hey everybody! no pressing time restraints now so ill ramble at length, and maybe spell some stuff right.
so trying hard not to get bitten by ramid animals because apparently the rabies shot that we picked up in melbourne does not give immunity but only an extra 24 hours to live or something equally drastic. was biking along past a couple of mangy animals 3 days ago when they started frothing and jumped up to chase me. i stood on the accelerator and gradually outdistanced the fuckers. not too dure what it was about me that they especially didnt like cause lissa just cruised past them and they didnt even look at her. i guess im her shield against rabid animals in payment for the protection that she gives me against mosquitos.
we managed to smash 375 kms in the last 4 days, gradually building up thighs of steel after being thwarted by the vicious terrain south of luang prabang. we were pushed on by the thought of leaving thailand behind us once again i guess, although the northeast is one of the poorest (meaning unindustrialised, undeveloped, untouristed, and unfuckedup) areas in the country so it pretty much forfilled the images that i had in my head of what thailand would be like before going there. it was awesome riding. flatish terrain, a few rolling hills, rice paddies, wallowing water buffalo (i saw one today that had horns stickin out the side of its head that were almost a metre long each!), a few trees for shade and other nice things. we've been pretty much living on mangos from roadside vendors. they cost about 20 cents each. ive become an expert parasite cyclist, hanging onto trucks at traffic lights and intersections and scavenging a few free kilometres before feeling guilty about leaving lissa behind and letting go. we stayed in a place on the banks of the mekong on the thai side last night that really felt like a nz holiday beach town, kinda like castlepoint but bigger. had dinner on a floating boat restaurant thing where locals were catching fish. there must be heaps of them in there cause they were hauling them in as fast as they could bait their lines.
we had an easy 60 km ride today, then over the second friendship bridge on the back of a ute. for some reason we werent able to ride over it, and are now in Savannahket, one of the coolest towns so far visited in laos, making it pretty high up in the running for coolest towns ever (this country rocks). it pretty much hasnt changed since the french colonial era, except for getting more and more rundown. the buildings are all dirty white brown black and orange (usually on the same building), and have broken masonry and falling off wooden shutters. im going to drink lots of coffee tonight prowl the darkened streets like a vampire. this is the perfect place for it. we having are an R&R break here for a few days then heading south to the 4 thousand islands and bolovan plateau and all that to live out the remaining visa time at $2 a night hostels, which are actually much better than their price would suggest.
Aux
howdydoodly, man the last few days riding was mammoth. my butt hurts and all i really want is some wholegrain toast, with crunchy peanut butter, and have some gingerkisses for dessert. Oh yea and it would be nice for a change for people not to think im a local as its getting tiring saying i dont speak the language. aaah well. still going strong though. getting good at smashing up the concrete on my bicycle, would love to invest in a road bike in the near future, sometimes i can even beat aux! but only for a few kms :( oh yea and i have some crazy tan lines which are turning out to be rather shameful.
haha the border crossing in the north from vientiane to nong khai (thailand) was pretty horrendous. i've been told that border crossings should be treated as formal affairs and to arrive nicely presented. this was not so however, after cycling 30kms from vientiane on a dirt road - which turned into a mud road because of the constant rain that day, we arrived muddy, wet, and straggly. to top it off cycling across the friendship bridge i accidentally took some train tracks at the wrong angle and they beat me up pretty bad, the result one very bloody knee to add to the mud and general grime, it seems the friendship bridge didn't wanna be my friend :( we got some funny looks but they let us through and wished us a safe journey in thailand...aaah. although the ride in thailand was fun its nice to be back in relaxing Laos, there's a feeling of calmness already. will stay here for a few days and recover, then its further south :)
Lissa
