Thailand Laos Trip: Post 3

Touring trip through Northern Thailand and Laos.

The three of us left Chiang Rai heading for the Laos border with our bikes on top of a loaded bus heading for the border. Buses in Laos are not like buses back home, they do not have scheduled drop off or pick up points. Locals will stand on the side of the road and wave down the bus, pay the fare to the next town and get off. People will randomly get on and off the bus the entire route.

Story inside,
When we arrived at Thai customs we realized that we would have to cross the Mekong to Laos in small boats. We unloaded our gear from our bikes and loaded everything into a boat.


To cross the Mekong it took maybe ten minutes and it was more expensive than the bus ride to the border. But I guess when it is the only way to get into Laos they can charge what ever they want.



Border towns in Asia do not really have much going for them. We grabbed some lunch and then started looking into prices for the bus from the border to Luang Nam Tha. The prices that we were quoted at the border were a little bit crazy so we headed for the bus station nine kilometers out of town.




It was late afternoon when we admitted that we had ridden farther than nine kilometers and missed the bus station. We decided to ride until dark, set up the tent and hang out for the night.



As the sun went down we were still riding. As the night got darker, the hills got a lot steeper. We did not want to set up the tent in the mountains as it would have been too cold to get any sleep.



We probably rode for thirty or forty kilometers in the dark. Up hills and down hills for hours with nothing but the light from the moon and our cheap bike lights. For long sections the road was chewed up gravel and several times I had to stop to pick up something that had fallen off my bike. I lost my rear light a couple of times and had to go back for that too.


My legs were pretty much finished when we got out of the mountains. We set up our tent in the yard of a small school, slept for a couple of hours and woke up before dawn.



We were on our bikes before the sun came up and pedaled uphill for most of the day. I do not think I have ever ridden uphill for so long in my whole life. Every corner we turned there was more hill to ride up. Even the anticipation of the downhill to come could not keep my mind off the pain in my legs and the hunger in my stomach.


Village after village there was nothing to eat and nothing to drink. We were running out of water and running out of energy from climbing all day.



We stopped in a small village and found a place to buy snacks. The entire village met us with a mixture of curiosity and fear. They would came close enough to touch us and then retreat to the rear of the group. It was amazing to have such an effect on an entire village.


We finally got the downhill we had worked so hard for and spent the heat of the day bathing in a small creek. It was nice to be able to wash after being on a bike for two days.



We rode the last four kilometers into town and the bus to Luang Nam Tha was waiting there. We loaded our bikes on top of the bus and slept the fifty kilometers to Luang Nam Tha.

I never imagined that it would take so much effort to travel two hundred kilometers. I never imagined it would take so much energy to climb a hill.

The plan is to do a couple of day trips from Luang Nam Tha and then to head by bus the four hundred kilometers to Luang Pra Bang. We are running out of time and there are a couple more places we want to visit before we have to leave.

From Northern Laos, Keep Riding

Rob, James, Morgan

more pictures: home-team.pinkbike.com/album/Thailand-and-Laos
more words: www.bansheebikes.blogspot.com

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