Hills, heat and highs

Five days I stayed in Luang Prabang, gave my muscles a rest, my bicycle pants a good wash and hung out with some fellow travelers. The days were hot and just relaxing seemed to be the most sensible option.  One evening Roger, a Spanish guy, and I managed to go sightseeing and met a 24-years old ex-monk who was just “released” from the temple and was enjoying his newly gained liberty by checking out the girls that were passing by. The next day he showed us some sights in Luang Prabang and set an end to our days of just lazing around.

15 coffees, 40 bananas, 2 beers and a few noodle-soups after arriving in Luang Prabang I was ready to leave again. A cyclist who I ran into on my way to Luang Prabang warned me about the journey ahead and backed up his words with an altitude profile he showed me. There were 2 scary looking hills coming up. It took me 3 days to get to Vang Vieng. 3 days that, besides the long sweaty climbs, offered me some of the most stunning views and some long downhill rides. Whenever my bicycle tripled its speed without me doing anything my mood went from great to fantastic and I sang along with the song that was playing in my head.

The mornings were beautiful. The valley was covered in a sea of clouds and only the mountain tops were glittering in the sun. The air was still cool and it was quiet. The villages came slowly to life. People trickled out of their houses and disappeared in the fields and kids with sticky rice in their hands were walking to school. Each turn of the road offered me a more spectacular view of the mountains.

Arriving in Vang Vieng was a little bit shocking. On my way here, whenever busloads of tourist passed me (there were MANY of them), I wondered: Where the hell do they all go? Now I know: They all have a jolly good time in Vang Vieng. They wander about the streets in their skimpy dresses, showing off flesh (nice or not so nice I let them be the judge of it), get drunk on dirt-cheap (for them) Lao beer and say things like “protein just makes me too big”. Because I didn’t fancy swapping tales with them about how drunk I got while I was floating down the river on an inner tube (which is one of the attractions here) and collecting new facebook friends, I successfully avoided them and had a jolly good time on my own. I’m the antisocial anti-consumer.

Luang Prabang

Bicycle parking in front of a school

Two hard working women