Head in the Clouds 18/03/11: Pak Mong to Camp at hay hut 64.7km

It was a chilly morning and still drizzling so there was no desire to get up. We agreed if it’s still raining by midday we’d stay put. Thankfully it did stop and begin to brighten up so we packed our damp things up, put our damp cycling clothing on, as it’s the best way to dry it and got on with business. We had hope to at least hit about 80kms, this would bring us to a town of sorts and leave 100kms to Boten the border town before China but standing in our way were two massive climbs and a bizarrely terrible road.

Firstly the road, every few hundred meters or so the sealed road would just end and turn into a rutted muddy, bumpy pain, the past rain hasn’t made things better making it even more muddy and dusty. The mud was particularly the main problem at first but it did become the main problem. To begin with the roughness of the road would feel like I was shaking the bike to bits so I just took it easy, frustrating as you can’t build any real momentum and cover any ground. The mud though began to get stuck between the mud guards and the tyres making pedalling 1000m uphill much harder than it already was. I did stop once to remove the wheels so I could get the mud out but it just built up again.  I didn’t feel great one the bike today either, I don’t know if the sluggishness of the pace or the extra effort I had to put in wore me down but it was really hard to enjoy it.

Nice road...

I can’t wait to leave Laos, there is a half arsed approach to things here and the road sums it up beautifully, why make a road where is smooth for about 800m then disappears for about 100m,  seems like the workmen tried to get it done that bit quicker so just left chunks out thinking rightly nobody would care except the people that use it.

We did ride on past the sunset but not till dark, we did find ourselves a hut just between two villages but unfortunately it was fill with straw, cockroaches (I’m sure) and at least one mouse so Loon went in his hammock while I’m in the tent. We did have an uneasy moment when two bright torches began making their way towards us, thinking we’d been discovered I carried on as normal and if anyone came over play the dump innocent foreigner, but curiously within a hundred meters and seemingly shining the torches right on us they headed back. Time to sleep now, up at 530 to pack up and get going before anyone discovers us for real.