Lao

Lao is the sleeping beauty of Southeast Asia. Quiet, relaxed and pretty basic. Fantastic mountain landscapes and in the middle the Mekong river as the main north south connection route. The road traffic was less intense then in Thailand, the roads are well maintained and the people lovely and welcoming but more reserved then in the other Southeast Asian countries I have visited. The cycling through the mountains was great. It’s just never flat though.

I met two other cyclists, the day before I came into Laos. Two young fellows, Jacob from England and Alex a French Canadian. They told me about their Myanmar adventures. They cycled through the country free camping and staying in temples overnight. Getting in touch with the very welcoming monks helping them out with useful information’s, sheltering and feeding them. I wanted to share the same experiences. So I joined them. They were fun to travel and staying with them pushed me a bit out of my comfort zone. I had too many nights indoors in solid beds and it was good to camp again and let things happen without big planning. The first night already we camped in a school yard, other days inside temples or camped in front. I got a little sense about the everyday lives of the monks, some of them spoke English pretty ok to get a little conversation going. Temples are spiritual places and the monks try to live up to the expectation of the Buddhist religion. But it’s not the idealized live we westerners have in mind when thinking of the purity and spirituality of far eastern religions and lifestyle. Many monks carry smartphones under their cloths and a television can be found next to the Buddha statue in some places. The temples fulfil a social purpose as well. Taking care of orphan kids or kids of poor families. Usually religion is not playing a major role in communist countries, but in Lao it does.

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Travelling in Southeast Asia was time for me to relax and wait till the winter in central Asian and China is over. I still had enough time and decided to cycle a bit south to Luang Prabang the old imperial city of Lao. The city is a little jewel surrounded by mountains on the mighty Mekong River. Old houses, little restaurants and cafes and temples everywhere. You still feel the colonial French influence when it comes to food. The most important thing, good coffee, is available and also baguette, because bread is not so common in Asia. After a little holiday I got back to “work” and took a boat upstream the Mekong River to Pakbeng. That made a little loop out of the trip down to Luang Prabang and I didn’t had to cycle the same way up north another time. The ferry ride was scenic but cold and shaky and I was worried about the most important thing in live, my bicycle, just tied down with a small rope on top of the ferryboat. Anyway, bike and me made it and from now on the direction was set: Northeast to Vietnam!

Vietnam

The reason why I went to Vietnam was to make the trip through china shorter and give me more time to cross it. So I just cut off the northernmost tip of Vietnam and did not see much of the rest. I came in from Lao down a mountain pass over endless rice fields into Dien Bien Phu. By the way the place where the whole Vietnam War started. First of all I was surprised how the 70 000 people living there could make so much noise. Scooters and cars honking as hell and the big trucks almost honk you off the road. The whole country was preparing for the Tet celebrations. It’s the Vietnamese and Chinese new year, according to the moon calendar. Everyone was busy organizing presents or transporting bamboo trees or a peach tree home which are a substantial thing for the celebrations. People were already warning me, that most of the shops and restaurants will be closed for the next week.

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Anyway, I decided to continue so my route took me further north. The road lead me over mountain passes and beautiful valleys to the area around the highest mountain in whole Southeast Asia mount Phan Xi Pang. The mountain is over 3000m high and the road climbed up to 2035m. I felt like being home in Tirol again. Due to the Tet celebrations I expected it being hard to find places to stay overnight. That was not the case, but all the restaurants were closed or only open for private guests and family. The Vietnamese people, most of them dressed in traditional colourful clothing, helped me out every time though. On private tables the hungry cyclist was welcome and after a few cups of whiskey I felt like one of them.