Kom and Tu’s house > Ban Saeo (7km + 43km return)

What a waste of time today… This morning was all good. I’ve stayed with Kom and Tu’s family until 3pm. They invited me to a party organised by one of a village’s member who just finished his house. The guys nearly forced me to drink their local whisky. Then we moved to a wedding party where there was about 100 people minimum and I had to drink even more Whisky. They mix it with water so it’s not that strong but the taste still doesn’t fit me. Then, one of Kom’s friend invited us to his house to have some lunch and beer (I’m not lucky). Finally, we came back to Kom and Tu’s home so I could prepare myself and continue my trip. Those two days were nice. This family is fun. Everything was fine until, back on the road, I made the decision to use a shortcut through the forest. Well, I did not know it was through the bush. After 7km on the road I had two options: going north east across some hills or cycling around it in the valley which was longer. I’ve chosen the shorter road which revealed itself to be a path, then a track, then a dead end…

Map.

Elevation.

I did not dare to take any pictures during the first two parties. This guy is Montree, Kom’s best friend. He loves motocross and made his own track in the mountains somewhere. He wants me to stay longer because he would like me to meet her sister haha. Well, does she loves cycling? I’m fine now, thank you :-)

This is Tu, Kom’s wife. She is always smiling :-) In blue, that’s one of their friends who is married with a Laos woman.

From left to right starting at the back. In orange, Kom’s brother who is a builder. He his the one who builds this house. Kom, the first guy I met two days ago. In blue, Kom’s friend and his Laos wife front of him. Then Montree with the white shirt. Tu in red. In black an white, this is their niece. The little girl who doesn’t look at the camera is the daughter of “mister orange”. The pink shirt girl is the daughter of another friend of them. The blue dress girl is Tu and Kom’s daughter. They have two other older boys who stayed in Bangkok. “That’s boring to come here” (that’s what they think). Kom told me something about his two sons: “They don’t know it yet, but they will want to come back here one day”.

Kom and his daughter, his best friend Montree and myself. Thank you very much guys :-).

I’m back on the road again.

15 km ago, I’ve decided to get on a road that, I thought, would go through a big hill and then let me reach the Mekong river on its other side. This road is now a path. Well, if it stays like this that’s nice. I won’t be as fast as I expected but that’s ok. I still have plenty of time.

That’s nice but I feel I made the wrong decision…

Oh oooh, More I go forward, more the path gets narrow. Well, that’s still ok for now.

Ok, this is where troubles start. I think I should come back. If that path keeps going like this all the way, that’s still ok. This is adventure! I want to know where it is going.

This is not the best place to do a U-turn now anyway.

I did continue for a while. The path got narrower, hilly, rocky. I came across few rivers with a very low water level but I could still make it so I continue and still expected that after the pass this path would become larger again. Finally I got stuck. I ended on a river bed, almost dry with no possibility to go further with the bike. I walked quickly across and further to see if I could find the path but I did not. Maybe the way was inside the river bed. With the bike plus trailer, that was impossible to keep going. At that time, it became dark so I had to act quickly. Should I stop here for the night? or should I come back? That’s about 20km! Rah!

The decision was quickly made and an hour and a half later I was back nearly from where I’ve started this afternoon. I wanted to be close to the Laos border tonight so I could cross the bridge early tomorrow morning but this won’t happen.

Back to the village which is next to the intersection, I first wanted to stop in a temple but there was plenty of people inside. I kept going for a minute until I’ve found a big carpark with toilets. At least I could take a nice and cold shower. Then, I cycled maybe 3 minutes and found a large field with trees on one side. It was perfect to set up my hammock. The area was dark, there was no dog around, yes!

Everything always find its own balance. I had a tough afternoon and find one of the best and quiet spot in Thailand :-)

Good night!