The night wasn’t great for me, I had a touch of food poisoning I think so was making frequent dashes to the toilet. Athena left at 6am this morning to catch her bus to Kunming, I felt so crappy I didn’t get up to say goodbye but me and Loon did leave her a going away present, the brick Russell had hid in my bag was passed down to Athena.
My stomach didn’t turn out to be as bad as I had first feared and hasn’t given me any more troubles. Today we also had to say goodbye to Veronica and Mattis the German couple, I hate saying goodbyes and was already kind of missing Athena. You get use to having people around and it’s nice to have similarly minded people to chat to, by similarly minded I mean to ride a bike around the world. As it was raining we decided not to leave till midday, Loon didn’t want to ride but I couldn’t bear hanging around in Luang Prabang after everybody has left. The morning was spent sitting on the balcony relaxing and reading up on china my next destination. China is beginning to dawn on me now, I will be back on my own and due to the massive road network in place I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as sit on the same road for a month. Another thing about china, I only have a 30 day visa but from the border to Shanghi I need to cover roughly 3500km, it’s going to be a race.
Riding today after saying goodbye to Veronica and Mattis was a bit sad, the cold (13C) and rain didn’t help matters though I did enjoy the change, I had my finest waterproofs on which include some of royal mails waterproof trousers which are as god if not better than anything you can buy. The riding reminded me of a time in New Zealand when I rode with an Austrian guy called Chris, it was rainy, windy and cold but we just our heads down and peddled. It was like that today and it helps me get over the fact that we are missing 3 members I knew for a very short time.
Loon really struggled to cope with the weather, where he comes from in Malaysia the coldest it gets is 28C so he isn’t use to the cold nor is he prepared, this cold snapped isn’t normal. I’m a bit more battle hardened to it thanks to Rugby in any weather, posting letters in any weather oh and pedicabbing in all weathers, this has helped me cope rather easily with the challenge I face now.
The rain never stopped all day and the plan was to camp, we managed to find a perfect little hut just by the road but out of view, it looked good condition no rain had leaked through its roof and there was even a little shelter for the bikes, it seemed too perfect. We got set up, made a washing line to try and dry some of our clothes a bit, had dinner then got huddled into our sleeping bags and hope the hut stays water proof, it stops raining and loon stops snoring (for a small guy is snores like a monster).
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