Paradise lost?...Not really

Not really, but allow us to explain.  For starters it turned out to be tougher to make our break from Thailand than we ever could have imagined when we entered one month earlier.   One day turned into three before we knew it in our little biker oasis on the Mekong. Being treated like royalty doesn't get old too quickly after almost 6 months on the bikes. Therefore we decided to stay and enjoy the wonderful conversation, the Thai cooking lessons, and general R&R.  A few days extra and we were finally sent off with stuffed bellies, rested legs and full spirits for our journey across the border to the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. We had heard some things about what awaited us but our spirits were high  and it would take a lot to dampen our spirits. 

  

Our little cabin on the Mekong, Bruce learning how to make papaya salad with Nisakorn

   

Sunrise high in Northern Thailand (those are clouds around the mountains) dinner with another cyclist and Tiansak

Unfortunately this almost came to fruition as we slowly made our way the 15 km to the Thai/Lao border.  For starters there are only two ways to cross the river spanned bridges that dot the Lao border.  Either you have a vehicle of your own or like most of us you have to load onto a special bus (only $0.25 USD) with everything (no special place for bikes on this one!?), ride the one km, and then disembark and pass though the very porous Lao border after jumping through a few hoops (including but not only a cost of $70USD for the visas on arrival, a large sum for such a poor country).   Finally you ride another 15km or so to the small town from which all the slow boats down the Mekong disembark. Though we had 3+ hours to make this epic journey (laughingly this should be plenty of time) one snag after another left us on the shore only minutes after the boats had left for the day. Still in good spirits we settled into finding a way to spend a night in a dusty border town and awaiting the next day's boats. Camping was not too much of an option here so we found the least expensive option, a very old spring-filled bed in a room, nothing more. 

The two day boat ride down the Mekong River from Houy Xia to Luang Prabang with a night in Pak Beng was enjoyable enough.  I guess for me personally there wasn't so much of a need to see the river and small villages as we had been experiencing that already for about a week.  Reading about the alternatives, long, dusty, mountain roads, we knew that this was our best bet. Not that we would dissuade others from this experience as it is quite beautiful and unique and we were glad we took this route.  We even met a neighbor, literally, on our second day.  Another portlander, who lives about 2 miles from us and right off our normal bike commuter route, was sitting next to us! Cliche to say but truly a small world. 

  

The longboat we took down the Mekong, an arial view of Huay Xai

We found ourselves in Luang Prabang with a decision to make about how long to stay in what was proported to be one of the nicest cities in SE Asia. We were running out of days before we needed to get to th capital city, Vientiane, and our flight out to Nepal. Also we had, what looked to be quite a few days of big mountains to climb and nearly 400kms of road to cover.  To top it all off Chiara had mildly injured her ankle a few days prior and it was bothering her when we were riding on steep hills. In the end we split the decision and we spent one night wandering the active streets eating and people watching. We the arose early next day and went around taking in the quaint architecture, the picturesque river and ate some amazing rice porridge and sandwich (foods inspired by the fusion of French culture with the obvious Vietnamese influences). We then packed our bags and hit the roads. The average traveler would for sure want to spend some additional time in this little UNESCO world heritage town but at this point for these travelers we feel our time spent was sufficient and we were happy to strike out finally in earnest in our 8th country.

More Mekong in Luang Prubang 

True to what had been alluded to in writings as well as conversation the northern parts of Laos were quite a bear.  We started climbing about 15km outside Luang Prabang and it didn't end for almost 4 days.  Not that it was all terrible by any means.  In fact Laos proved to be some of the most interesting and scenic riding since the eastern side of Taiwan. Small mountain villages with filled with people of various indigenous tribes (of which Laos has a multitude) living at a subsistence level. They all wash together from water that pours from the steep mountain slopes, everyone cooks over charcoal fires and children run freely on the surprisingly low traffic roads.  The reaction is highly mixed as all the children smile and wave to us while th adults seemed guarded and/or aloof.  It is difficult to be sure why this difference is so marked from the country we just left on the other side of e Mekong. Maybe it is the result of a distrust that occurs when a people are mistreated and marginalized by their government as so many indigenous people are in countries everywhere in the world? Maybe it is the result that Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia and a tough life leads to a hardened exterior? Though after visiting other countries with corrupt governments and struggling populace (yes Indonesia we a talking about you) where the almost everyone has infectiously wonderful smiles and positivity it is not something that we can determine.  It seemed to us however that as we slowly made our way south the people warmed as well as did the temperature.  However we spent some wonderful nights in small villages as well as camping near a local hot spring and finally the party and outdoor enthusiast central location of Vien Viang.  

The mountains behind us we were at this point only needing to chew up the last 100+ km to get to Laos capital city and an exciting runion. The days were now getting hotter than we wanted so we pushed on fueled by the wonderful local baguette sandwiches and knowing that the French family with which we spent our time in Krabi were waiting to meet up.  

  Our abbreviated 10 day tour of Laos seems to have been the the perfect amount of time as we both could not have been happier to see those smiling faces of Albon, Delphine and Vincent. It was such a joyous reunion spending 2 hours laughing, sharing tales of travels, drinking Beelao and chasing around their young son. We couldn't have scripted a more enjoyable way to end our tour of Asia and prepare for the next stage of our journey.  

  

Beautiful scenes from Northern Laos, first camp site

    

More beautiful Northern Laos

    

Balloon outside our campsite, Vieng Vang. Some many cute kids yelling "sabaidee!" and giving us five

Northern Thailand...on to the Mekong

We finally broke free of Chang Mai's holiday indulgences and headed in a northern direction on the main roads out of town.  We probably were carrying about 5 kg extra weight (i.e. body habitus) from all the holiday ham and cookies and our sedentary week. The riding proved pleasant and after a long climb a few clicks from town we dropped into a beautiful valley with small towns and wonderful vistas of the encircling hills.  We spent a few nights camping in various school yards and ate wonderful bagged curries picked up at the village street markets, a great discovery that we joyed and will surely miss once we leave Thailand. We were also excited to see the famed Wat Rong Khun, the all-white temple designed by one of Thailands most famed artists,  We decided to head straight north toward the famed Golden Triangle and found a fascinating corner of SE Asia that seemed less frequented by western travelers and to be more of a local holiday spot.  This ennui came in spades when we arrived at the small, sleepy Mekong river town of Chang Saen where we took a night at a guest house that was run by the sole westerner we saw in town and who was also mildly socially inept (maybe not putting our best foot forward with this guy). No bother as the room was clean, ridiculous cheap, and immediately across the street from beautiful outdoor eateries overlooking the river.  Picturesque does it no justice.  Chang Saen was ancoasis that we no expected and may have been one of the most pleasant evenings we have had in a few months.  We collectively could not have been happier with our decision to come far to the north and this was only strengthened when we rode in to the Chang Kong area to meet our next Warmshower host.  Tiansak and Nisakorn lived on some land abutting the Mekong where they had a beautifully simple open air home with a small separate cottage where the cyclists stayed.  We were dumbfounded as this place was something that we would have be willing to pay good money in order to stay.  Quiet, except for the Lao neighbors on th far side of the river (more about this later) we were intending to spend only one night before shoving off to cross into Lao but the beauty, solitude, hospitality and knowledge that this one in a million place would probably not come our way anytime soon we stayed an additional two nights and even "celebrated" the 2016 New Year by sharing a fantastic dinner with our hosts and then fell asleep promptly at 10pm.  Rock Stars have nothing on the life lived by long distance cycle tourers!?  Other than maybe one too many Beerlao and the fireworks set off at midnight we had one of the simplest and most pleasant New Years that I can remember.  Thank you both so much and we hope you take us up on offer to come to Portland so we can show you the same gracious hospitality.

  

Wat Rong Khun, and some of the macabre details at the entrance 

Baan Dam- museum built as a counterpart to the white wat

  

Bruce eating CRICKETS!!!!!! for a snack, beautiful northern Thailand scenery

  

The golden triangle where Laos, Myanmar, and Loas meet