I didn’t sleep well, i don’t like sharing my tent but Loony is the worst person to share a tent with. He snored like a trooper and for a small guy likes to curl up taking most of the width of the tent leaving little room for me, i normally sleep diagonally as being 6ft 5inches (ish) tents usually are a bit short for me. At one point i woke up and had Loons head on my pillow, i pushed him back and told him to keep to his own side. I got my own back in the morning as not being able to face the squat toilets i had a strong build up of potent gas which let out into the confines of the tent.
Packing away i was a little grumpy but the Germans made us all breakfast, rice pudding with cinnamon and banana, i normally deteste bananas but i was pretty hungry and they went down with little problem. A few kids had made the trip down, they were playing with each other by playing i mean playing rough, it seems to be the way. Before we began to slog our bikes up the big hill out i faced for only the second time the squat toilet, still unable to squat i sat down and felt instant relief, the others found it hard to believe that this was only the second time i had used the squat dunny in the whole of Asia where the squat rules the seas.
It took two people to push the bike up the cliff face back to the road, how people get up and down in the wet season is a mystery but it got the blood pumping. The road then gave us an amazing downhill which was pretty much the story of the riding today, cycle uphill 800m to an altitude of 1400m the drop down about 800m. We stopped at a place for lunch, it was a place where tourist buses stop and the first eating place we inquired at we were told the price was 15,000kip then a fat Laos women who i guess owned the place came out shouting its 25,000kip, probably because we are westerners and to them just an opportunity to rip us off, typical of Laos. We tried another place where the price was more reasonable and was written down. There was a big group of Thai tourists who had a feast laid out. When they left, being a group of 5 still very hungry cyclists we asked if we could have the rice, vegetables and meat they left over. The restaurant people look very confused but agreed. Eating real meat and veggies really picked me up, eating nothing but fried or sticky rice was leaving out vital nutrients my body needed this scavenge gave it a few things it needed. I felt much better again.Riding on again we had another huge downhill, being the first down i stopped to wait for the others at a stall where a papaya was being sold, i got one for 2000 kip then carried on to the bottom where there was a village on a river with kids playing. I stopped on the bridge waiting for the others to catch up. When they all arrived having not showered for a couple of days we decided a swim would be a good idea so we locked the bikes and clambered down. Even though there was 5 of us i felt a bit uneasy, the whole village it felt like had come to watch what 4 westerners and an Asian did in a river. Nevertheless we jumped in swam about all be it not with the same skill as the kids were.
Feeling clean we got back in the saddle for another monster hill, this went on for about 15km and rose up about 700 meters. I enjoy hills and strangely enough even though i felt pretty tired i really enjoyed this one. When i arrived at the village which i thought was the top i waited for the others, it was about 15minutes before the first showed up. As it was getting close to dark we hoped to get some water here but with no luck, then the road carried on up, dam it! I hung at the back chatting with Veronica (the german girl) and Athena (the kiwi girl) then came another downhill. I came to a village and i was the first one here, there was a bit of a party going on and a couple drunk villagers came chatting to me. It felt like an age before the others came, i didn’t want to lose face with the villagers so i stood my ground chatting to them, which is pretty difficult when they are sober. One drunk guy wanted to ride my bike, he didn’t seem to understand why i wouldn’t let him. Mattis (the german guy) did show up so i made a quick escape. Light was beginning to fade fast and when we stopped at one place in the search for food a few drops of rain threatened. I rode with Veronica and Athena as Veronica had a good front light. The road was a little greasy from the few drops of rain which had ceased and i had some fun sliding the back end of the bike which isn’t easily done when heavily laden. We stopped to pick up some sticky rice, as we were all short of supplies (well i had enough for me) we decided to make a communal meal. Mattis and Loon were waiting further on and it was pretty dark but they had spotted a hut which we went back to. The hut roof wasn’t in the best condition, if it rained to which there looked a possibility of we’d have a few leaky holes so it was fingers crossed. The meal was the best i have had for an age. We had fried egg, sticky rice, vegetables and my pasta and sauce, and for dessert we used the papaya’s me and Mattis had bought, mixed in some sticky rice and condensed milk, Magnifico!
I decided to test my phone out which has not been liking the Lao sim card, it won’t receive texts or sometimes send them so i gave dad a call, he told me about the massive earthquake that hit Japan, not only because i was planning on going there but because Russell had just gone there it left me feeling very sombre the rest of the night, he also told me Middlesbrough had dropped into the relegation zone of the Championship, there wasn’t any good news.
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