NEW Photos from the Laos journey

People ask me why I write much but do not show many pictures. The answer in this case was simple, I had to wait until I was home because I had no chances to add photos to my blog. Anyway, here's a few from Laos! Enjoy!

The new road between Luang Nam Tha and
Huay Xai

Fishing in the river in Luang Prabang

Village neat
Oudomxai

Luang Prabang, full of beautiful old temples

Barbeque in
Vientianne Mekong riverside

 

The road was bad on the way to
Vieng Poukkha



Children somewhere on the road in a dirt village

Bad Roads in North Laos

Tyre completely teared out

Bad luck with my tyre

NEW Again Jim.....

Jim, as my friends know is my bicycle. Together we have traveled almost 72.000 km. No wonder that every once in a while we have troubles. Over the years we had quite some arguments, you may read Jim's story here to get the full picture.

This time there were again some troubles. On the way to Chiang Mai I heard cracks somewhere in Jim. I suspected it was this time the frame itself. You can argue what you want but Jim, with his 6 and a half years and 72.000 km starts to feel the years. That was at least the message I got in a bicycle shop in Chiang Mai. However, the guys from Pro Bike in Bangkok thought different. To be sure, they said, we have to get the bike in pieces and determine the problem. But I didn't have time to spend so long in Bangkok. Thus I went back to Penang.

In Georgetown, at Carnavon Road is a bicycle shop ownen by Gary Yap. And he and hsi staff known what and how to maintain a good bike. So I told them my problems. And guess what!? It was the back wheels hub! Some of the bullets inside the hub where broken. They told me I was lucky I was just on time. They gave me new bullets and it ran as new. But I had another little problem.

Earlier this year I had replaced the old crank axle with a 2005 Shimano Deore LX. It felt good but now it felt not really good anymore. So the guys took the crank in pieces and what was the problem? The red dust from north Laos! Clean again, I continued the last part of this journey to my friend David in Parit Buntar. Yes, I have written about David before. Here's HIS website

And then tomorrow I will be back home in Sitiawan. I am full of new ideas and there's a lot of work to do. In some of the next items on this blog I will put some photos from this last journey. Keep in touch!

NEW Back in Bangkok

The journey is almost over. I have spend a day in cycling and walking around in Chiang Mai. One thing stuck me. There are a few big and busy streets in Chiang Mai but the areas in between those roads, even in the middle of the city, are surprisingly quiet. No big buildings, no hard traffic, just peaceful and quiet. In that sense it seems nothing has changed over the years.

I had a sleeper train to Bangkok. As usual it's reasonable comfortable. I always enjoy trains.

In Bangkok I searched contact with Miss Eng, one of the two sisters who run a great website about Bangkok: www.lets-tour-bangkok.com. I was hoping to meet her and have a chat about websites and how to improve my (and thus there's) websites. It became much more. We had a great chat about ouir both websites, compared the way we provide information. Eng turned out to be a funny woman with a great sense of humor.

The big bonus for me was a few things we did apart of the 4 (four!) hours chatting about our both websites: we had a great lunch in a little restaurant which no one except locals will be able to find. The noodles were terrific. But the dinner we had was even better. Again a great but very different noodle dish in a dead end street restaurant only a local would be able to find. And yet, it's not far from the Victoy Monument!

Eng was now accompanied by her sister Buoy. The idea came up to visit a puppet theatre play. I have seen puppet plays in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia but this one was by far the best perfomance. Three people controling the puppet. The story was a Hindoe story about the battle between the Gods and the Demons. And although there were about 7 puppets used in the play it felt like there were dozens in the story.

In the end of the play two puppets went into the audience. The monkeygod Hanuman had seen my bald head and made the audience laugh with his funny jones. Hanuman in many Hindustories is a kind of joker, a funny character. And thanks to Eng I was able to visit this great play.

I would anyone reading this encouraging to visit Eng's website www.lets-tour-bangkok.com and when visiting Bangkok give her a visit. Eng and her sister seem to know some little known gems in the city. Highly recommended.

NEW Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, I was here in 1990, I think. Jeezzz... things have changed in 16 years. Although I have been before in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, I have never traveled the road I have cycled the last days.

It all started when I crossed the Huay Xai border. I was back in cvilization, in some ways at least. The roads were again of excellent quality. Food was plenty and ATM's available. I bought some bananas and made my start for Chiang Rai. Such a lovely landscape I was passing now. To the east there were the Lao mountains, in the west, the hills that would lead me to Chiang Rai. And in between it was all paddy fields. The road was quiet, the villages slow, the weather lovely. In fact, this is what makes cycling so nice. If all roads on earth were like this one, everybody would ride bicycles.

There were hardly climbs. A dozen kilometers before Chiang Rai I passed a big lake, took a little detour around the lake and spend a night in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is sometimes seen as the little brother (or sister if you want) of Chiang Mai. Right or wrong, I can't tell. I can however tell the nightmarket is quite big and the usual stuff you buy in Chiang Mai, you find here too. But without all the heaps of tourists.

I left Chiang Rai for a 105km ride to Mae Kacham. Some people told me I would be able to find a hotel there. It was more or less in the middle between Chiang Rai and Chiang Rai, so it seemed ok to me. Most of the road was flat with the exception of some kilometers where it was hard work on short though steep climbs. Most of this journey was however in the valley between two mountain ranges.

The hotel in Mae Kacham was nothing much but I had a bed and a shower. And in the morning I left again in the pouring rain the little one street town. It was "only" 81 km to Chiang Mai but the map had already told me I had to cross the Chinag Rai mountains. To my surprise it never became really difficult. It was a quiet and scenic road. Did I say scenic?In fact I couldn't see much about it because of the rain. But I was happy, happy that the rain didn't coem to me when I was on the way from, Nam Tha to Huay Xai!

And Chiang Mai was indeed only 81 km. I was back in this major tourist center of Thailand after 16 years. And after 1500 km cycling aince I left Sitiawan, I felt I needed some rest. So tomorrow I will explore Chiang Mai and I will tell you what I found out about Chiang Mai!

NEW From Heaven into Hell

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.

NEW To Luang Nam Tha

SOme days are harder then others. But some days are strange. This was one of those days. The first 80 km went on so so roads. It went also going up to just over 1000 mete. The climbing was difficult, it was as if someone was all the time hanging on my back rack. But after the lunch I was flying over a new excellent Highway 3. I say Highway, it is a highway but there's hardly traffic. If all roads were like this one, we cyclist would rule the world.

I enjoy usually climbing but if the body or Jim doesn't want to coorporate, it's hard. In todays case it seemed the road wasn't cooprorating.

NEW The road to Oudomxai

The road to Oudomxai from Luang Prabang consists of two stages. This time I cycled on a new back tire out of Luang Prabang. Not a hard road until kilometer 70 where the road started swindling up. Nothing really serious but enough to sweat. I reached Pak Mong without problems, had me a hot shower! and a good noodle soup and earned thus some rest.

The next day was the second of the Great Rides. It all started on and off going uphill for 30 km to over 1200 meter, the last 20 km solely climbing. In the first part of the climb the hills are closer around and you follow the river. But after 10 km in the climb you come out of the valley in the light. It's another 10 km climbing to the top. The surrounding is green, nothing much to photograph but still still beautiful.

After the top it's another 50 km to Oudomxai. It starts with 16 km descending through little Hmong villages. Sabadee, sabadee is following you (hello in Lao)

Sometimes I passed trucks, who were not happy see me passing. The second climb of the day is shorter but in my case not easier. It's hard to explain why it was difficult, it wasn't steep or long, I had eaten enough so no hunger knock out. It was simply one of those days it didn't go good enough.

But I reached Oudomxai, found me a nice little and very comfortable guesthouse and had some Lao coffee and bread and cheese (jeezzz.... I miss good bread in Malayia sometimes, here's plenty of good French baquets)

To be continued....