Tag Archives: Vientiane

Day 208 – Vang Vieng

Croissants with butter and jam

Croissants with butter and jam

Again, having only a 150km stretch to ride today, we decided to have breakfast at the fancy French bakery. Pain of chocolate (pain au chocolate) is just my favourite way to start the day. Again, it was delicious. We were happy now to leave Vientiane behind which did turn out to be a sleepy little town.

150km north of the capital is the small town of Vang Vieng. In earlier days, it was a party-haven for young travellers wanting to tube down the river while being high, but three years ago the party scene was shut down. Nowadays, outdoor activities such as kayaking, tubing and rock climbing are the center of tourism here.

An example of the red dirt colouring everything

An example of the red dirt colouring everything

The road to Vang Vieng turned out to be the worst in quite a while. Giant potholes interchanged with missing stretches of road. It reminded us of Timor-Leste, to be honest. Thus, it took us longer than expected. Unfortunately, there was also no nice space to stop and take a break from the taxing ride as we were pretty much walled in by trees and bushes that had taken on the colour of the dirt. Riding in the clouds of cars and trucks was also not that much fun.

Nice and refreshing

Nice and refreshing

We finally stopped on a bridge for a rehydration break as the view from up here was refreshing after all the red. Nothing to linger on too long though which meant that we arrived at our destination before lunch time. This early, we even got a room at Pan’s Place, one of the popular hostels in town. Since the cafe and our room looked nice, we decided to book two night from the get go.

The prices at our hostel’s café looked reasonable so we had lunch right here and then in form of Western food. While waiting on the burger and cheese-garlic-baguette, two other Germans sat down at our table. They had seen us arrive on the Transalp and were keen to talk, one motorcyclist to another.

Rather worrying wooden bridge

Rather worrying wooden bridge

Being in a slight food coma after lunch, it took decisive action to get out of our room once more and actually DO something with our time in Vang Vieng. The Lonely Planet recommends a tiny loop of about 26km which is short enough that many attempted it on a bicycle. We, however, took Rocinante out for a spin enjoying the dirt roads through mountainous scenery rather than the many waterfall and cave stops. And what beautiful scenery it was! We took 1 ½ hours for the 26km to take it all in, take many photos including Flo riding on the dirt roads and wave to all the locals we met.

Last bit of motorbike epicness for the day

Last bit of motorbike epicness for the day

At one moment, a lady working in a rice field actually smiled at us and waved and I wish I could have taken a picture of this moment but some things are too fleeting to grab on camera.

Very happy that we actually went on this loop, we arrived back at the hostel to plan tomorrow.

 

 

Day 207 – Vien-tired

French decadence :)

French decadence 🙂

It is really hard to self-diagnose on a trip like this. Health, energy and mental health are pretty close together. Which makes discerning between “I am low” from “I might have the onset of dengue fever” difficult. I am pretty sure that we do not have dengue fever, nor any other of the major tropical diseases we are keeping an eye out for. Then again, they all have pretty much the same early symptoms: Headache, fever, fatigue. So far, we only ever scored mild versions of all three – which coincidentally are also the symptoms for heat exhaustion or just low energy levels. 🙂

So we decided to quit whining and get out there. There was a city to be explored here. The Lonely Planet suggests a 5 km bicycle loop –but we were confident enough to tackle it on foot. Especially since the very first suggested stop was a hearty breakfast at a French style bakery one street over from our guesthouse.

The breakfast held true and was delicious. Fresh orange juice and delightfully fluffy croissants. The only small downside was that it also had almost French prices – still worth it, though.

The inner temple

The inner temple

After such fuelling, we got underway. After a couple of more or less impressive colonial villas, some of which were shielded from view by high walls, we made a stop at Wat Si Saket which turned museum. It was a bit worse for wear, but we both felt it had some charm. At the inner sanctum, restaurateurs were hard at work – under competent German guidance, as a sign assured us.

From here we passed the completely walled in French embassy and made our way to the markets. It was a nice change from Indonesian markets to see that even with the same space limitations and hustle and bustle you CAN organise stalls thematically instead of having horse guts drip over the Barbie dolls. 😉

Fresh fruits...just 10.000kip

Fresh fruits…just 10.000kip

It was nearing noon and we were both feeling worse for wear. After another little accident involving treacherous south-east Asian footpaths, we took a break in a juice bar along the way and calmed down with some lovely fresh fruit juices.

We called it a day then and had a strategic retreat to our room. Nina took a good long nap and I got myself up to date again with the state of affairs in the world. Ok, I mostly watched US late night comedy shows …

The cave of shame was left only once more for lunch. Once again, our first pick had closed down or moved – so we settled for mildly fancy Italian. With the lunch special, the price was actually ok and the pizza was outstanding. Hands down the best pizza since Auckland. It was even enough to eat that we skipped dinner apart from a late night croissant for Nina.

Day 206 – Into city life?

Looking out

Looking out

After two quiet days, we said good-bye to the mountains for now. The next stretch of road will bring us back to the Mekong river and into the Laotian capital, Vientiane. We had heard from other travelers that Vientiane is a rather sleepy little town instead of a pulsating metropolis but the Lonely Planet pimped it for its food so spending a day in a sleepy city was a risk we were prepared to take.

From our lovely guest house in Ban Khoun Kham, it was 270km to go till Vientiane. We had the whole day to cover this stretch so there was no need to rush which made for a relaxed ride. Right in the beginning, we turned a corner to stumble across an amazing view: Mountains behind mountains behind mountains. So we took some time to take it in, enjoy it and take pictures. 🙂

We stopped once at a river for a shade and water break and then again when we tried to sort out lunch. Near one village, a row of food stalls lined the street all selling what looked like cooked corn and rice packed in banana leaves. Unsure whether it was just normal rice or sweet sticky rice (a local dessert), we stopped to find out and buy some. However, I utterly failed in communicating with the local lady despite me using the picture-dictionary. She didn’t confirm when I pointed on the picture of rice but seemed very fascinated by the depictions of cake. Unsure what to do, I called over Flo and in the end, we ended up buying a whole “line” of “rice” parcels instead of four. Somehow, these didn’t look as if you just cut one of the end; they came in a neat bundle of maybe 20. The whole affair cost us $3 so even if we’d end up with a whole lot of plain rice, not a lot was lost. Instead, the lovely lady handed us two of the white roots that you see everywhere for free.

Happy, we rode on until we found a nice resting spot to see and taste what we got. The white root is surprisingly yummy, tasting like turnip cabbage while having the texture of an apple. The rice in banana leaves turned out to be…something else. Flo opened one of them and we were astonished at the amount of leaves used; the content was rather tiny given the size of the packets. After smelling what it might be (smelled fishy), Flo tried it and confirmed that it was some kind of fish sausage made out of raw fish. Yuck. Not lunch at all.

Not wanting to waste it all by simply throwing it away, Flo went to four locals relaxing in the shade and offered it to them. First, they thought he asked for food but when they understood that we were giving food away, one of the ladies especially, was immensely happy. While we put our gear back on, she started handing out the parcels and cut the second white root for the children. A much better solution. 🙂

Still hunting for lunch, we stopped at a baguette vendor where Flo got the usual grub of pate and salad on bread. I was not quite so lucky and also out of energy to try so I had plain baguettes for once. Unfortunately, I had run out of Nutella, otherwise this would have been amazing lunch. 😉

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

The afternoon was used for the last 100km. Somehow, while riding smoothly, I got homesick. So we had another break to talk a bit before we finally hit Vientiane. The traffic increased but only to town level. Only about three streets seem to make up the town center which are filled with hostels, cafes and tourists. Not having a plan other than getting to Vientiane, we stopped at a busy street corner, figuring out which hostel still had rooms available and ended up in the least busy of the streets in a small-ish guest house. Prices are back up to $20 a night for a bare room with a bed but at least, we should be able to sleep here considering the noise is less bad than one street over.

Tired, we only got back out for dinner at an Indian place with okay food but delicious naan bread. It finally satisfied my craving for a decent Chai tea as well.