To Oudamxai

After our day of hiking we decided we had seen the best of Muang Ngoi Neua and opted to catch a boat the next day heading northward. This boat ride was significantly longer than the one from Nong Khiew, but fortunately we had more room to stretch our legs and it was a comfortable and pretty ride. A nice day off for legs sore from the hike. The boat landed in Muang Khua at around 2pm, giving Meg, Pam and Dave plenty of time to take a walk around the town and explore. I had a bit of nap as I hadn't been sleeping well for a few days. During their walk about the team came across another set of Canadian (Vancouver even) cyclists who had just crossed the border from Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. We had an early dinner with them, swapped some stories and then called it a night.

The bikes locked and loaded

The riding the next day was really lovely. Fairly gentle hills for most of the day following a small river upstream. The valley we were in was lush and populated with some really friendly villages so when we weren't admiring the scenery we were shouting "sabai dii" to the local children. Nearing the end of the day we left the river and crossed a small hill range which was trying on our legs. After only a few medium sized climbs we descended to the valley of Oudamxai and had easy riding into town.

Always such nice scenery

Oudamxia was an interesting town. It had many hotels which were full, but there were not that many white tourists. It turns out the road North of Oudamxai runs to China and many of the people staying there were either Chinese tourists, of maybe Chinese businessmen involved with a highspeed train line which is being built from China into Vientienne. There isn't that much to attract tourists to the area other than a really interesting looking cave network, a local walking tour and a Laos cooking course. Though the Lonely Planet was dubious of the english spoken by the women teaching the cooking course, we chose that option. The cave was a little too hard to get to and the local walking tour seemed to cover things we had already seen before.

Our first night in Oudamxia we went to check out a chinese restaurant. Rather than order off a menu, we walked into their kitchen area and picked the ingredients for the food we wanted to eat. From there, the cook put things together as he saw fit. Our tofu ended up in a really salty tomato sauce, our chicken-pork (it looked like chicken at first, but then tasted like pork) ended up stir fried with green pepper, and the green beans were fried, deliciously, with garlic and salt. The food on the whole was quite good (partly I think because it diverged from the rice/noodle combinations we had been having so often on the road) and we were impressed by the magic of the improvised dishes. Some of the magic was lost when we ordered some of the same ingredients the next night and they ended up cooked the same way, but I guess it's hard to make up something new every time. This method of meal selection is actually how many of the bike tourists we met who had been to China described their experiences in that country. Pretty cool.

Our cooking course was a great experience. We were picked up in the morning by the cutest Lao grandma whom right away impressed us with her english. She is now retired, but was a french teacher at the local highschool and also had a good grip on our language. Off we trotted to the market to do our shopping...the veggies and fruit were gorgeously displayed but as we headed farther back into the meat section, things became a bit more sketchy...blocks of congealed blood, live frogs on a stick, lots of stomach and intestine, and vats of snake fish (repulsive looking creatures). Very kindly, our cooking instructor realized these stepped a bit too far past the comfort levels of Western tourists and we stuck to plain old beef for our meat dish. We learned to make laap, fried spring rolls, mushroom in banana leaf, and pho in the kitchen of a local restaurant. No fancy stoves and ovens for us, this was the "real deal" with charcoal fires and a couple woks.

The markets are always so nice to wander; a host of fresh fruit and veg, and just about anything else you could want!

Frogs-alive-on a stick-fresh for picking.

The boys working as a team making spring rolls

Building the ol' pipes by pounding toasted rice into flour

With full bellies we were ready to ride on out of Oudamxia the next day!

Hiking in Muang Ngoi Neua

Our river boat trip from Nong Khiew brought us to the town of Muang Ngoi Neua. As I mentioned previously, this was meant to be a pretty remote town, unaccessible by car. We figured we would have an interesting cultural experience. We were quickly disabused of this notion on our arrival. The town was one main street, on the right was all guest houses on the river and on the left was a hodgepodge of less expensive guesthouses, restaurants, shops and the occasional house. The setting of the town was stunning though. Similar to Nong Khiew we were surrounded by tall mountains and the river, but there was no traffic to get things dirty. The power in the town also shut off at 9pm at night so everything was blissfully quiet.

Eric (of Eric, Gabrielle and Blanche), the Quebecois fellow I mentioned in the previous post, approached us on our first night in town. He had been up to this part of Laos five years previously and done a wonderful hike and was wondering whether we would care to join him and his family for the hike on the next day. This arrangement was of mutual benefit, we got a guide who had done the hike before for free (the other option was to pay 35$ each and have a local guide tour us around), and Eric and Gabrielle had a couple people along to help if things got a little hairy. In the end, we would all agree, both groups benefited from the arrangement.

The day started off fairly early. About 6:30 we sat down for breakfast. Eric estimated the hike at about eight hours, but he wasn't entirely sure of the route we had to take, though he remembered losing the trail a few times the first time he did the hike. We were keen to get started first thing to allow for any issues that might crop up. After a relatively quick breakfast (breakfast is never that quick in Laos if you eat out) we hit the trail. The four of us and Eric with our backpacks, and Gabrielle with Blanche strapped to her front. Now might be a good time to introduce the fact that a few years ago Gabrielle was a fairly high level long distance swimmer (she was racing at the national level) and is tough and steadfast as all get out. Throughout the story I am about to tell it's worth remembering that a six month old baby is roped to Gabrielle's front and she is still outpacing everyone in our foursome.

The hike started on an easy note. We were walking along a villagers path, adjacent to a rice field, through a valley punctuated on either side by steep and heavily forested limestone mountains. Eric, the engaging fellow that he is, had spoken to a local guide and gathered a schematic view of the hike we would be taking. This was basically made up of a quadrangle with the name of four villages in the corners, a fifth, bonus village, was thrown in in case we wanted to do a little more exploring. The village names were written in both Laos and English (in case we couldn't pronounce the village name, but someone could read. Very useful actually as pronunciation is sometimes hard with these tonal languages.). Along the edges of the map were the estimated times between each village. Based on the map we had tonnes of time to hike before the sun set and we decided to see the fifth village as well. The hike went very smoothly and we soon came across a trail gate keeper who sucked a few dollars out of the group in order to continue on the hike as well as check out a set of caves near by. The trail at this point was quiet well marked and the first village we intended to visit was actually labeled with a street marker. We continued happily along.

Me, crossing a bridge.

The trail we were following eventually became a concrete irrigation trough and slowly neighboring bushes started encroaching onto our path to the point that we were fighting a bit to continue along. It is worth noting that all of the paths we are meant to be taking during this hike are paths commonly walked by the local villagers to get from one town to the next. At this point Eric decided that we should start walking along the rice paddy paths rather than the trough. This made sense as there are many well worn paths criss-crossing the fields. It also gave us a wonderful chance to take some great pictures and see some water buffalo up close. We continued in a rather half hazard way across the rice paddies in the general direction of a valley which Eric had remembered hiking through five years previously. I can only speak for myself, but I am blown away by Eric's memory. I have a hard time remembering a hike I did last summer, but he has very precise memories of this hike he did in Laos five years ago. His accuracy wasn't always spot on though. The rice paddies ended at a creek crossing which we did fairly easily via a few large stones laid in the water. A few minutes afterwords we had to cross the creek again, and this time it was a little more difficult. We had fewer stone options and maybe a fallen tree to help us keep dry feet. In the end we were all across; Eric helped Gabrielle and Blanche, and Dave carried Pam, though Meg refused to carry me (I am not particularly well balanced so carrying Meg was out of the question). Anyway, we scrambled up the opposing bank into a field of thickets (I am not sure what a thicket is actually. Anyway, it was a field of small trees tightly woven at about chest level.). It was possible to find clearly demarcated paths throughout the field, but they required that person bend fairly low at the waist. It quickly became apparent that the paths were probably for the quadrupedal oxen, and not the bipedal humans. Eric pushed on though, insisting that the trail must be just through the trees ahead of us. Eventually the four of us stopped and Gabrielle called Eric back. Northern Laos is not the place to be wandering through unknown trails. As I mentioned previously much of the area had been bombed by the Americans during the Vietnam war and many of the bombs did not explode as desired. Unexploded ordinances (UXOs) are a big problem still for Laos and many people are killed or maimed each year.

Crossing a creek, early in the trip, before wet shoes were the least of our worries.

We backtracked across the creek and were making our way back to our last known correct location when Eric was able to pick up the correct villager trail again. It turns out he was just a little off the mark, though he was 100% correct that if we had pushed on through the trees we would have eventually crossed the correct path. Anyway, we were all stoked to get back on the right path, and what a beautiful trail it was. On one side was a clean and calm creek while on the other was a large limestone karst, the trail itself cut through a natural grass so it was like walking through a backyard back home. Soon after finding the trail again we came across our first village. It turns out it was not the first village we had been aiming for (we missed the bonus fifth village) but we were okay with that as we had lost some time going along the wrong route. We had a quick bite to eat (or rather we ate quickly after the food took a fair while to make) in a funny little restaurant with a full English menu. Meanwhile Eric told us a few stories about the last time he had been to the village and wondered allowed what the twelve and thirteen year old kids he had hung out with last time were up to now.

Meg chilling out to the max, as she is wont to do.

Blanche, being the center attention.

Soon we were back on the road again making our way to the next village. The path became more difficult at this point as we started ascending a fairly steep mountain side. It was beautiful though. As we got higher we started getting wonderful views of the valleys around us and, rather than walking through cropland, we were now walking through forest which was a nice change of scenery. After a few hours of this hiking we came to the next village. It was dramatically poorer and dirtier than the first village and the men must have been out working as there were only women and children around. As with the previous village Blanche and Gabrielle were a big hit. I imagine that white babies are fairly rare in that neck of the woods and the women were keen to check Blanche out, something that Eric and Gabrielle said was a fairly common when they visited these towns. After a dust covered can of pop from the towns tiny store and a little bit of staring back and forth we decided to make our retreat. Just outside of town was the local school house, where we sat in the shade and shared the few snacks we had. The original plan had been to eat a full lunch at this town, but that wasn't an option. It was lucky we had ended up having a fairly big snack in the first place we visited.

Some beautiful scenery along the hiking route.

Meg, finding the hiking a little too easy, breaks into dance walking.

The posse hanging outside of the second village.

The journey to the next town was the last leg of our hike. From there we would catch a boat down river to arrive back at the starting village. It proved to be the most stressful leg as well. We got on a trail leaving town and within a few kilometers we had reached a creek. This was as expected. Eric had spoken with some French fellows who had done the hike the day previous and they had said that at the end there would be many creek crossings. At this point the trail basically walked adjacent to the creek and every now and then we would have to cross to the opposite bank in order to get to a passable trail. This involved much walking on rocks and logs to stay dry. As I mentioned before, I don't have very good balance so after crossing the river about a dozen times, I removed my shoes and socks, put back on my shoes and started walking through the water. Things got alot easier for me at that point. Also around that point people in our foursome were starting to get a little anxious. Now that the path was a creek we would often walk for several minutes with no indication that we were going the right way. On occasion a small path would leave the creek and join back up with it a few tens of meters downstream. These paths served to bypass areas in the creek where it was very difficult to find rocks and logs well spaced enough to allow peoples feet to remain dry. Unfortunately we started missing these side paths and so were hiking through areas that really showed no indication of a proper path. After probably an hour of this type of hiking anxious murmurs could be heard from our group. At this point it was about 4pm with an expected sunset of 6ish. I was comfortable that we would be okay as I had the sense from the geography that the creek would join up with the Nam Ou at its end point. Around this time though Dave's foot slipped into the water and a leach bit into his foot through his sock and a hole in his shoe. This did nothing to calm the growing tension in the group. It was evident that Eric was also getting a little stressed. As we had seen previously with the thickets, when faced with the unknown Eric could sometimes panic into a headlong rush. He and Gabrielle were ahead of us by a few minutes throughout the days hike. It calmed Blanche to go at a fairly consistent cadence (and it should be noted that she had not cried at all during the day), while it calmed us to be able to stop and catch our breaths every now and then. Anyway, Eric's stress must have reached a high point. As the four of us turned a corner we found him pushing on Gabrielle's bottom while she strained to climb up a slippery muddy bank. We quickly surveyed the scene and though it did look somewhat path like in that there was no vegetation on the slope, it also looked like maybe there had just been a mudslide there. While Dave and Eric helped Gabrielle descend the slope (this was the only point during the trip where Gabrielle lost her cool and we could hear "tabernacle" being shouted from the slope) I went to scope out a path a bit further down the river. Fortunately for all of us the path very clearly went in the right direction and was taking us away from the creeks edge for awhile.

One of our few shots from the creek portion of the hike. As you can tell, it is hard to tell whether we are on the trail or not.

Dave's post leech bloody foot. You would have thought we would have to amputate the way he carried on.

The rest of the leg was longer than we had expected, but still very beautiful. It was made even more wonderful by the late afternoon light and Just as we reached a high ridge overlooking our destination village and the Nam Ou the sun started to fall behind the large karsts in front of us. It was spectacular! It was also a hell of a relief after a fairly stressful day of hiking. After watching the sun set behind the karsts we quickly made our way down to the village below. After some strange negotiations with a reticent local man we were able to hire a boat back to Muang Ngoi Neua. By the time boat finally reached the village we had been motoring along in the absolute dark for fifteen minutes.

The end of our hike. Sweet!

The end of our hike. Sweet!

The end of our hike. Sweet!

Meg and I agree that it was one of our best days in SE Asia. Partly this was because of the adrenaline, but mostly it was just such beautiful scenery and the villages we had seen were some of the more remote ones we had visited.

Meg looking good in the sunset light.

As a bit of an epilogue to the story, during the rush through the thickets Eric had scraped himself up quiet badly. In particular a cut he got on his finger got badly infected and during the night the infection tracked up to his elbow. We were all pretty worried about him and were thinking he would end up back in Bangkok to get proper medical attention but after a course of antibiotics in Luang Prabang he was okay.

Getting out of Luang Prabang

Alright, it's been a fair while since we last updated our adventures. Partly this is because we have been on the move alot and partly because the internet has not been very available. We are currently hanging out on the beaches of Thailand, soaking in the sun (and more often the rain) relaxing our tired legs. Between the last post (Luang Prabang) and here though there are alot of kilometers so best we get started on our catch up.

In Luang Prabang both Dave and Pam got some sort of food related sickness and they were knocked out for a few days. In a repeat of our Koh Kong experience they were stuck in their room watching old movies for a day or two. When the worst of the battle was over we started off on the next leg of our journey. The intent was to cover about 130km over two days, doing about 80k the first day and 50 the next into a riverside community. From there we could grab boat up the Nam Ou river (that might be redundant, I think Nam means river). As with many of our plans though we ran into some issues.

We started off early out of Luang Prabang. We were not entirely sure how the day would unfold as Dave was running about 60% (by his own approximation) and we made sure we had some fall back options in case he was actively sick again. We planned to check out a mystical, Buddha filled cave about an hour and half out of town, and Dave-dependent stay at a guest house there or continue on. When we got to the turn off to the Buddha cave the road turned to a fairly rough gravel which wasn't really doing much for anybody and we decided to turn back. That was probably the last of the fortuitous events that happened to us that day. About 30 minutes after we got back on the main road and started trucking our way along, Meg started feeling sick (correction, Meg felt a little sick first thing in the morning, but it passed), about ten minutes after that she was vomiting in the bush. I am not sure how I would compare this situation to our Cambodian illness episode; whether it is better to be ill in a bus on the way to a hotel or on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere (Meg says on the side of the road, and I guess she would know). In any case Meg is a pretty super tough kind of kid so pretty quick after she had lost her breakfast she was back on the bike putting in the kilometers to our guest house for the night. After a bit though she was sick again, and then again and then again. The intervals between her being sick was getting progressively shorter and Meg finally threw in the towel. I should mention that throughout these struggles it was super hot and there was very little proper shade to be found. Anyway, with Meg done for the day we flagged down a truck and Pam was able to communicate that Meg was in dire need of a lift to a town called Don Ngeun. Meg and I and our gear were loaded into the truck and carried the last 7km (Meg had really held in there to the end) to the town while Pam and Dave finished off the ride.

Meg and I, in the back of a pickup, loving every minute of our cycle trip.

Now we were told by the fairly uninformative tourist information fellow in Luang Prabang that Don Ngeun was the first town outside of Luang Prabang, and passed the caves, that had a guesthouse. It turns out he was wrong. There was nothing in Don Ngeun except an oddly nice restaurant without an English menu that seemed willing to sell us only rice and fried eggs. Originally the owners were behaving so strangely we thought they might actually be closed, but then a herd of people walked in and ordered a wide range of dishes including fish soup. After that we figured they just didn't really care for us, this was partly confirmed when the owners young child kept crying at the site of us and amidst the jumble of Laos we heard the phrase "falang" (foreigner) over and over again. I guess white people weren't all that common in that neck of the woods. Anyway, Meg and I were able to order some food to keep us going and Meg got set in front of a fan so she could cool down. Pam and Dave arrived quickly thereafter and we briefed them on the situation, it was eggs and rice for lunch and there was no guesthouse in town and probably none until a town 30km down the road.

After a bit of deliberation it was decided to hire a truck to take us the 50km to the Nam Ou adjacent town, Nong Khiew. There was no point in having a truck carry us to an intermediary town if Meg was going to be sick again the next day. We were able to convince, for a fairly reasonable rate, a local pick up truck to carry us into town. He ended up being a pretty nice guy who even picked up a nice mat for us to sit on as we jostled around the back of his pick up. The town of Nong Khiew ended up being a pretty little place divided in half by the river and surrounded by steep lime stone cliffs. We grabbed a reasonably priced room, had a nice dinner and called it a night fairly early. We hoped that Meg would be feeling well the next day.

Loading up the second pick up of the day. I am a bit busy documenting the situation to help.

The next day started enchantingly (I don't know how else to put it, also Gary has been harassing us to broaden our vocabulary). I didn't grab any photos as I didn't want to hunt around the room looking for the camera while Meg slept, but fog clung to the limestone peaks while the sun slowly crept over the hills and lit up the valley. It was beautiful and I got to sit there and watch it happen with a few cups of coffee which made it all the better. We had decided the night before to catch a 1pm boat heading upstream to what we expected to be a fairly remote village mid-river. Meg woke up feeling okay and we figured we would try to get out to a set of caves a few kms from the town before the boat took off. The caves were the hiding ground for many of the local people during the Vietnam war when America was bombing the hell out of Laos in an effort to stop the supply train of the North Vietnamese army. It turns out the the government and the banks also holed up in the caves. The caves were pretty neat to see, aside from the large and open caverns there were many narrow twisting passages which ran deep into the hillside. More stunning though was the peaceful pastoral scenery around the caves.

Dave, hanging out in the hallway to the bank meeting room.

Some of the nice scenery around the caves. Hard to imagine what the place would have looked like when the bombs were falling.

After the visit to the caves we made it back in good time to catch the boat upriver. The river cruise was really enjoyable, partly due to scenery and partly because we weren't on bikes. On the way up we met a really nice couple from Quebec, Eric and Gabrielle, and their six month old baby Blanche (we managed to bastardize this name a bit so it sounded like the name of the Golden Girl rather than the nice sounding french name). More on these guys in the next post. We also met a couple from Tazmania who were speaking in fluent French to the Quebecois and once again Meg and my resolve to learn french was hardened. I mean if Australians are speaking with our fellow Canadians better than we are, something must be wrong!

Something that we saw on the way up the Nam Ou. It appears that there were boats, mountains, and a river.

Fairly cramped quarters. Luckily Meg was feeling okay by this point.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a lovely little city, and a great place to relax after such hard biking! It is well known for all the temples (wats) and an abundance of monks. We spent our first day doing the classic Lonely Planet walking tour and took in most of the sights, followed by a long leisurely lunch in which we tasted Mekong seawood, buffalo and eggplant stew, and eggplant dip.

A night out having Lao BBQ

We went out to the most beautiful waterfalls (by scooter..time for a break for our legs!) and enjoyed a little swim time...or rather Pam, Dave and Cameron enjoyed a little swim while I found it too cold to last more than about 10 seconds. The waterfall was stunning and felt very "jungly."

So stunning! So jungly!

Checking out a wat in a random village, accessed by our scooters

The Royal Palace was fun to see for Cam and I but we had to leave Pam and Dave home with stomach troubles. Things turned around after a day or two and all should know they are both feeling better and we're able to continue our adventures!

Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang..the BIG climb(s)

The riding from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was awesome! It was some of the most scenic and interesting riding we have had on our trip and one of the three days was our most difficult. This was a great challenge for Meg and I and I like to think that Pam and Dave also really enjoyed it, despite Pam nearly falling over dead after finally arriving at the guest house and Dave spending allot of the day in tears (just kidding, Dave is training for a half-iron so he is ready for anything) . The trip went down like this...

Dave and his hog.

Meg and Pam looking "same same, but different". Dave and I are jealous that we don't have matching jerseys.

Having decided to forgo the drinking and merriment of Vang Vieng due to the poor weather (and to be frank (ha ha) the girls' poorer attitudes) we hopped on our bikes the day after arriving in the city. The elevation profile of the ride up to Luang Prabang was sufficiently alarming that we decided to break the ~235km into three days. Our map indicated that the nearest city of any substance was about 90km away but we were aiming for an umarked spot just 75km north. Dave had done a bit of reading on the internet and had found another cyclist who had done the same trip as us and had stayed at that km marking. As we approached closer and closer though it seemed that something had gone awry. Within even one kilometer of 75km there was no sign of human habitation, not a good sign for finding a town big enough to have a guesthouse. Then we turned a corner to see a series of small bungaloes in the distance with a bunch of trucks parked on the side of the road. We had reached the Nam Kene Hotsprings Resort! This fairly poorly advertised resort was not so much a resort nor were the springs particularly hot, but it was a relief to find accommodation for the night and it was nice to have a warm communal bath.

Pam loving the warm springs. In the background the bungalows that were our first indicator that we would have a place to stay for the night.

The beautiful view from the restaurant at the hot springs. Not a bad place to have dinner after a long ride.

After some surpisingly good food and a pleasant nights rest we were back on the road ready for the hills. Or at least we thought we were ready. The profile indicated that we would be climbing from about 600m to 1500m in one long hill (~25km long) followed by "rollers" of a few hundred meters of elevation change the rest of the day. It ended up being even harder than we thought. The first big climb was actually pretty easy, if time consuming, but the subsequent shorter climbs drained our legs of their energy till the last 3km stretch of fairly steep climbing had all our knees shaking. Through all of the riding we were fortunate to have beautiful, if somewhat foggy/smoky, views from the sides of mountains and wonderful winding roads. The girls also received a bit of an ovation after reaching the top of our first big climb (they are immortalized in one Thai womens digital photo collection) and a couple kids pushed me for awhile up one hill, so we had some help along the way. As a reward for such a challenging day we decided to stay at the best guest house in town and eat at only the best restaurant. As we were in a town with no redeeming qualities to attract tourists other than being at a nice distance for cyclists, the guest house was a little unpleasant and the restaurant food was the standard fried rice/noodle/vegetable combination. Without that town though we would have had to hail a bus or sleep on the side of the road, so I am still happy it was there for us.

It appears to be trees and hills.

Meg and I, serious as hell about climbing hills. Also, we were copying some Thai tourists who were posing before us. We also have a picture of us flexing our muscles.

Pam and Dave, apparently missing the memo about being serious. Or maybe they are just too in love to stop smiling. Can you imagine travelling with these people?

After such a tough day, our next day was pretty anticlimactic. We had two crazily long descents that lasted for probably 45 minutes each (imagine riding downhill for 45 minutes, it's a good time) and one fairly steady climb that we basically ate for breakfast. Before we knew it (4pm) we were in Luang Prabang ready for a few days rest.

Trees and hills, again.

Meg, chilling out and rubbing her sore wrists after riding the brakes down one of the long descents.

Vientienne to Vang Vieng

The ride from Vientienne to Vang Vieng took us three days of riding, and a big high five for Pam and Dave rolling off a 14 hour "chicken train" (the sleeper bunks were fully booked and they sat straight up in hard wooden seats overnight from Bangkok to Vientienne, boo!) and jumping onto bikes.

Leaving the city was, as always, a little blah as we cycled through suburbs and traffic before hitting the country. Our lovely Laos is serving us well though, and just beyond the city the beauty returned. Laos is known for it's wonderful cycling, and lives up to all our expectations!

The gang starting out

We had flat and rolling terrain which was a treat as rumour had it after Vang Vieng we would hit gigantic mountains. Our first night we stayed at a lovely resort just off the highway and went for a walk in the woods to see the 16th century Buddhas carved in rock there.

Cam and Dave gazing at wonder at the Buddhas

Each night we'd crawl into bed by 7:30, Pam and Dave jet-lagged still, and Cam and I feeling fatigued as we'd been riding for most days of the last couple weeks.

The happy gang enjoying beautiful karst formations

Some boys playing as Mum fishes..she's just behind the bushes

We arrived in Vang Vieng in a bit of rain...guess we didn't escape it all when we left Vietnam! (thankfully though, this is the one and only day of rain we've had). Spent a lazy day eating pizza-a welcome break from pho, and reading our books to stay out of the rain. Vang Vieng is well known for a crazy tube ride down the river, but we missed it due to weather.