Tuesday 01, January 2019 80 km – Total so far: 416,5 km
Like usual, I woke up at 6 o’clock. I packed my things together and went for breakfast. The menue consisted of scrambled eggs with bread and I ordered some additional rice.
When I got up in the morning it was raining but later when I started to pedal it already had stopped thanks God. Crossing the border to Laos one has to cross the so called Frienship Bridge.
As bikes are not allowed to ride on that bridge I had to put my bike on a bus. The driver even wanted me to fold it but I told him „no way“ . So my bike got inside with me.
Getting into Laos was easy. I paid 30$ for the visa plus 1$ extra, slush money, „bakshish“, or however you want call it.
As soon as I started to pedal the road went up. All the people and especially the children always greet so friendly, almost enthusiastic shouting “hello” to me as I pass by.
Looks like Laos people like to party on Sylvester because every village I rode through you still could hear loud music and everybody seemed to be drunk. Unfortunately there was no possibility to buy food – just snacks or junk food, energy drinks and of course water. I was happy that I had bought some bananas right after crossing the border…
The road was very hilly going up and down all the time. On Laos streets you cannot go downhill at full speed (at least I don’t do) because the roads are not like in Thailand. There are quite good stretches but some times streets turn into a chain of huge pot holes.
Temperature was perfect for riding, 22°C, cloudy and sunny moments. For climbing up the hills the weather don’t need to be hot .
On „Maps Me“ they say here in these villages you should find places to sleep but when I got there about 3:30 and started to ask for a room nobody understood nothing.
I thought maybe it would be better to move on and got on the way out of the village. While I pedaled I saw some young guys partying and I stopped and asked them for a place to sleep. Incredible! They knew a room to rent! It was not exactly the cosy, or comfortable kind, but it was a room.
Later one of the drunk guys took me to eat and of course I invited him. We had some noodle soup.
Tomorrow I am planning to leave very early. I need to get to a bigger village or a city to have something to eat that deserves the name food and get a better place to sleep. I really like to recover.
