'Spot the Chris' idea, I posed next to him and Dea took another photo of the two of us with our matching bright orange regalia. Then I went too far and got quite carried away by things, and walked around behind him as more pictures were taken, with the idea being that I should hide in the back of the photo. By now Dino and Michael had also arrived, and Michael posed next to the monk whilst Dino snapped more photos and I wandered around in the background. The positive upshot of all this, if you can call it a positive upshot, was that Michael got a photo that he was quite happy with and if you really want to play 'Spot the Chris' you can in fact search for me in the background of this photo on his journal. But the far more negative upshot of all this was that the poor young monk seemed to get quite distressed by all of this over-the-top attention, and got up and walked away looking sad.

I felt very bad about this. We had been a bunch of stupid and disrespectful foreigners, and we hadn't thought about his feelings at all. I wanted to try and make amends, and after the others left Dea and I waited to see if he would come back. He did, resuming his position sitting with the other boys, and I walked over to see him again. I gave him a packet of cookies, my usual tactic for appeasing those that I have wronged, and it seemed to do the trick. I left him smiling once more and it was only after we had continued on our way that I realised why he had been so upset. "He's a young Buddhist monk, Dea," I said, "Of course he was left confused after posing for his photo with Santa Claus." Even so, we decided that 'Spot the Chris' was a bad and silly idea, and we wouldn't play it anymore, nor would I ever refer to monks as Buddha-bashers again. Instead we came up with an alternative theme tune which went like this: ♪ ♫ 'Respect the monk, respect the monk, la la la la, respect the monk' ♪ ♫

Michael and Jocelyn, who hadn't spent the whole morning procrastinating in a noodle restaurant, stopped at another place for lunch soon after but the rest of us carried on, mostly because if we allowed ourselves another meal so soon after breakfast we would never make it to our goal of Luang Prabang before nightfall. We did, however, stop for many other things, especially ice cream. It was rather hot out in the sun, and the girl in the shop helped us learn some more Lao, which partly explains why we stayed so long. Three ice creams later we finally rolled on out to ride the rest of the way to Luang Prabang. And still there were more stops, with Dino constantly photographing pretty things. At one point he stopped and looked at a table and bench that was brightly coloured and had pictures of flowers on it. "That table set is..." he paused, looking for the right word, "...a stunner!"

Who's that kid at the back? Oh, who cares, the more, the merrier!

"I feel quite faint""Yes, me too, all the blood has rushed to my head.""Oh stop your moaning! You think you've got it bad, you want to try being over here by the exhaust!"

Checking the map as we approach Luang Prabang

The traffic was bad - all big 4x4 pick-up trucks and motorcycles; rather a dangerous combination on narrow roads

We had to cross this bridge into town. Only for bikes but really quite slippery, I wouldn't want to go near it in the wet season!

We got to Luang Prabang in the late afternoon and made our way to a guesthouse that Adam had been told about by yet more touring cyclists. Sebastian and Delphine, a Swiss couple that he had met in Turkey, were already staying there, as well as a French couple, also on bikes. It seemed as if the whole bicycle touring world had suddenly descended on Laos. Suzy and Dino told me that Keiran and Natasha, the British couple I rode with in Turkey, had also been in Luang Prabang and we'd missed them by a day or two. Then I checked my emails and saw that I had an email from Petr, the Czech man that I'd cycled with in Siberia. The last I'd heard from him was a brief email telling me he'd had to go back to Europe to sort some things out. I read his new email and it said, 'I'm in Laos. Where are you?' Everyone was here.

The table set at the guesthouse was another stunner!!!

That evening we all went out to the night market, where there was an all-you-can-fit-in-one-bowl buffet for 15,000 kip. Attracted by the prospect of getting a lot of food for a little money, we all set about constructing elaborate methods of getting as much food as possible in a single bowl. Needless to say Dino was the champion, using an inspired design technique of placing spring rolls around the edge in order to artificially increase the height of the bowl in order to accommodate more within. I had to take my hat off to the man.

My own sorry effort next to Dino's masterful piece of engineering

After that we went to a rather-too-fancy bar/restaurant to have a few drinks. With myself, Dea, Dino, Suzy, Adam, Michael, Jocelyn, Sebastian and Delphine we were quiet the collection of cyclists and it was really great that we were able to get a photo with all of us in it. Except that we didn't, because Michael was taking the photo, and so where he was sitting there was just a big empty chair. I believed that this rather ruined things, I so I have taken it upon myself to use my advance computer skills to superimpose Michael seemlessly back into the photo with CGI, and the resulting product, I think you'll agree, more properly captures the mood of the evening:

Dino, Suzy, Sebastian, Delphine, Jocelyn, Michael, me, Dea and Adam.Merry Christmas everyone!

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 34,433 km (21,383 miles)

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