Mountains, Gandalf, mountains!

Things were not half as spooky waking up this morning. We, nonetheless, hurried to get everything packed up and on the road again. The main reason was that we were not expecting to get any breakfast in this village  – or better say, the promise of baguette in the next town was much more alluring than the likely rice soup here.  So 20km later, we were at the crossroad town Phou Khoun. No baguette was to be seen, though. Instead, we settled on fried battered banana (cold and eww) from the market plus coffee and cookies in one of the guesthouses.

Although we had “only” 160 km to go today, it soon was clear that this is a whole different kettle of fish from zipping up the Mekong lowlands. I will not complain, though. Thousands of turns on a scenic mountain road made the whole thing quite enjoyable. Once the morning fog lifted, the views only got better. Before lunch, we hit our destination, the provincial capital Phonsavan. This is a good place to find a bed and use it as the base to explore the Plain of Jars. Continue reading →