Vientiane, Our Last Stop in Laos

We would cycle our way to Vientiane. It was a mostly uneventful ride.

Our hotel was next to this structure which looks like it is being reclaimed by nature.

We went to visit the COPE Center in Laos. Ali wrote up an excellent post titled “UXO.”  Check it out if you want to know about the “Secret War” and the American legacy in Laos.

After all those sobering statistics me and Jim needed a beerlao, or maybe 12.

In case you missed it on Facebook.

Yes, problem solved! Or maybe we just went for a scooter ride to take a break from riding the bicycles.

Laos traffic jam.

Our scooter ride turned off road quickly. Like our bike ride, it was dusty and hot.

I let Ali have a turn at driving me around on the scooter. This resulted in an ear to ear grin.

After our scooter ride we started cycling again towards Thailand. We passed the source of Laos goodness - Beerlao. I could have taken a tour of the place, but I didn’t find out in time :(

This time they let us cross the Friendship Bridge from Laos to Thailand on our bikes. So here we say good bye to Vientiane and Laos.

Full of Hot Air

Sometimes you see an opportunity and have to jump on it. This time I saw the opportunity to go on a hot air balloon and couldn’t make up my mind. Vang Vieng has the beautiful scenery to do this, but it was definitely a budget buster. Then I realized I could float in the sky for an hour for less money than I used to spend on a tank of gas back home. This was a no brainer!

The adventure starts early in the morning before sunrise. We got to our launch pad just to see the balloons lying flat on the ground.

Using gas powered fans the crew started blowing air into the balloon to fill it up.

Once they are mostly full they fire up the burner. 

Next thing you know you are up in the air floating away.

The pilot controls altitude by applying more or less heat to the ballon. At different altitudes we could go in different directions and he had great control of where to go. The flame is quite mighty and loud. 

The views were amazing and it was a great experience.

Jim joined me for the ride. It was his first time in a hot air balloon although I suspect he has been full of hot air before.

From the air we can see how colorful Vang Vieng really is.

And we got to experience sunrise in our basket as well.

When it was time to land the pilot threw a leash to the chase crew and they placed us exactly where they wanted us to be.

Even at the end of the ride while landing, the scenery was beautiful. 

Eventually they deflate the balloon. Notice how the color fades away once you let the air out.

Finally, the crew packs the balloon away for another ride.

No, they don’t change colors. I just didn’t get to go on the pretty one :p

The Moab of Laos

Vang Vieng is an outdoor activity haven with a focus on serving the young crowd at affordable prices. With stunning views, cheap beer, and yummy food it was one of my favorite destinations in Laos.

The view from hour hotel room. Vang Vieng is a scenic town by the river.

We signed up for a day tour that involved half a day of tubing in a cave and half a day of kayaking. Our new friend and fellow cyclist Darren decided to join us.

The cave goes on for over half a kilometer while you pull your tube along on a rope. We decided to go as far in to the water source as possible. It felt like exploring a flooded subway tunnel. In the rainy season the cave completely floods.

After the cave we did a bit of kayaking. Small rapids made for some exiting moments.

Along the river we saw local fishermen getting their catch.

Here is Ali taking a break from the river.

In town we would saw oddities like cock baskets. I had seem a bunch of them in the back of trucks but could not figure out what they were for. Turns out it’s a play pen for your cock!

Other oddities in town included the #77 special. Don’t you want some of that?

Next day we headed out to a lagoon and cave for swimming and exploring. Doesn’t this place look like something out of an Indiana Jones movie!

We stopped at the main chamber to take a look. Rosie and Bryan are our new Irish friends that we met back in Luang Prabang.

Bryan would later take me on a tour of the cave. It was pitch black with huge chambers and all sorts of exciting features. Like any good thriller giant, tiger spiders were waiting for us.

We liked kayaking so much that we decided to sign up for a full day of it. Maybe we just needed to balance all our cycling with a bit of upper body workout. 18.5 KM of kayaking sure made me sore.

Our full day tour included lunch. Our guide tried to catch fish for us to eat. I guess the vegan karma was on and the fish got lucky. It still was quite a sight to see the fishing attempt.

Wendy on the shark kayak!

Laos is all about options. How do you want to get across the river? Walk the rickety, bamboo bridge that gets washed away come the rain or get passed around on rusty cables on a wooden basket. Your choice!

As the our wonderful day kayaking ended I saw this hot air ballon. If only I could . . .

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a French colonial city and an Unesco World Heritage City.  It sure was charming and made for an interesting time in the city.

The city has many Wats, or monasteries, and several times throughout the day you can hear the monks chanting or the giant drums being pummeled as a call to prayer.

Early in the morning at dawn the monks go out to collect alms. Hundreds of monks roam the streets to get rice from the faithful.

 The faithful in this case are these cute, old ladies. They place a handful of plain sticky rice in the monks bowl. The collection bowl is one of the few items they are allowed to have as personal possessions.

Laos has few gas stoves. Lots of cooking gets done around the fire. Here is a typical setup for steaming sticky rice. In the morning it is common to see Lao families gather around the fire to warm up and prepare breakfast.

We had our food prepared in the market down a shabby alleyway where the all you can eat buffet is $1.25 USD.  You pick your food and the lady reheats it for you.

The city is very beautiful and flowers abound as you stroll by the river.

Leaving Luang Prabang we started our adventure with nice pavement and great view. That is before it turned into “Hell Day"

We stopped at the villages for water and I am sure the locals laughed at us for they knew the road ahead was under construction and essentially unpassable. To see the end of our ride out of Luang Prabang check out the “Hell Day” post.

Cycling in Laos

We crossed the border into Laos and started what was definitely more challenging cycling.

The Mekong River is the border between Laos and Thailand. Here we are on the Laos side looking across the water to Thailand. We would travel by one of the slow boats pictured below to Pak Beng.

Our slow boat was crowded and slow. We spent a whole day there.

Ali clearly made the best of it. I couldn’t sleep so I went to explore around.

Nothing like a small offering in your engine to ensure reliability. It held its own to Pak Being at least.

The next day we left Pak Beng and followed the river up into the mountains.

We saw beautiful vistas like these along our ride.

We arrived at a small village for dinner and rest and was treated to a beautiful sunset.

We would leave early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. That meant we left in the jungle fog in the morning.

The jungle fog had weird side effects.

Eventually the fog would burn up and we would cycle thru thick jungles covered in vines.

After our failed attempt to Muang La we took a bus to Luang Prabang. See our bikes in the top of the bus about to get trashed.

Not enough seats? - no problem. Even though the road we were about to go on was the roughest I have ever been on, those were the seats for some passengers. We were in first class with actual seats bolted to the floor.

Fortunately we made it to Luang Prabang where we would meet our friends and rest for a few days.