Luang Nam Tha in North Laos is an oasis of peace and quietness. The small town is located in a long streched valley. It's green and vertile. Cycling into the valley was great, cycling through the valley brought me in contact with a French guy Herve (
see his website here)He came from China and was on his way south, just were I came from. We spoke a bit and both moved on. Luang Nam Tha had not changed much. A few more guesthouses but it was still the same sleepy town as I remembered from 6 years ago.
In the morning of my leave I met another Frenmch couple, cycling with both their children. Chantal and Gils take their young kids with them on a six month cycling journey in south east Asia. And truly amazing! They have a blog (
here it is and although it's still in process, it's worth a visit.
After 20 km on the way south the road turned into a mud road. A few hundred meters in the dirtroad I got stuck knee deep in the mud. But I was lucky. A truck was more then a meter deep in the mud. And I knew I had still another 170 km to Huay Xai!
My luck ran out as my front tyre completely teared up. The side of the tyre showed a big bubble of the tube. No way I could continue cycling. And hitching on a road with virtually no traffic? I had a problem. But, problems are there to be solved. And within 20 minutes a songthaw passed and took me to Vieng Poukha. And in Poukha my luck continues, I found NEW Made in China tyre! I could continue the next day.
I stayed in this little trading village. Nothing much, even the food was very poor with sticky rice and vegetable soup (well.. boiled water with veggies in it).
The next leg would bring me to a village 60km further. Unfortunately the road was still bad and it became worse. The road construction is now in full swing, which means the road is even worse then normal. And the climbings never stop. I struggled 8 hours and had done 82 km's. It was now 4pm and there was no sign of any village with guesthouse so I had to continue to Huay Xai, another 45 km's. And there was no way I could reach that town before sunset. I decided to hitch the last mountain. Glad I did that. The next 10km the road became worse then ever before. The pick up truck that had taken me did ove that 10km a full hour.
But after the mountain the road went beautiful and I decided to cycle the last 30 km. I should be able to that and reach Huay Xai before sunset. Maybe I would have made it before sunset IF the road had been excellent all 30 km. But it weas only great for 10km and then turned back into mud, red sand and dust.
By now I didn't feel anything anymore. My legs were like rubber things doing things on their own. Fun? The only fun I found where the moments I stopped to cool my feet in the running cool water. I had to clean Jim a few times that day but when I finally arrived in Huay Xai, I had to clean him twice in the shower of the hotel room and still he wasn't clean!
And so was I, and my clothes. That night I dropped dead in bed and slept 11 hours straight.