2000km and counting

So, two days ago, en route to Vang Vieng, we completed 2000km, about which we are all rather chuffed.

Since my last post, we have enjoyed some absolutely spectacular cycling and our thigh muscles have grown somewhat exponentially with endless ascents and descents up and down some of the steepest and longest mountains thus far encountered. Once my bike was finally fixed, we left Luang Prabang and headed south. After a couple of days cycling we dog-legged to the west, to the ‘Plain of Jars’ which is a rather sobering place famous not only for its huge ancient jars spread across the parched landscape, about which no-one knows a thing, but also for the extraordinary amount of unexploded ordnance in the area, dropped by the Americans during the Vietnam War. One village has had the bomb disposal squad out 18 times in the past couple of years but continue to find further bombs in their fields, school playgrounds and roads. Our children were kept on a short leash at all times and although we enjoyed our time there, I was constantly uneasy. I can’t imagine living there.

We then carried on south, through some extraordinary karst mountains, to Vang Vieng. I went to Vang Vieng twelve years ago, and it was a laid-back small town with one main street, a few traveller restaurants and a couple of quiet back roads that you could explore by bike. Fast forward to 2011 and it has grown into the backpacker centre of Laos, complete with LOTS of very young, very drunk backpackers who spend their time either 'tubing' down the river (floating in a truck's inner tube), stopping en route at various bars or eating 'happy pizzas' (ie those laced with dope) in restaurants playing endless re-runs of Family Guy and Friends. Funnily enough, we didn't exactly blend in. To be fair we had heard awful things about it and the reality was not as bad as the stories had led us to believe but still, it was a bit of culture shock after some of the more out of the way places we had been. Some places are probably best left to memory and not re-visited.

We are now in Vientiane, having spent today heading south in a songthaew (kind of like a jeep) as our visas run out tomorrow and we have to nip over to Thailand to renew. First impressions of Vientiane are very promising, with lots of French influenced cafes and patisseries, shaded sidewalks and quiet temples.