That’s quite a long trip today but that’s normal because the road is not that hard anymore. And Today, I met Bright, a Chinese guy who is cycling from Chengdu (China) to somewhere :-) He doesn’t really know. He has a simple mountain bike and a backpack, that’s it. Late this morning, as I was going very slowly up hill, Bright arrived next to me. Both of us are going to Vientiane so if I can follow him or if he as the patience to wait for me, we will make it together towards the capital city. Let’s see :-)
Map.
Elevation.
Back to this morning before I met Bright…
That’s nice, the road is finally easy. I like hills and mountains but not for two weeks. Now, I really appreciate this kind of road. I might be bored in few days but for now I enjoy, a lot!
As I mentioned several times now, Thailand and obviously Laos too have been hit by a very dry season this year. This lake shows it very clearly again. Then, the collapsed house, that another story I guess.
The water level is very low!
Once again, the water level must be 2 metres lower than during the rainy season which should have started already.
Vientiane, 128km. I’m coming, I’m coming! Once their I will rest for a minimum of 10 days! That’s my motivation for now ;-)
Few kilometres later, during I was walking up an easy hill (my energy is quiet low now) another cyclist came along. That’s how I met Bright from China. He has been travelling for 2 months from Beijing. First he backpacked until Chengdu and then he started cycling south from their. I’m complaining about the mountains in Laos but he said: “This is nothing compared to China!” Oh no!… At some point, he went up to 4000m high and cycled for hours on the same hill. Wow! Should I go there? Maybe not haha.
Few hours later, Bright had a puncture. That was a good occasion for me to have a rest :-)
Once that was fixed, we kept on going until we found a spot for camping. Bright stays normally in guesthouse where he tries to camp for a cheap price. He never camped “in the wild” like we will do tonight. I had something to teach him then :-) We found a large empty land with a big pile of dirt in the centre. After a look around, we decided to camp behind this mount to be hidden from the traffic. Across the road, there was a petrol station so we could have a shower in the toilets. All perfect, five star accommodation with no annoying neighbour. Too easy :-) See you tomorrow!
You have a travelling companion again ! :-)