Laos

They drive on the right-hand side of the road, some of the signs are in French, they serve baguettes, and their money is confusing. Those are my initial impressions of Laos.

After two days of biking across the very top of the country, I've seen a bunch more. It's poor, much poorer than Thailand. The villages don't seem to have electricity, and food on the road is hard to come by since there are barely any vehicles on the road. Most of the cars we see have Chinese plates.

But everywhere we pass (I say we since I met up with two old guy bikers who are going toward China too) the people are encouraging and friendly. You'll hear someone say “Falang” to a family member, which is the term for (western?) foreigner, and they look up in amusement. And in every singly village, no exaggeration, every kid waves and shouts from their house porches “byebye” or “sahbyedee” (hello). In a few places the kids ran after the bikes. It's neat.

And is it ever tough biking. Sheesh, the first day to a very simple stop in Viangphekha, saw three intense hills, one that went on forever. Add in about 20km of gravel road and a hotter than normal sun and it was quite the day. But it was unusually clear (often there is a dust haze since it's the dry season) and in Laos they haven't clearcut all the trees for farming so there are huge trees everywhere so the scenery was rather astonishing. And the Beer Lao tasted great!

Today was much easier, slept in a bit, had a stop at a huge cave, and mostly downhill to a nice little town called Luang Namtha. It's a popular traveller spot for trekking in the hills, though I am a little undecided about whether to fork over the dough for such an experience. The nice thing about biking is you see the villages and the villagers working in the hills and pass through the forests and scenic hills and it's basically free. In fact, getting in early to Louang Namtha, I'm trying to remember what I usually do in cities. Would I rather be biking? Once you fall into the pattern, and get used to the bike seat, it's an incredibly enjoyable way to travel. You don't spend much, but you see a lot. Best of all, you never have to deal with the taxi-touts from the bus stations, or bumpy buses in general. And it makes basically any type of food taste incredible.

Maybe I'm just getting nostalgic since this is the end. I have one day I can spend trekking out here in Laos, and then one more day of biking, a triumphant ride into China at the Boten/Mohan crossing. From there, I have allotted 3.5 days to get up to Chengdu where I'll be lining up all the teaching details. It's maybe 1500km, and it looks like it'll be a bit of bus-leap frog. Don't no what to expect and don't have much of a plan but I'll get there.

Incidently, I might go dark for a few days since I believe blogspot is on the other side of the Great Firewall of China. Regardless, I am unbelievably excited about teaching and exploring and having a home. When you hear from me next it'll hopefully be from an apartment in Leshan City, Sichuan!