Hello Laos, the First Few Days

Scenery out to Ko Long cave
Meghan and Veronika
Hanging out at a look out after a tough climb. Strangely enough we just ran into the couple who took this picture for us again yesterday (8 days and 500km from where this picture was taken)
Meghan "The Goat" Muhle on another super climb
Climbing out of Vietnam

Our first few days in Laos made use realize why so many touring cyclists visit the country. The countryside we were biking through was absolutely beautiful with steep, high karsts jutting dramatically out of pancake flat fields. The riding was really interesting. There were times where we would be riding along the flats of a valley towards a line of mountains and it would not be clear how it would be possible to cross them. As we slowly approached and the mountains took up more and more of our field of vision it would become apparent that we were simply going to power our way up and over them in some very steep and windy climbs and descents.

Veronika, who we had met and had dinner with on our last day in Vietnam, rode with us for the first couple of days which was really nice. She was interesting company and inspired us with all of her cycling adventures in remote places. She also ended up helping us out of a fairly awkward situation. We had heard that Kip (Laos currency) could be hard to get a hold of but we had some money crossing the border and figured it would last till we came across an ATM. It turns out that we were probably three days of cycling from the first ATM and just barely had enough money to make it all the way. On top of that the flat tire I got just before crossing the border had caused a small tear in one of my tires which was slowly getting bigger and bigger and aside from causing me a few flats was also looking like it could completely blow out and become a show stopper (I will also carry a spare tire on me for now on). Should that happen though, we didn't have enough money to take a bus. As we parted with Veronika so she could wait for her boyfriend (he was a few days away by bike on a separate route) she was great enough to lend us some money to cover the eventualities. Everything worked out in the end, but we were possibly in a real pickle. We were able to get the money back to her in Vientiane via a helpful French bicycle shop owner.

The highlight of that phase of our journey was visiting the Kong Lo cave. It is a 7km stretch of river that runs underground through an interesting series of caverns. For a small fee we were able to hop into a narrow little boat and tour through the winding system of caverns to the other side (where of course there is the obligatory tourist coffee stop). During most of the ride the only lights were from either our own headlamps (pointing in every direction trying to catch glimpses of any monsters lurking in the recesses of the cave) or the headlamps of the two fellows who were guiding the boat through the river (pointing, mostly, straight ahead). Our headlamps seemed to be a little brighter which was disconcerting, but aside from one small incident when we hit up against a sandbar at fairly high speed the fellows did a good job of keeping us dry. There was a short section of the underground cavern that had had lights installed in it by a French NGO and we got to walk through and checkout the stalagmites and stalactites.

Neat limestone formations at Kong Lo

Entrance to the Kong Lo Cave. That little boat was like the one we road through the cave in

The lowlight of our early days in Laos were the few days before we arrived in Vientiane. There are no pictures to prove it, but the riding was boring and a little ugly. Fortunately we were in a hurry to get to Vientiane to meet up with our friends Pam and Dave (who are joining us for the last few weeks of cycling in Laos) so we pounded through some long days and didn't have to look at smokey flat fields very long.