Finally, I’ve reached my first goal, Phonsavan! This morning I wasn’t sure if I would make it but I knew Stephane was there and was going to move very soon. Fortunately, a long downhill helped a lot! It gave me the motivation to keep going. For the first time since I left Luang Namtha, I’ve seen a valley. I think the worse is behind me now.
Map.
Elevation.
This is how much space I have when this hammock is set up on the ground. I must improve the system a bit because it very tiny.
That’s the system to attach the pole and the tarp together :-) The poles are actually coming from my tent.
That reminds me New Zealand where I used to camp very often in cow fields. I always had to choose carefully a spot if I didn’t want to end up right on a cow dung.
Last night no storm disturbed me, only few drops. I was lucky.
I’ve packed all my stuff and I’m now on my way to Phonsavan. The clouds this morning are very low again.
Endless mountains.
The road and the mountains.
There is more and more villages along the way.
And the weather is super hot again. And I’m pushing again…
I’m so tired… I guess, any slope more than 9% makes me walk next to the bike. I cannot wait for the big downhill ahead.
Which is now! Well, if those cows would move away maybe I could enjoy this 18km downhill!
Ouch! Once again, another “recycled” zone, the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Nobody see, nobody care.
Wow! That’s it, I’ve done it!
This is very nice to see a valley like this after about 10 days spent in the mountains.
To celebrate that, I will have something different today, for example, a noodle soup? :-) Actually, I thought I was going to have something different. When I arrived to that restaurant I met two students who speak a bit of english. The boy was very happy to serve me as a translator. He asked me: “What to you want to eat? Noodles soup or fried noodles?”. Me: “Ho, fried noodles would be great”. The student: “ok”. Then he told to the owner of the restaurant what I wanted. That’s nice, for once I would eat something different :-) But when the woman came back to me, she gave me a noodle soup… Maybe the boy did not speak that well english… That’s okay…
After lunch, I kept cycling a bit more until I found this place along the road. I needed to dry the roof again and most of my stuff was a bit humid. The sun was so strong that 30 minutes were enough to dry everything perfectly.
About 3 hours later, I was back on the road. I made my choice: I will reach Phonsavan tonight. This road has a multiple choice options: the steep bit and the long and easy bit. This time I tried the shortcut but it was a way too steep for me. I don’t understand why they modify a road that was just fine to make it more difficult to anyone. I’ve seen buses and trucks struggling sometimes. They must pollute even more by pushing the engine to its limits. And it cost money to cut the mountain and modify the shape of the road. That’s strange…
Finally I’m on a flat area. I will certainly arrive in Phonsavan at night but at least I will be there.
I can definitely see the difference here regards the houses style. No wood anymore. This one looks fairy new as well.
You can be in the mountains or in the valley next to cities, the cows are still walking in the middle of the road.
Finally I made it to Phonsavan and met Stephane again. We split about two month ago in Thailand and met again in Laos :-) Stephane is going to Vietnam so he is cycling east when I will keep cycling north until Bangkok again. Even if I was tired we manage to talk until 2am. So many things to talk about! See ya!
Ouf ! Ça doit faire du bien de rencontrer un copain et de parler autrement que par geste je suppose ! Jolis paysages de campagne !
Ça m’aura bien fait plaisir de te revoir mon ami :-)