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donations
We purposely slowed down in Laos, giving ourselves almost two months to cycle less
than 2000km through the country. From steep climbs in the north to heat waves in the south, our cycling wasn’t without challenges, but extended breaks in Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Pakse and Don Det ensured that days off the bike outnumbered days cycling for the first time in our trip. Among our most treasured memories are the children of Laos who enthusiastically waved and shouted sabaidee whenever they spotted us cycling by, some almost falling over in the process. While we saw little wildlife in what was once the land of a million elephants we were still won over by Laos’ lazy charms.
Here are some facts and figures from our time cycle touring in Laos:
- 1992 km cycled (longest day 125km, several short 8km days on Don Det)
- 48 nights in hotel beds, 5 nights in a apartment, 1 night free-camping
- 30 “rest days” from 54 total days in Laos (that’s a lot of resting!)
- 27 international cycle tourists met (four of them cycled with)
- 10 words of Laos learnt
- 10 Western style meals enjoyed among many days of sticky rice
- 8 domestic elephants spotted and 1 ridden
- 5 caves explored (including a 7km boat ride through Kong Lor cave)
- 4 waterfalls visited
- 4 cups of single estate espresso drunk during our Paksong coffee tour
- 3 vomiting instances (Emma’s last night in Laos wasn’t so fun)
- 2 days wearing socks and sandals (to prevent sunburn, not as fashion)
- 1 cheap Chinese tablet computer purchased (then 3 days to get it working)
- 1 troop of monkeys spotted by Justin
- 1 motorbike ridden (by Justin with no previous experience)
- 1 communal breakfast shared with a rice farmer and friends
- 1 punctured inner tube (a failed patch in Emma’s £4 Chinese tyre)
Justin’s most exciting cave: The 7km boat ride in the pitch black through Kong Lor cave rates as one of the most exciting experiences of my trip. Exiting the cave on the far side to find a German tourist playing a set of Scottish bagpipes to the bemusement of the Laos villagers made it extra memorable.
Emma’s best ice coffee: On a warm day heading south from Xeno I followed the local trend of getting my drink to go, carefully carrying a carrier bag of ice, condensed milk and coffee on my handlebars until the ice had diluted the super sweet concoction. Possibly the best cyclist fuel I’ve come across.
related posts to “Laos By Numbers”
Day Of Food – Laos
The food in Laos outside the more touristic towns consists of the staple noodles and rice prepared in a few different ways. In small villages the options are normally limited with us taking whatever is on offer supplemented with our own supply of biscuits and fresh fruit. The addition of sticky rice to the stir-fried and steamed variety has been great with us often carrying a plastic bag of this as snack food. – Posted by Justin
Merry Christmas From Laos
The second Christmas ‘on the road’ finds us taking a pause at Kingfisher Ecolodge in Laos, where we’ve stretched our budget for a few days of watching elephants and buffalo stroll across the wetlands from our secluded porch. With not even a Christmas tree or elevator-style carols to disturb the tranquillity, we suspect this would be a great place to get away from the madness of the season. We managed to sneak in a little bit of the Christmas spirit with Santa visiting our bungalow in the night, delivering food-based presents in a familiar looking red backpack. – Posted by Emma
Vietnam By Numbers
Only having five cycling days in Vietnam we had just a brief glimpse of what the country has to offer. Finding ourselves in Kunming, China with time to spare we found we could cycle a tiny corner of Vietnam to the Tay Trang border crossing to Laos, also increasing our country count to 15. Spending as much time in the tourist friendly town of Sa Pa as tiny rural villages meant we had little chance to learn much Vietnamese but we did take every opportunity to sample the new types of food on offer. Friendly children shouting hello and cute free roaming animals helped with the steep hill climbs as did the occasional thunder storm that drenched us in minutes. – Posted by Justin
Russia By Numbers
A month of forests, cities and trains was followed by a month of mountains and rivers as we travelled from Sochi to Moscow, Moscow to Perm and Novosibirsk to the Mongolian border. While we’ve pedalled more kilometres through Russia than any other country so far, we’ve barely scraped the surface and this has given us a real sense of the vastness of the world’s largest country. – Posted by Emma
China By Numbers
We had only a basic idea of what we would find in China, with a change in diet after our cycling in Mongolia one of our highest priorities. After spending almost three months cycle touring in China we barely scraped the surface of the incredibly diverse and complicated country. We experienced some of the worst roads and most challenging terrain of our journey so far, but we also experienced and learnt about a number of distinct cultures. We experienced firsthand the environmental challenges China faces while cycling on traffic and smog choked roads but also bathed in the unspoilt beauty of national forest parks and the mountain landscapes of the Tibetan plateau. – Posted by Justin
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