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.