I’m currently in Jinghong behind the great Chinese (not so succesful) firewall.

I broke my rear wheel today during an ordinary ride in town and tore it at three different places.

Awaiting repair, I will go on a trek for two days and stay at the countryside to avoid the high hotelprices during Chinese New Year. Hopefully I can get going again on the 24th.

Take care.

Gunther

Laos: Beautiful, great people, great food, great beer. I should have stayed longer.

Heading for China tomorrow…

jīng cháng lián xì a!

His name was John. An American. From Texas. Bloody hell.

Meeting this kind of decent people, gives me a lot of energy. Suddenly, I felt ready for some hard cycling. I said goodbye to Hannelore and shortly before 09.00 AM, I set off to Vieng Phoukha, some 120 km down the road. Despite the numerous hills, this ride was the most fun I had until now. The entire stretch was fully paved and along the road children shouted ‘Farang’ or ‘Sabadee’ whenever they saw me coming. The living conditions in most of the villages are poor. When you cycle, you feel the cold at altitude and the effort which is required to climb the hills. There are not nearly as many motorbikes in Laos as in Thailand and I saw many villagers carrying agricultural products or wood up a hill. They do not have an easy life.

In the afternoon, I met Swiss cyclists who were heading to New Zealand.  They gave me some useful tips about China and they looked strong and athletic. Somehow, I still look like Orson Welles after his second Christmas turkey. After China, this should not be the case anymore.

An hour before darkness would set in, it was clear I wouldn’t reach Vieng Phoukha in time. I dislike cycling in the dark and pitched my tent.

It was close to the road and trucks passed regularly, but this was not a problem that a couple of earplugs couldn’t solve. Around ten, stomach cramps made clear my body still contained some processed food that needed to find its way out. Only when I got out of my tent, I noticed the full moon. I was perfectly visible from the road and there was still passing traffic. There I was on my improvised squat toilet and whenever a truck passed, I walked casually to my tent, only to return to my previous position when the truck was out of sight.

Sleeping was slightly uncomfortable, but the view I had when I woke up the morning after, more than compensated.

Riding to Luang Namtha the next day was easy. This is my last destination before I will hit China. Yes, I have a Lao entry stamp.

Some facts and figures:

Covered distance: 4401 km

Max. cycling speed: 68 km/h

Min. cycling speed: 4,2 km/h

Best sentence: “You cycling? You very strong.”

Worst sentence: “You cycling? You still very big.”

Best beer: Beer Lao!

Although there has been some improvement lately, Laos still has plenty of it to offer. You need to know a bit of history to understand the present situation.

Laos is landlocked, contrary to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Landlocked countries tend to be worse off than the ones that have harbors that facilitate transport. However, Switzerland and Austria are landlocked as well and can not be considered poor.

More importantly, Laos is a forgotten victim of the Vietnam war. As if the French rule hadn’t been hard enough, the United States went on an exotic East Asian pillage adventure in 1964 for reasons that are too ridiculous to mention. To cut supply lines to the Vietcong, the American forces started the heaviest bombing in history in 1969 that lasted 14 months, called operation Menu. Cambodia and Laos were hit terribly. Ten to thirty percent of the bombs didn’t explode and even today, they still make victims. In Laos, the tourist areas are relatively safe, but this is not the case for the country side, especially in the province Savannakhet.

To add to the misery, Laos has a communist government since 1975 and we all know how this type of authority contributes to economic welfare. To make things even worse, Laos is a target for pedophiles who travel the world to find defenseless victims.

In the Lao tourist areas, there’s plenty of food and water. Away from the cities, that isn’t the case anymore. Although the Chinese and Thai asphalted the road from Huay Xai to Luang Namtha in 2006-2007, reducing road time for busses from 11 hours to 4 hours, this is still a tough ride because of the many climbs. I stocked up on 6 liters of water, instant noodles and a lot of cookies the evening before my departure. The task was clear. Get up at 6.30h, eat at 7.00h, say goodbye to Hannelore and leave at 7.30h.

I overslept…

And then I met an American.

Things could not be easier. When we arrived in Chiang Khong, the Thai border town at the Mekong, we knew what to do. Change our Thai Bath for US Dollars, get an exit stamp, a boat ticket, cross the Mekong and continue the journey. A tough task? I think not. Well…

Basically, this stuff is easy. When you cross a land border, you get an exit stamp in the country you’re leaving and an entry stamp in the country you’re entering. But I didn’t have a Thai entry stamp.

Don’t ask me why. I was refused access once in a Thai hotel about 200 km north of the Malaysian border because of this missing stamp, but I quickly found another hotel and I wasn’t bothered too much about it. I was never asked afterwards. But now the chickens were coming home to roost. When I handed over my passport to the Thai immigration office, they immediately pointed out what was missing. Of course, I had no excuses. As a traveler, it is your duty to check the entry and exit stamps. I asked the officer “Is this a problem?” and he responded with a very clear “Yes, this is a big problem”. I immediately adopted my familiar attitude of looking stupid and shutting up. Fortunately, I remembered the name of the border crossing and it also helped that I had a Malaysian exit stamp. It’s rather difficult to exit Malaysia legally and enter Thailand illegally if both immigration offices are next to each other. Additionally, my visa was still valid.

Although I wasn’t expecting to be sent to jail, a fine was definitely possible and I discussed the options with Hannelore what to do with Penelope and my luggage if I would be interrogated. This proved not to be necessary. After one hour and a half, they decided to give me a new arrival card. I filled it out and they gave me a new entry stamp with Thai comments in my passport. They let me off easy.

Can someone translate “I’m an idiot. I screwed up. Please accept my apologies.” into Mandarin Chinese, Kyrgyz and Russian and send it to me? It could come in handy.

On the bright side: here are the remaining pictures of the marvelous country.

During the first few kilometers, I noticed some suspicious looking fog at the other side of the Mekong, at the Laos side.

Was this really fog or was it a local villager smoking the worlds largest joint? Yes, this place got me going. Would it be really dangerous? Opium smugglers forcing me to share a spliff… or would they teach me how to handle a Kalashnikov to hunt down underdressed Russian tourists? 

When I arrived, the ‘Golden Triangle Resort’ indicated that tourists had been here before and I had to move somewhere else to find some real adventure. However, it was far from a tourist trap. It was more than pleasant to wander along the boards of the Mekong early in the morning, before the gang of minibus-transported-tourists would be dumped.

I took the pictures you have to take when you get to such a place,

but I wanted to know something more about opium as well. My wish was quickly granted. Three kilometers further down the Mekong, the Opium museum was waiting for its first visitors.

I was in for a surprise. This museum is a gem. Situated in a wonderful park, it presents a balanced view of the medicinal aspects of opium, as well as the destructive ones, focusing on the addicts that have fallen victim to heroine. Apparently, the royal family played an important role in the construction of a local rehabilitation center. Where opium poppies used to grow, agricultural products have taken their place. As a westerner, you can’t ignore the scandalous policies of the British empire during the 19th century, when their opium wars with China drove the former superpower into the ground and millions of Chinese saw their lives destroyed because of their opium addiction. The museum displayed all of this in a highly stylish and interactive fassion, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

At the beginning of the climb, I joined a 21-year old Thai student on a mountain bike and we climbed from 300 meter to 1000 meter where we visited Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the local temple. Apparently, the Thai wanted to repent before New Year and they turned out massively for a quick visit to the temple. I’m going to let the pictures do the talking and I hope you enjoy their monologue!