Laos 1 - Cyclists 0

Once you enter in Laos you will certainly notice that things are far different from its neighbour Thailand, passed the border town of Muang Nguen the road has not much to offer before getting to Pack Beng, i mean, don't expect corner shops, markets or comfy shady roofs to rest your bones, all you get is spectacular mountain views and one village where to get water.

The beauty about Laos high ways
sometimes you can see how far u have to go

The first trouble we encountered was caused from crossing the border too late and on top of that on a Saturday which means: the bank are closed! The only thing we found was an ATM but we weren't really ready with a plan of how much we where gonna spent or how many days we where staying in the country, so we skipped, thinking to push to next town and do it there the day after.
I like Laos, is definitely more adventurous than Thailand, less developed and those amazing mountains we where riding on where mostly still covered by threes. On our way up and down many pick up trucks passed us filled with Mon in their full beautiful traditional clothes, something in Thailand is pretty rare and mostly as a picture opportunity for tourists.

But some other times
you can't!

The hills are gigantic here ,its hard to explain, very steep on the bottom to become balloon round on the top, it reminded me the ones on the background of the video game "Super Mario Bross", sorry, what an example!
It didn't feel too hard though, perhaps our thighs got used to the beating we gave them on the way here, and beside being late through the day, the excitement of being in a new country made us push to sunset before setting up camp.
One more point for Laos: not many villages and house density made it easier to camp, and what a camp we found! Some farmers saw us on their way back from the fields with their cows but they looked shocked to see us more than us seeing them, we asked for permission and beside not understanding a word it seemed fine for us to stay. We got two more visits that the evening perhaps we where the talk in the village and some of the locals felt like not missing the Chance to talk to a foreigner! Still could not understand a world, but they seemed really sweet and amazed!

First night camp spot, what a nice place, definitely
must get better at taking camp pictures, i always do it
when is too late.

I slept like a rock from the top of that...hill?...mountain??, who knows how high we where!!! I couldn't hear a sound from the road neither see a light from the valley below.
We packed up early in the morning and shoot to the first shop which we weren't sure how far it was in that nothingness and most of all how do u get supplies with no money???
Seemed like we had to push the whole way to Pak Beng before being able to get anything, not having much of a choice that's what we did. We caught a ferry over the Mekong, right beside Chinese company was building a bridge over it, it seemed like they brought everything from their country, from trucks to road singe, everything had Chinese writings!!!!
Town wasn't exactly what we expected, i though of a nice little village by the Mekong river, but really it looked more like a point of entertainment for tourist when they get off the boat cruise from Luang Prabang on their way to Houay Xai. We found an ATM, of course it was Sunday and the bank where still closed so we couldn't exchange any Baths, after a rapid calculation of kilometres, days and costs we got what we though was gonna be needed.

The valley just below our camp.

Got finally under the shade of the big roof of the market and found something to eat, cooking is not really happening on this trip because me and my companion have disagreements about caring extra weight in supplies or even water, so we got a far from vegetarian soup and veggies for one extra meal at a stall.
Usually when i travel on my own or with my usual Friends,u know u are, i always carry enough to have both my stomach or water bottle full at all time. In Asia i often hear people saing that is not worth being self catered because restaurants are so cheap, but really i think they never tried it!

With the cost of two fried rice, around 70 Bath u can actually shop for three amazing large meals for two people at the market, fruits and snacks too. This doesn't mean that sometimes i don't enjoy my always the same tiny portion of pad pak (fried rice) brought to my table without lifting a finger!That saves quite a lot of energies on the other end!
Anyway, after this reflection and the usual nap in the shadow we where ready to go looking for our left turn to an unknown road that would had brought us further north, out of Laos.

waiting for the ferry over the Mekong river.

We bike about 4 kilometre out of town, then over a small bridge, then we stopped, looked at each other and though "is it really this one????". What we had in front was a very dusty and uphill dirt track, after a minute of shock we just jumped right into it.








It was hard from the beginning, my wheels where skidding on the loose ground and beside pedalling with all my strength i was moving forward at a ridiculously slow speed!

A special ferry just for chines trucks
 to carry materials for the bridge.

Bloody roads in Laos. This is the beginning of the end.

A couple of cars passed me, i was already covered in dripping sweat and the huge cloud of dust it lifted stick right on to me. I already drunk most of my water.

The plan here was to take a picture of the road to give
a better idea of the situation but since i cant
 let go of my bike this is what you get

Got to the point where biking wasn't possible anymore i decide to stop and wait for Serjio at the first flat on the side of the road but i hadn' t see any in quite a while.
When i finally manage to use my kick stand and let go of the bike i was close to death and only travelled 4 kilometres!
We had something like 120 kilometers to ride on that track, some locals in town told us (beside "you are crazy") we would only encounter one hill tribe remote village on the way and we should have spare parts for the bikes and enough water.
Serjio caught up, we definitely had to review our plan because we where absolutely not ready for the journey.We had to turn back, decided to get to the sealed road, find a camp spot and think of a plan "B".

After the misadventure, a nice camp spot
by the river.

We had two options: wake up early enough the day after to catch the boat to Houay Xai, pay 20 dollar each, and cross the border there or turn back to Nan and ride to the city by a new route and reflect upon our defeat in front of a plate of fried gluten at the vegetarian restaurant...we choose the second one.
After all we got lucky once again, back to the real road the river running next to it offered us an amazing shelter and a wash before going to bed. The day after all we had in mind was getting back to Thailand for some weird reason so we biked the same way back as fast as we could to find out that it was actually harder than the previous time.
This way it ended our adventure in Laos, with a weird feeling inside, doing something i never did before on my bike: turning back on a nasty road, well i guess now i have a new reason to come back to south east Asia, to try it again!!!

Favourite and only breakfast.

A great ride back towards Thailand through the misty mountains.

Some destruction going on at the ferry cross.

At the border we encountered a massive line of trucks.
I forgot to mention that beside building a bridge Thailand
and China are cooperating to once again spank the nature
and build a power plan in Laos, of course the country
only gets the 5% of the power from it.

At the border with Laos

After a few days of postponing, that turned into a whole week, we finally got our stuff together and started cycling.
It was hard to leave our new home and friends and especially the climbing routine, it needed to be done after all, we are here to ride! We spent our last days at Jao's and family hanging out with Miquel, Iris and Aifei, what a laugh! Just when we thought it wasn't gonna be the same anymore after Enio's and Ben's departure...
Right away everything worked as planned, mountains, through the districts of Chiang Mai, into Chiang Rai and Lampang to Phayao and now Nan, following a beautiful road i was familiar with and riding again on the amazing roads 1148 and 1097 through misty villages and hills. I mostly done this route last year but the opposite direction and i must say i found it much easier this time considering we are only cycling since 4 days and leaving early is not our speciality...
 

As usual the first hills of Chiang Mai felt the hardest but i know they where not, after we got the Chance to spend a day in the city of Phayao, small and nice with a long walk along the big lake where Thai tourists like to take pictures and sit by, eating their dinner and looking at the sunset.
The day after we started going up the mountains, a whole day up and down, mostly up really. The villages got smaller and the sun was going down and we where running out of options...so we pulled our favourite card, camping at the police station!

Phayao beautiful lake.

What a name for a bar...

Our first horror hotel!!!!
Hanging in the lobby drinking our nasty instant coffee.

At the small village of Ban Hae, Mr. Suthash, welcomed us and sorted us out by letting us pitching our tent next to the police box,just by the road, showed us a restaurant where to eat and sat down with his friends eating salty fish and drinking whisky.Through the whole evening he was coming by the camp checking on us, exchanging some world making less and less sense the more whisky he had, by the time i was going to bed he could only smile and say "Ok!, Ok!"
I though the cars might give us trouble sleeping, but not, no cars on that road, instead at an outrageous hour in the morning, something like 4 A.M. we could hear the whole town just outside our plastic walls laughing and talking about this two crazy Farangs.
It was a very nice feeling to ride on a road i already knew, it didn't matter how hard we had to push or where we had to camp we knew that sooner or later something good will appear.
Our destination now is the border with Laos in the north of the region of Nan. Continuing cycling on the memory trail we stopped once again in the amazing guest house of Thung Chang, visiting Marco and Dao (the owners) and staying up late hanging out drinking beers, even eat home baked focaccia bread!
It was worth it but not exactly a good idea because the day after we had some more mountains to face to the border. I remember it to be hard, from last year, when me and Stine did it return in a day with no load, but me and Serjio did pretty good too, left at 9 right when the sun starts to be hot, once again great planning, on the other and nothing is worth giving up your morning coffee!!! Got at the border at 2, smashed, and had lunch and a nap before facing customs.
Around 4 o'clock we where in Laos.

Got to Ban Hae.

On the right the small police box where Mr. Suthash let us camp.

Mountains, great views but what a killer!!

Nasty roads on the way to Laos.

Thailand - Laos border.

Our home in Mae On

Leaving Inter Hotel

Left Chiang Mai behind and all the chaos that comes with it, after some intense experience at our favourite place, the "Inter Hotel" which we only reveal in person, one sunny morning we loaded our bikes, said good bye to the last remaining of the group, Zosia, and took off towards the small village of Mae On.
The ride took no time and after getting a bit lost we reach destination at 12 just in time for a nap in the shadow around the market before sort out practicalities such as place to stay and most important where to get coffee.
Everything got fixed fairly fast, took us a long detour around town and hot springs to find out that the best location was right in front of the crag we where gonna climb.
Here we got really sorted, better than expected, with a little house, living room, toilet, and two double rooms, one for me and Serjio and the other one for our housemate Enio, an Italian man. The place has two more Thai style wooden houses with a great terrace in front. There is also a camp yard where our friend Ben lives. No need to say, strictly climbers.

Crazy Horse Buttress

We planned to stay a week and already two passed by fast, at the crag, called "Crazy Horse Buttress"  climbing is great and at the beginning we found hard to take a rest day.
Many walls, and every morning our climbing team meets at the restaurant at the guest house craving for our fried rice and anxious to get to move as soon as possible. That's the idea anyway, but most of the days the mood is so relaxed that we get a bit lost chatting or making a plan about the day. We manage to be at the spot by 10 anyway and the choice of shady routes is pretty big allowing us to climb till sunset taking only short brakes.
The mountain is made of limestone with crazy rock formations impressive to climb, stalactite, stalagmite and a couple of caves that offers great climbing during the hottest time of the day, one of them is actually called "Windy Cave" and the route right out of it "Air con Wall" due to the fresh air blowing out of the cave.

Te amazing house.

                                                               

Climbing gear hanging everywhere

The fine art of "palomoing" left over chalk.

Climbing over a cave.

And climbing inside a cave.

Our new friend Ben posing for a post picture!

Climbing at "Heart Wall".

Some crazy rock formations going on in this place!

 

Some nice resting between climbs.

La cabeza e Serjio Garcia.

Going for a multi pitch adventure.

Getting ready at pitch 2.

The head of expedition.

The crew is climbing up

The top of the climb, standing in a tiny space.

From the top, all secure an preparing to go back down.

Safety madness going on up here.

Finally on the top.

Ready to get down.

A long descent.