Life At The Bottom: February 2006

February 28, 2006

February 28, 2006
We left Pakxe on February 25th after spending a couple of days enjoying some good food and staying out of the heat. The town had some really good coffee that is grown in Paksong on the Bolaven Plateau. I wanted to ride my bike up the hill but just couldn’t work up the energy to ride in the heat. I think Jodi and I had become rather road weary and needed some time to gather our wits for our next adventure in Cambodia.
One night while walking back from dinner we ran into Tom and Liesbeth, the Belgium couple that we met in Bangkok. They had many stories to tell and provided some great beta about our rides further south. One particular hint about taking the car ferry instead of the passenger one was especially helpful. They were heading north for cooler temperatures around Vientiane and Lauang Probang, something Jodi and I had also considered because of the heat earlier that day. I was really glad we were able to get to know them better, I hope their travels in the north go well.
The morning of the 28th we stopped at our favorite baguette vender and ordered two stuffed with egg and visited the coffee stand for two iced coffees. We rode out of town thinking it was going to be a short day and we would arrive in our next destination before noon. At the 30km mark we were riding through a small village when Justin came riding up to the highway from the side road to Champasak. Jodi and I said "Justin" at the same time and stopped to hear his stories and journeys. He had ridden up to Paksong and said I hadn’t missed much and he also visited some of the other sights popular with backpackers but found them anticlimactic compared with the days he rode his bicycle. We told him our story and then began discussing our destination for the day. He was riding to "Four Thousand Islands" with his first stop being Muang Khong, a small village on the largest island Don Khong. We told him we were riding another 20km to Ban Thangbeng where we were told there was a guesthouse. We journeyed the next 20km together doing some more catching up. When we reached our destination we found a town that had very little to offer and the guesthouse was nothing special so we had lunch with Justin and decided to ride the additional 85km to Muang Khong. We had a tough time deciding since it was already noon and riding would have put us in at 5:00 PM meaning we would ride through the heat of the day.
It all went pretty well until the 100km point, where I seem to hit a mental barrier and the pains in my feet, shoulders and butt become more accentuated. Jodi was a trooper, she kept encouraging me and really helped me "stay in the game" during the hottest hour of 2:00 PM. We stopped in Hat Xay Khoun for a Pepsi and waited for Justin before taking the ferry to the Island. Justin came along about 30 minutes later and we all made our way to the car ferry. While waiting for the ferry we saw the most amazing sunset over the Mekong that any of us had seen. The Laos on the other hand seemed unimpressed and were wondering what all the fuss was about as we dug our cameras out of our bags. We crossed over to the river island and began the search for a guesthouse. After several attempts we found one run by a Canadian couple that was kind of pricey but it was very nice and the hospitality better.
When we checked in we originally planned on staying two nights and going south to Don Det, another river island close to the Cambodian border but things at Muang Khong were so relaxing we have had trouble getting motivated to go anywhere else. For once on this trip I am content with my current destination and didn’t feel the need to move on. For three days we have had the best food we have had in Laos, found a coffee vender who makes a really nice cup of Coffee Lao and baguettes stuffed with bananas and sweetened condensed milk and a clean guestroom. This morning the coffee lady saw us coming and started making the coffee and baguettes before we arrived.. I love this place! It is what I had hoped to find in all the "must see sights" along the way but I never thought it would be on an Island in the middle of the Mekong. Justin planned on staying two nights but he also can’t seem to work up the energy to move on. Its as if we are all caught in a "potential energy well," spinning deeper and deeper into some trance. Each day we just lay about reading, eating, talking about America, about our future plans and finally dreams and goals until we become too tired and go to sleep. The next day we do it all over again.
This morning the coffee lady shared some of her breakfast with us and we helped her with English. She has a desire to learn and can read but has exhausted the usefulness of her workbook and is hungry for something more. We taught her a few more words and she gave us a postcard for our efforts.
Tomorrow we ride. It is 85km to Strung Treng our first stop in the wild wild west country of Cambodia. Justin plans on joining us since there is safety in numbers and as my favorite school house rock song goes, "3 is a magic number." Jodi and I plan on documenting the border crossing with greater detail to help anyone reading our blog to understand what they are in for. Tomorrow is going to be interesting!

Just outside of Muang Khongsedone

Another sunrise.

One hotel had some broken slat in the bed so after toughing it out for a night we decided to move the mattress to the floor.

A nicer Lao home

Kids riding with Jodi

Kirk fixing a flat on Jodis' bike.

February 22, 2006

February 22, 2006
Today we rode 64km to Pakxe. In the past several rides the road climbed ever so slightly today the pitch swayed the other way and gave us a break. We covered the first 46km without any trouble but with 18km left I hit the wall as a pretty stiff wind came blowing from the South. Jodi asked how I was doing and I said I needed to stop and stretch. We must look like a couple of space aliens doing callisthenics on the roadside because all the Laos slow to see what we are doing and they sometimes laugh after they pass.
The town of Pakxe is a very nice place to us. They have nice hotels and the restaurants serve things other than foe. I like foe but eating it two to three times a day gets old. We checked into a refurbished hotel with a new bed, hot water, satellite TV and a mini fridge. It is our little home for a couple of days. We lunched at an Indian food restaurant, something every town in the world should have, and ate entirely too much; it feels good to have a full belly. In recent days we have felt very run down and I think it is because we have not been eating enough. Neither one of us has a good grasp of the foods available in the small villages. It occurred to me that in Savannaket we ate at a restaurant with 53 different foods listed on its menu with the words written in English and Lao. I wish I had made a photocopy of that menu so I could show it to stall operators to see what they have that suits my tastes.

February 21, 2006

February 21, 2006
Today we rode 110km to Muang Khongsedone. When we awoke at 4:00am I had no desire to get up and that feeling carried over to the first 50km of the ride. We bickered a bit about how tired we were and how we did not think we would make the route described by the German we met yesterday because we needed to rest (we are a bit cranky in the morning). In Muang Lakompheng about 50km we stopped for foe, a basket of sticky rice and some coffee with sweet milk. The women running the stand were helpful in trying to get us what we wanted but it seems all we can find is foe in the morning. In the house behind the restaurant some crazy old man was talking loudly in Lao. I think his cheese had slid off his cracker. The food lightened our spirits and the reminder of the ride went fast and smooth.
Like so many days on the road there are always things happening, some good some bad. For the first time in Laos we had two dogs chase us on separate occasions. One dog a black and white mut was really fast, I sped up to over 30km/hr and she was still catching me. I kicked it a little harder and dropped her but I wondered what might have happened if she had been able to get a jump on me. The kids all said hello but they seemed to yell "falang" more than anything. Jodi and I laughed when we thought more about what they were saying and how it was the American equivalent of our riding through an ethnic neighborhood and having the kids yell "crackers".
We stopped at a guesthouse just north of Khongsedone and like so many guesthouses they were nice except they do a terrible job of keeping them clean. It seems all they do is change the sheets from one guest to the next. The bathrooms gross me out. We thought about staying but there were no restaurants nearby so I suggested we ride another 5km and if we didn’t see anything then we will grab some food and return. Fortunately we found another that was more clean (not saying much) and it was in town where we could find food.
The town even though it was shown as a larger one on our map it isn’t. The people here are very poor and the secondary streets in the town are trails. The fruit venders do not have much inventory and what they do have is of really poor quality. We tried to buy some apples and they were so mealy that most markets would not have sold them. The rice fields are brown and dried up and it is really hot. From 2:00 to 5:00 each day it is really hot so we try to be in for a nap during the "hot hours." It looks like New Mexico, with red dirt, limited vegetation and foot hills in the distance. We both ride along thinking that the scenery looks like home.
Somehow I lost my watch. I found it at Pole early last winter and it has been a trusted companion ever since. The velcro strap wasn’t holding well and I suspect it fell off and is now on the wrist of some Lao. He will be surprised when its’ alarm sounds tomorrow morning at 4:00am. I will especially miss its dual time zone setting where I could see what time it was in Colorado.
Tomorrow we ride to Pakxe the last major settlement before riding into Cambodia. We estimate we have three remaining rides in Laos.

February 20, 2006

February 20, 2006
Paksong: This morning I awoke with the feeling of dread, it has been something that has been gaining momentum for a couple of days. I suspect I am feeling a bit run down from all the traveling, mixed with some anxiety about leaving Asia for America. Regardless, I somehow loaded my bike and we set out but not before a tasty breakfast. A couple of days ago I suggested we get some sticky rice, sweetened condensed milk and some fruit and mix it together (an idea inspired by the yummy mango desserts we found in Thailand). We both thought it sounded good but for some reason we put it off until this morning. We bought a fresh, juicy mango and we both loved it. It also made a great ride breakfast since I covered the 72km without having to stop for food. It felt like I had swallowed a bowling ball.
The ride from Savannakhet to Paksong was slowed by a really stiff wind from the South. The whole way up route 9B out of Savannaket I kept thinking that when we arrived at the junction with highway 13 we would turn out of the wind but we didn’t. It appeared to be a westerly wind that helped us speed along when we headed to the west but for the most part it just slowed us considerably.
About 22km outside of Savannakhet we stopped to do a little roadside stretching. As we stretched 3 kids waited patiently about 200m up the road so they could say hello. They never took their eyes off us the entire time we were limbering up and when we mounted our bikes they started waving and saying "Sabadee." I was amazed at their patience.
38km South of Paksong we were flagged down by a German cyclist heading north. He wanted some beta about good places to stay between Paksong and Vientiane. We pulled out our map and showed him all the places we had stayed. He then pulled out his map and gave us some great beta about the Cambodian border crossing. He said that it is currently possible to catch a slow boat from the border to Strung Treng. He was unaware the road between Strung Treng and the border is in good shape with the exception of the 5km before and after the border. Then he gave us the best news that the road between Strung Treng and Kratie is improved and there is a guesthouse at the mid point. I was relieved to hear the news since I had been wondering about this stretch of road the night before. He also suggested a route change for us that would bring us through the beach town in South Cambodia and into Thailand.
Paksong is much larger than I expected with 3 guesthouses and some good looking restaurants. It also has a Lao Development Bank where I need to go exchange some money. I keep my amount of kip very slim since it is pretty much monopoly money and most places will take American Dollars but they sometimes have trouble making change for the larger bills. Rolling into town I saw a table decoration fabricated from unexploded ordinances. This area took some pretty heavy bombing during the Vietnam war.
The country side is much greener and the road is climbing ever so slightly. Also it isn’t as hot. I suspect we are making our way up the plateau where the best coffee in the world is grown.

February 23, 2006 (Laos Impressions)

Here are some of our general impressions of Laos:
· The women here wear lovely silk woven sarongs and the girls school uniforms are sarongs with white shirts.
· There seem to be more women and children than men.
· The women work very hard running businesses and taking care of their families, but they don’t seem stressed at all. The pace of life here is very mellow.
· Lao people seem to lie low during the heat of the day in the shade of a small shelter or even slinging a hammock under a truck.
· A lot more of the population here ride bicycles than in Thailand. The bikes have a second seat on the back (instead of a rack like ours) so they can load them up with people.
· Motorcycles and scooters are the main form of transport for locals because they can’t afford cars. The cars we do see look brand new and very expensive (ie: Lexus sport utility vehicles) leading us to believe there is a very large gap between the rich and poor.
· The houses in small villages are either one story woven bamboo huts on stilts or wood houses on stilts and sometimes they are a combination of both. In towns that are a little larger there are two story houses that obviously belong to the folks with a little more money. Those may be wood, bamboo, brick with concrete over the top or a combination of all three.
· Foe is a staple meal and the Laos don’t understand not eating meat. A lot of times (especially in small villages) they only choice for food is foe so we eat the noodles and drink the broth leaving the meat in the bowl. We feel a little bad about that since I’m sure meat is a luxury.
· The Laos people seem to have a very good quality of life as far as living slow paced and seeming content in their lives without having the luxuries that we do.
· The beds here are EXTREMELY hard! It’s like sleeping on a slab. And for some reason they don’t provide top sheets, which can be annoying.
· There are many more cycle tourists in Laos than we encountered anywhere else. We think this is because the highway is in good condition and there isn’t a lot of traffic compared to places like Thailand. It also has a very relaxed feel about this country and the people don’t bother the falangs as much for money, to purchase things or for transport. Then there’s the fact that it’s so cheap to travel here as well.
· We love how excited the kids get when we ride by their houses or encounter them coming home from school about noon. Sometimes they race us on bicycles, by foot or high five us as well yelling, “hello, sabadee, thank you, I love you, goodbye, falang” and we even got a “yo whassup” the other day. It’s so funny to watch the little kids jump up and down and yell sabadee as many times as they possibly can. We don’t think we’ll ever see anyone get this excited over us again!
· As a pedestrian you are the lowest on the food chain and better watch your step because the motorcycles will run over you.
· The people are extremely friendly for the most part. We’ve experienced a few people who shy away from us maybe because we’re scary or they are too intimidated to try to communicate with us. It could be because we look like aliens in our biking gear as well.
· It’s harder to order food here because very few people speak English except in the touristy areas. We use our Lonely Planet since it has some words for food written in Lao and translated in English which seems to help.
· Laos is very dry compared to Thailand and in the evenings it is much cooler. This was a surprise to us since we were expecting it to look more like Thailand.
· Food and lodging here is dirt cheap! The average room costs us $6-7 per night for A/C and hot water showers. We’ve been hard pressed to spend $20 per day for everything.
· They accept USD, baht or kip everywhere. We’ve been enjoying the ability to use our own currency again.
· The doors and windows here are hand carved and are beautiful! I’d love to have some for our future home.
· It’s strange to look across the Mekong and see the development of Thailand just across the river as opposed to the dilapidation of the towns here. Apparently the Lao government rejects the French influence and they are letting all the French buildings go into disrepair. It’s a shame because towns like Savannakhet (our favorite Lao town so far) could be really cute if they were preserved a little better, but instead they look pretty run down.
· As we eat at the little outdoor restaurants that are the front of people’s houses we are amongst scavenging chickens, roosters, pigs, cows, and goats. It’s interesting how we have become used to farm animals grazing around us. It will seem weird to go home again and not have that. It’s also interesting that most little restaurants also try and be small convenience stores selling a few snacks and drinks even though there are a ton of other people along the same road selling the same things.
· The sticky rice is delicious and it’s served in little woven baskets with lids attached by a string. We eat it like the Laos and roll it into a ball with our right hand and dip it in our food. We hope to purchase a couple of those baskets to take home with us.
· We like the Lao silk and fashion better than what we saw in Thailand. Unfortunately it seems like they only sell those items in the touristy areas like Vientiane because we haven’t seen any in the small towns.
· The people at the local businesses keep their money stuffed in buckets just sitting out on countertops or thrown in drawers.
· We’ve never seen so many young kids run around half naked without any pants on. We suspect that it’s because they don’t have diapers or they just want their kids to “go” when they have to. In Thakhek we saw several kids just pull their pants down in front of their parents store right on the sidewalk and pee. That was a busier town too.
· There are a lot of Cyclopes (plows turned into vehicles) on the road probably because it is a cheaper form of transport than a car.
· Plastic bags and bottles line the sides of the road. They have a tendency to give you several plastic bags for EVERYTHING you purchase here…not good!
· The overwhelming smell every morning is always burning trash and plastic. Sometimes it is so thick you can almost taste it. Occasionally on our rides we’ve encountered some other smells along the way that are just plain wrong! We don’t linger in those areas.
· Obviously they are not worried about bird flu. I’ve seen several kids holding chickens or roosters on the side of the road as we ride by.
· We haven’t seen as much road kill here and no snakes!
· Sometimes it feels like it is fall here because of the combination of colors of the dry landscape and vegetation, which reminds us of home.
· Watermelons are plentiful in Laos and watermelon stands line the roads. We bought one for $0.50 and it was ripe juicy and delicious!
· As we go farther South the Lao coffee keeps getting better and better. It’s grown on the plateau just outside of Pakse and it’s probably the best coffee we’ve ever had. Kirk (normally not a coffee drinker) even has a taste for it with it’s smooth chocolaty flavor.

Hello! We are currently in Pakse enjoying the pleasures of the city like plentiful food options (including Indian food…yum!) and internet. We don’t have much time left in Laos and will be crossing into Cambodia around the first of March. We’re looking forward to the last leg of our cycle journey in what is called the “wild west”.

I just wanted to report that my back is much better since we took that week off between Bangkok and Vientiane. We have been stretching everyday since, both before and during rides, which seems to help us both to feel good. So thank you to all who were concerned.

Jodi