Day Eight

What an early start today.  Up at 4am, out of the hotel by 5 and on a flight to Pakse by 6:30.  I slept on the plane as much as I could and of course, someone managed to get an embarrassing photo of it.  Once we landed, the bus and our bikes were waiting for us.  It was a short trip on the bus to downtown Pakse where we could get into our cycling gear and start our 40km ride for the day.  Actually, it turned out to be more like 60km, but more about that in a minute.  Unlike the weather in Nonghet, which was mostly cold and raining, the weather here is stinking hot.  We mounted our bikes and were off.

The terrain here is very different to Nonghet as well.  In Pakse it is very flat whereas Nonghet, being mountainous, is very hilly.  I welcomed the change as I prefer to be hot than wet and cold, not to mention that I'm also not a fan of hills, I'd much rather go fast.  As is turning out to be a bit of a theme of this trip, the day was not without its dramas.  As we set off, Tanya was having problems with the gear changes on her bike so she had to stop to have it looked at.  This of course meant she was significantly further behind the rest of the group.  She stayed there with Kristen as she always stays at the back of the last person in our group. Further along, Rachel had a problem with her chain I believe so she also stopped to have it fixed and this put her further behind as well.  For those of us that were further along, being led by Tong, our guide, we made a left hand turn at a fairly busy intersection on the way to Wat Phu, a pre-Angkorian temple that is one of the most important Khmer sites in Laos. Once the others that were further back caught up they missed the turn off and kept riding in the wrong direction.  After a short time, it seems that Tanya and Kristan stopped along with the support vehicle, but by this stage, Rachel was already much further along in the wrong direction.  There are several issues as to why they were able to miss the turn off, but the principle one in my mind is that the driver of the support vehicle that was with them didn't even know the way and hence he didn't know they had to turn at that intersection.  Anyway, a smaller group of us travelling in the right direction had kept cycling towards Wat Phu.  In the meantime, the remainder of the group had stayed behind to wait for Kristen, Tanya nad Rachel.  Eventually, they worked out that they made a wrong turn and they had Kristen and Tanya on the bus, but Rachel was still missing.  After a lengthy search in the support vehicles, Rachel was found close to the Thailand border; she'd just kept cycling.  Meanwhile, the group of us that kept going were told to stop with about 10km to go.  After a lengthy wait, we were told to cycle back.  We met up with the rest of our group that was going the right way and were told the story I've just outlined above.  Given everyone was OK and accounted for, and Kristen and Tanya were on the bus with Rachel on the way, we made the decision to go to Wat Phu and have Rachel meet us there.

Wat Phu is a very interesting place.  It is effectively ruins of a temple (or a few temples really) that were around a long time ago.  The temple used to be a Hindu temple, but is now a Buddhist one.  The ruins have incredible artwork carved into the stone all around the ruins.  The main temple is the one at the top of some very old, very uneven stairs which nearly killed me to get up after the 50km ride to get there.  It is worth the climb though as the scenery is spectacular and there are some stone carvings that are very well crafted.  We spent some time there before heading back down though tretcherous stairs and getting back on our bikes.  We cycled another 10km roughly to where the boats were waiting to take us across the Mekong river to where we would spend the night; La Folie Lodge.  This place is situated on an island in the middle of the Mekong.  It's quite a nice restaurant and we spend some time just winding down in the pool before dinner.  Prior to crossing over to the island, one of our people realised that her bag was not on the boat and that it was on the bus going back to Pakse I presume.  We had a quite call to the driver to come back with it before we crossed.  It was a touch and go moment there for a while because we weren't sure it would actually be on the bus, but thankfully it was.

All up, not a bad day considering how horribly it could have worked out.  We also managed to cycle about 60km on a day that should only have been 40km.  That's good because we had some riding to make up since we had a couple of very wet days.  Tomorrow will be our biggest ride day.  90km of riding and also our last full day in Laos.  We are going to the 4000 islands tomorrow making our way towards Cambodia.  Two pictures today.  The first is the main temple at Wat Phu after the crazy stair climb and the other is the boats that we crossed the river on to get to Don Daeng where the hotel is.

Day Seven

A leasurely day today.  Given that the Sport and Play team had done most of our video work last night, we had a bit of a sleep in this morning. We met for breakfast about 8:30 and then worked a little bit more on our video to finalise a few things.  We then packed our bags for the hour long drive back to Phonsavan to catch a plane to Vientiane.  Our ChildFund hosts who had been with us for the last couple of days and our Lao guides joined us.  We stopped for lunch along the way and the headed for the airport.  The flight was very short, only about 30 minutes.  Once we landed, it was straight to the hotel to dump our bags and meet again for a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city.

The tour was also very rushed as we had a very tight agenda to keep.  We visited the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe.  They call it Patuxay; Patu meaning victory and xay meaning gate.  They aren't as proud of the their Arc it would seem, but maybe something has been lost in translation.  There is a sign on the Arc that reads as follows

"At the northeastern end of the LaneXang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe.  It is the Patuxay or Victory Gate of Vientiane, built in 1962 (B.E. 2505), but never completed due to the country's turbulent history.  From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete.  Nowadays this place is used as a leisure ground for the people of Vientiane and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as an excellent view point over the city"

Having recently been at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, there are many similarities with this one.  It shouldn't come as a surprise since the French had a massive incluence on the country and I believe actually built this one.  There are nice gardens surrounding the Patuxay and inside has been set up as a market for all sorts of tourist trinkets to buy.  Whilst it is less impressive than the Arc in Paris, I think it is actually quite impressive.  We left there and went to see a building that some believe to contain the remains of Buddha.  It is in the shape of a an object that our guide keeps referring to as a stupor.  The custom here is that when people die, their cremated remains are contained in one of these "stupors" like an urn.  The size if the "stupor" is proportional to the wealth of the person.  The building itself was very large and covered in a golden finish.  We took some photos and the was pretty much the end of the tour.

After freshening up at the hotel, we were out to dinner where we were going to view the videos each of the teams had made and a winner would be chosen.  After each video was played, we had a discussion about the issues and our impressions of what we had seen the issues were in each of the areas.  The videos were quite impressive given the short amount of time we had to put them together.  I'm happy to say that the Sport and Play team, that I was credited as being the editor of, won the best video.  As a prize, we were given a small bottle of the local rice whiskey.  I'm sure it won't last long.  We all had dinner together in an amazing Lao restaurant.  It was Lao food from Vientiane and is a bit different from what we've had so far and it was sensational.  After dinner, we had to say goodbye to our hosts from ChildFund that had been so great to us during our time here over the last few days.  Thank you so much for your hospitality, time and generosity.  We had a quick trip to the night markets before calling it a night.  We have a very early start in the morning as we have a flight to catch to Pakse where we will get back on the bikes again.

The picture below was on the bus that picked us up from the airport and took us on the tour of the city.  We felt very special.

Day Six

Another incredible day has come and gone.  This morning started out with a visit to the Vice Govenor of the district of Nonghet.  We say down in the council rooms where all the big decisions for the district are made and he sat with Chris Mastaglio at the front on the stage.  I can't remeber his name, but he was a Doctor and was married with seven children if my memory serves me correct.  He was keen to ensure that he knew a little about each of us which meant that we had a lengthy introduction where we all told him our name, city we were from and our marital status.  He them proceeded to tell us about the region and the work that ChildFund has been doing to provide a better quality of living for the villagers in Nonghet.  One of the key bits of information that stuck in my mind was that he was particularly pleased with the pace that ChildFund gets things done. In his words, the other NGOs working in the district took too long.  We drank green tea, that was brought to us while the vice govenor spoke,  and listened intently to what he had to say.  Once we were done, we had a quick photo in front of a monument to the first leader of Laos after the war and then went back to the guest house we were staying in to pack and head off to another village.

Our first stop at the village was at the school that ChildFund helped build in this area.  The kids were still in class when we got there so we were able to observe what they were learning and how.  The classrooms were more or less what you would expect in a western school.  Kids had texts books, there were posters on the wall, they kids art and craft were on display and there was a blackboard for the days lesson.  In addition, there was a table filled with fruit and vegetables in the health corner that was being used to teach the kids about nutrition, which can be a problem in the villages.  In one of the classrooms, they were learning English and there was a poster on the blackboard with the Alphabet.  A particularly confident boy agreed to say the Alphabet for us and he did very well.  We reciprocated by singing the ABC song to them.  In yet another classroom, the kids sang a song in the Mong language for us, which was very beautiful.  Soon after we finished visiting the classrooms, it was play time for the kids, although I suspect they were let out a little earlier than usual because of our visit.  We had an absolute blast with the kids.  We played soccer with a whole group of kids and taught them the "keepings off" game that we played for almost the whole time we were there.  More and more kids would come and join us, including the girls, which was great to see, and they were really good.  Other group of us was in a different part of the playground doing some hopscotch with a different group of kids and that game turned in to a stick jumping game that Kristen had invented on the spot.  I'm not sure who had more fun; us or the kids.

When it was time to go, we all jumped back in the vans and went to the house of the chief villager for yet another welcoming feast.  This one was very similar to yesterday with some subtle differences.  What I neglected to mention about yesterdays meal is that at the beginning of each meal, the elder will bless the food and there will be a round of the local rice whiskey.  Additionally, the people of the village would follow what we were told was an old Hindu tradition of tying a strands of cotton around the wrist of each person and say a blessing for that people, whether is be good health or safe travels, money or otherwise.  As many of the villagers are participating in this exercise, you end up with multiple cotton bracelets.  I liked this tradition as it is something that in the west we have largely forgotten how to do, that is, bless our fellow man or woman and pray for their wellbeing.  The meal consisted of egg, chicken, chilli (different from yesterday, but still very hot), green vegetables, rice, banana and some packaged treat, which seems completely out of place with the rest of the meal so I don't know why it is there (I must remember to ask about that).  To put into perspective how special this meal was for us, I discovered that normally, they would only eat meat 2-3 times a month and here they were, probably giving up their meat for this month, to feed 20 or so complete strangers.  That's the type of hospitality that is common throughout Laos, not just in the villages we are visiting.  During the meal, there were several more rounds of the rice whiskey being offered as well as more singing and dancing traditional to the Mong people.  I felt very privileged to be there.

It was soon time to go again and we all hopped back in the vans to go see a local waterfall.  This did not actually eventuate as the road was too muddy and slippery to drive the vans through.  We even tried to walk it, but it got to a point where even that was not possible any more so we had a long uphill walk back to the vans in drove into the centre of Nonghet.  I've not mentioned it yet, but before we came to Nonghet yesterday, Chris talked to us about how they are trying to use media in many different ways to get various messages across to the villagers as there can be a language barrier sometimes and it is also a more entertaining medium.  So while we are in Nonghet and making these visits to the villages, Chris split us into three teams and gave each team a video camera. Each team was to focus on telling the story of how three programs they have been working on in the area has affected the lives of the children there. These programs are Water and Sanitation (of course), Education and Sport and Play (my team).  The videos will be used to make a short film that we will edit ourselves and present to the other teams and ChildFund staff tomorrow night.  So when we got back to the centre of Nonghet, we started planning the storyboard of the video we were going to make and download the footage we'd been getting over the last day and a half.

We had one final stop to make before heading to our hotel for the night.  It was to the youth sporting facility that ChildFund set up in Nonghet to encourage children to have time to play and learn about exercise, health and fitness.  The centre also works with the kids to make sure that they are managing their time so that they are not spending all their spare time at the centre, but also doing their homework, helping around the house, etc.  Apart from that, the centre is important as it keeps the kids aways from drugs and alcohol, that can be a problem in these communities.  The centre is largely run by the kids themselves who plan the activities they are going to do, they types of sports they will play, etc.  Football and volleyball are among the favourites.  The children who help run the centre are also learning about the rules of the sports and games they play and will go on to teach their teachers and the smaller children also.  When we arrived, I was pleased to see a clear area, although very uneven, with a goal at either end.  The kids had organised for us to have a football match and of course, I had to join in.  We had a wonderful match of 7 a side football, which ended in a 1-1 draw.  A pleasing result for team ChildFund (i.e. the Aussies) as we really should have had our butts kicked.  Our goal came through a shot that was deflected off their defender and the goalkeeper couldn't hold on to it, whereas on the other side of the pitch, the shots were coming regularly.  If it wasn't for our Lao guide and goalkeeper, Tong, and the fact that they kept putting their shots wide, we would have been anihalated.  It was very enjoyable and it had been a long time since I've played a competitive game of football, but I think I did a hammy.  I'm not having a good run with the injuries.

We said our goodbyes and thanks and we were back on the busses to go to our hotel for the night.  We were supposed to spend the night in the guest house again, but since we didn't get to spend much time at the hot springs yesterday, the group decided that we would take up the suggestion to stay in the rooms at the hot spring for an extra few dollars each.  So when we got there, it was straight in to the pools for some down time.  We had dinner, worked on our video for tomorrow and went to bed.  Tomorrow we fly out of Nonghet and begin our time in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  The picture for today is of us playing keepings off with the kids at the school.  Oh, and my finger is now even more interesting colours.



Day Five

The weather was a marginally better today, but it was good enough for us to go riding which is the best bit.  After breakfast we saddled up and cycled towards the hot springs on the way to Nonghet.  Chris and Yeiha (not sure how to spell it) from ChildFund joined us on the ride.  It didn't take too long to get to the springs over the undulating hills, but some of us were slightly disappointed at what we saw.  When someone says hot springs, the first thing that comes to mind is a natural pool that is filled hot mineral spring waters.  What we got was a hand full of concrete pools that were filled from the hot springs nearby and they weren't even full.  In any case, the local people managing the pools began filling one up while we got changed.  Being on a strict time schedule, we didn't have very long there, but it was enough to relax for a little bit before having to get changed to go to one of the villages in Nonghet that Childfund is working in various capacities.  We all had to make sure we had pant that covered our knees and shirts that covered our shoulders, which was fine with me because it's cold here.  We jumped in the vans and off we were.

We drove the vans as far as we could before having to get out and walk the rest of the way.  It was a 25 minute, mostly uphill, trek to the village.  We waved to many locals along the way, particularly children, who were just as interested in us as we were in them.  This is not a place where tourist tend to come and visit.  It's not that they shouldn't, but most wouldn't even know they are there.  Anyway, back to the village.  As we arrived, the first site that catches your eye is the big beautiful school that ChildFund built in the village.  The children were on a lunch break so we weren't able to see them all in class, but it was impressive nonetheless.  We walked further in and were greeted by an ever growing number of people from the village wanting to see the visitors that had come here.  Whilst we were looking at the school, I noticed several people carrying what looked like bench seats from the school into the village.  When we came around the corner, we found out why.  They had set a very large table for us all to sit at to have lunch.  The stools were for us to sit on as they had already brought the tables for us to receive our meal on.  The women of the village had been busy preparing our meal while the kids played and the men greeted us.

Once we were seated, two elders were sat down at the head of the table and it was announced that they would be telling us about life before and after the war.  These gentlemen were 75 years old and could recall two wars in their lifetime; first when the Frech took control of the country and second the Vietnam war.  They spoke about the simple life they all lived and how they looked after themselves by farming the lands they occupied.  Then they spoke of the Vietnam war, but they didn't say very much.  The people that live here are from the ethnic group known as Mongs and they are very conservative and polite.  As such, they shy away from potentially offending their guests by putting forward a representation of the war that may be taken the wrong way, by say, an American visitor.  It turns out that they weren't saying much because they thought there might be Americans among us, so once we cleared up that we were all Australian and that nothing he said could offend us, he told us a little more.  Afraid was the dominant feeling among the villagers at the time.  They spoke about it being a very hard time to go about their lives as bombs were being dropped on a regular basis and people were dying.  They couldn't cook because the Americans would drop bombs on any location they saw evidence of life in and they couldn't wear their typical coloured clothing either as it stood out in the forest and made them targets, so they covered themeselves with leaves from the surrouding forrest.  They didn't say much more after that.

During their talk, each of us were handed a piece of sugarcane to eat.  It was a bit of a challenge getting through the outer layer to the good stuff, but when you did, it was worth it.  They then handed us all hard boiled eggs, which were no doubt from the countless chickens on this land.  One gentleman then came with a basket full of chicken legs and put one on each of our plates.  It was explained to us that because we were very important guests that we were being given the best part of the chicken for our lunch.  Their generosity is amazing.  They must have had to sacrifice a few chickens for our meal.  I thought this was the end of the meal and I would have been satisfied at that, but we were informed that the chicken leg was the entree and the main meal was to come.  Out came the bags of rice, more chicken (cooked in a different way) and a small bowl of the most amazing chilli I have ever had.  The chilli was hot, but it was enourmously tasty.  It had more than just chilli in it, but I could only make out the corriander. Whatever it was, it was awesome.  Once we had finished our meal, we were offered some of the Laos Rice Whiskey, which we were warned not to drink too much of if we want to be able to cycle the next day.  We all had some and I must say that it wasn't as potent as we were led to believe and was quite nice.

Once the meal was over, they put on a show for us.  Firstly a younger man with a vest made of metal tassles that jingled every time he moved, played an ancient instrument while performing a most active and energetic dance.  Then another man reluctantly (remember that these are shy, conservative people) sang a song of the Mong people for us.  He was followed by five adorable girls dressed in the traditional Mong outfit who performed a lovely dance for us while one of the men beat on a bucket to keep the beat, albeit quite badly as the girls struggled to keep in time.  It was still lovely.  Then the elders who were speaking to us before lunch were tussling over who would play the Mong flute for us.  For two 75 year old men, they were very nimble.  We eventually had a winner (or loser as the case may be) and we treated to a lovely tune.  With the festivities over, we took at tour of the village to look at the toilets that ChildFund has been helping to build and what we were largely raising funds for so that they can expand to include more families in the village.  We were told that approximatelt 93 families have had their own toilet installed with the help of ChildFund and were planning to grow this to over 400 families with the help of the funds that we all raised.  Truely wonderful work to improve hygene and give people some dignity back.

At the end of the tour, we jumped back on our bikes and rode towards Nonghet.  The guesthouse we are staying in is nice, but as you can imagine, has no internet connection, so my the time you are reading this, it will have been several days later.  Since we are getting more remote, Internet access is much harder to come by.  Tomorrow we are going to visit the Attorney General's Office and another village that ChildFund is working with.  We are going to see, among other things, the sports programs that ChildFund is running with the local communities, which I'm excited about.  Stay tuned for the next installment.  Oh and the finger is very black, blue with a hint of green.

Day Four

We've been in some pretty remote places over the last few days with no Internet access so here's the a delayed "Day Four" with more to follow:

Today was the wettest day we've seen so far.  It was raining the entire morning and was just about monsoonal so the call was made that we would delay our departure by an hour to see if it cleared up.  It didn't.  The call was made that it was too dangerous to ride so we all got in the vans and went to the Plains of Jars.  This is a very interesting place and a little difficult to describe.  It is a wide area where hundreds of stone "jars" have been placed there over the years.  These "jars" are hand carved out of stone and transported to this location over 40km away from where they were made.  Why? As a final resting place for the dead of course.  There are a group of people in Laos known as the Mong and it is their ancient tradition to place the bodies of their dead into these "jars", with some of their belongings, and lay them down to rest in this location.  It is not a practice that is used much any more though.  It is also a bit of a mystery as to why this particular location.  This site was also heavily bombed and while the area where the "jars" are has been cleared of UXOs, there are still clearly marked areas that haven't been swept clean and are no-go zones.  There are still plenty of reminders of the war at the Plain of Jars, with many craters created when bombs were dropped, still visually impacting, as are the trenches used by the local troops to move around in.  It was a very wet visit, but definitely worth it.

We jumped back in the vans and went back to the hotel to get all our gear and make another assessment as to wheter it would be OK to ride.  As is was still raining quite heavily, it was decided that we would get in the vans and drive to the next city on our schedule.  The views were great as always and all the usual suspects were out on the roads.  Despite those obstacles, I and several others wished we could be riding.  There has been a strange familiarity of the scenery for much of the trip so far and today it occurred to me; it looks and feels just like the countryside of Brazil.  The houses with shops underneath, mechanic workshops, kids running in the street, dogs, cats and all other animals around the place.  Anyway, I digress. We stopped to have lunch along the way to our next stop and were able to get on the bikes after that, but only for a short ride to Muang Kham where we would be staying for the night.  Once we settled in, we all got back on the bikes to go and visit a cave that was supposed to be a safe haven for farmers and villages during the war.  They had fled to this cave and set up schools, medical facilities, etc. inside to continue to function as a society in relative safety from the war going on outside.  The atrocities committed at this location by the US army is not really content to be discussed here, but ask me about it some time and I'll relay the story to you.  Among many feelings that this cave manifested in me, I was awestruck by the size of it and the engenuity of the people to make it a small subterrainian village to protect themselves.  On the ride back, we stopped alongside a villager's house where there were two women using a manual loom to create intricate patterns on some dresses they making to sell at the markets.  She informed us that it took 2-3 days to make one dress and if you saw what they were creating, you would imagine that it should take much longer.

We made it back to the hotel to freshen up and clean all the mud off us.  It had started raining while we were at the caves and combined with the muddy roads and the fact that it had been raining all day anyway, we were extremely dirty.  Chris Mastaglio, director of ChildFund Laos, joined us for dinner and gave us a quick briefing afterwards on the logistics for visiting the villages that ChildFund is working in.  He also gave us an update on all the work that ChildFund is doing in these villages.  Our fundraising efforts were towards the clean water and sanitary project, but they are also setting up schools for the kids of the area, teaching them about hygene and health in general, giving children (especially girls) a voice in the communities that are highly traditional and highly patriachal, sporting programs for the children, ensuring children are well nourished and more.  We are getting the first taste of the work being done by ChildFund in Nonghet tomorrow where we will stay for two nights.

We didn't get a chance to go to the hot springs today because of poor weather conditions and lighting.  We will ride there tomorrow morning before heading to Nonghet.  More updates tomorrow.  By the way, my finger is good in case you were wondering.  It has gone all shades of black, purple and green, but it still quite swollen. :-)
The photo below is a view of the mountain where the cave I described above was.

Day Three

I finally got some internet access so here's the update for day three.

Today we arrived in Phonsavan, but not without some hard work and a bit of drama too.  Phonsavan is home to the mysterious Plain of Jars and the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) office.  MAG is working with locals and other organisations to clear land for local farmers to use and lift themselves out of poverty.  There is not enough safe useable land in Laos as a result of the Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs) left over from the Vietnam war.  By clearing more land, farmers can produce more, sell more and earn more.  We visited the MAG office on arrival where we saw samples of the UXOs they are pulling up from the ground as well as reading several stories on the effect that MAG is having on the local community.

Now back to the cycling.  We left right after breakfast and cycled for a steady 40km or so with a couple of breaks in between.  The ride started out with us having to negotiate the local rush hour with trucks, buses, tuk tuks, scooters and other bikes, not to mention the pedestrians.  It didn't take long for us to be on the highway and out of the mad rush.  The terrain was up and down for a large part of the way, and then it started climbing.  The views were spectacular even though it was hard going, not to mention the seemingly endless number of dogs, chickens, pigs, kids and anything else you can imagine that kept coming out onto the roads.  It was all part of the fun.  Anyway, one of our stops was just before a massive hill.  The guide told us that it was only 3km to climb and we'd be at the top.  The 3km mark came and went and we were still climbing.  By this stage we were all thinking "it must be around the next bend". Suffice to say, we were thinking that for the next 3km.  We were all very tired at the top, but most of us made it which is great.  At this point, my finger was very sore and our guide had already organised a bamboo splint for me to use as the splint I was using just wasn't doing the job.  It's looking quite swollen, but i managed to bend it a bit.

We put the bikes on the trucks and jumped in the vans for a lengthy drive through the mountains to get us to the other side.  It's a good thing we did because the hills did not stop and the roads became quite bad.  If we'd kept riding, we'd still have been riding now.  We stopped for a lunch break and a little more driving before we jumped on the bikes again.  This time, we had a lot of downhill sections which made it quite fun.  However, it also made it a little dangerous, especially when it started to rain a bit.  This resulted in our second injury in as many days and it wasn't me this time.  Bryce was going around the bend a little too hot and it looks like the bike slid out and then threw him over the other side.  He damaged his elbow pretty badly as well as having several grazes and cuts.  His wounds were seen to and he was taken to the hospital as a precaution.  The cuts in his elbow were pretty deep as the road was quite rocky.  Thankfully, he's ok and didn't need any stitches.  we finished our riding section and headed to the hotel for a hard earned hot shower nice meal.

I'll leave you with a picture of the view from our lunch stop and the current state of my finger.  Tomorrow we visit the Plain of Jars, a small monastery and some bomb craters and trenches from the war in this region.

Day Two

We started off the day today setting up our bikes for the first ride of what we have begun to call the Tour de Laos.  We began the day with a 30km cycle to the Kuang Si Waterfalls.  These are an amazing set of small waterfalls that are fed by a much larger, much more impressive waterfall.  There are several pools that you can go swimming in so we took the opportunity to do just that.  In one of the pools there is a knotted rope attached to a tree so that you can swing from it and jump into the pool.  Of course I had to give it a go.  On my 3rd go, my hands were slipping from the rope so I held on tighter, but kept slipping.  By the time I hit the water my hand was hurting so I swam towards the edge to get out.  As I was swimming, I looked at my hand to see why it was hurting and found a rather badly dislocated middle finger on my left hand.  I got out of the pool and headed over to some of the group that was sitting nearby and announced that I needed a medic.  Someone suggested that it needed to be pulled back out, but no-one was that keen to do it, so i did it myself.  They helped me bandage it up and use my ring finger as a splint.  The result is the picture you see below.  It would have been great to have a picture before I pulled it out, but you'll just have to take my word on it that it was impressive.

All of this excitement happened before lunch!! We had lunch at the waterfall and then spent some time taking photos.  At the site of the waterfall is also a bear sanctuary.  These beautiful sun bears are being saved from ending up on dinner plates around Asia.  The organisation, free the bears (http://www.freethebears.org.au), was started by an Australian woman named Mary Hutton.  We spent some time watching the bears have their lunch and taking some photos of them.  We then jumped back on our bikes to head back to the hotel; another 30km.  We freshened up and then went into town for dinner at a nice little bar where one of our group, Simon, was playing his ukulele and Alicia was singing.  It was a nice night and the food was great.  I ate Luang Prabangers & Mash.  It was the traditional dish as we know it, but the sausages were typical of this area of Laos.  The place itself didn't really have any traditional Laotian food though, which was a little disappointing.

Tomorrow is probably going to be one of the toughest days as there are lots of big hills.  It is also the day that we leave Luang Prabang and ride towards Phonsavan.  As my finger is now throbbing and I have a big day tomorrow, I'm going to sign-off.  No guarantee that I'll have Internet access tomorrow so I'll update the blog again when I do.  I'll leave you with an image of Luang Prabang (it's off in the distance) from the top of the highest hill we climbed today.

Day One

Today was a very busy day.  We left the hotel in Bangkok at 7am to catch our Bangkok Air flight to Luang Prabang.  It was an exciting time as it was the first time that the whole group got to meet each other.  They are an interesting and fun group of people.  Our flight to Luang Prabang was on a small propeller plane seating about 100 people.  We got here in one piece.  The views from the plane as we were landing were great.  You could see the forest extend for what seemed to be forever (pictures below). The airport in Luang Prabang is very small and it felt a bit like stepping back in time as all the decor felt like it was from the 70s. Nonetheless it felt very welcoming. To give you an idea of how small the airport is, there is only one baggage carousel and for some reason it is still labelled with the number 1.  We cleared customs and met our tour guide who got us to the hotel.

The hotel we are staying is called the Villa Santi Resort and yes, it is as nice as it sounds which was a welcomed surprised.  We had a quick dip in the pool before heading out to tour a few of the Buddhist temples.  Laos has a strong Buddhist following and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered or they cannot enter them.  We were told that there are temples that the women cannot enter at all.  We visited one temple in particular that was on the top of a big hill that we had to climb a lot of steps to get to.  The view from up there was great and well worth the climb (photos are on the camera so will have to wait until I get them off).  Apologies that I haven't mentioned the names of any of the temples.  The simple reason is that I don't remember them and they don't had out flyers with information about the temples.

Following the climb down from the temple, we headed off to the famous Laos night markets.  There are heaps of stalls that the vendors set up and take down each night it seems.  There is so much colour and craft at the stalls, but it does get a bit repetitive.  Not wanting to spend all my money on the first night and the first place we'd been to, I was controlled.  It also helped that the market vendors are nothing like their counterparts in other Asian countries I've been to.  Not once did I get hounded to buy something and every time I stopped to look at something, the vendor would politely say hello or "sabaidi".  When you did want to buy something, you didn't even feel compelled to haggle.  Most things are quite cheap here. Finally, we all had dinner as a group and some kicked on for what I presume will be a long night.  Given tomorrow is our first day of riding, I thought I'd be a good boy and give it a miss.  Don't want to go too hard too early. :-)

Day Zero

We've arrived in Bangkok for a stop over after a fairly uneventful flight.  We leave for Luang Prabang in the morning.  I've met two of my fellow riders so far, Finn and Kath from Adelaide.  I'll meet the rest of the team in the morning.  I also discovered that I am the only one from Melbourne.  I'm not really sure how to feel about that.  On the one hand, it's good that Melbourne is at leave represented, but on the other hand, it's a little disappointing that there weren't more people.

Nothing much to report today.  I've had a night cap with Finn and now it's time for bed.  We have an early start in the morning.  Up at 6am and leaving for the airport at 7am.

Hopefully I'll have access again tomorrow and will update then.

Last training run

This weekend just gone was my last big training ride before the big trip.  Five colleagues and I rode the 75km round trip on Melbourne's Eastlink from Ringwood to Frankston.  The event was being held as a fundraiser for Hanover, an organisation working to prevent homelessness and lift people out of poverty.  Despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the ride, it was a very enjoyable day and wonderful to see so many riders in one place.  I've included below the statistics from the ride.  Interestingly, it didn't log the sections in the two tunnels right at the end which is why it only shows 70.96km.

Only 3 more days to go!!!