After 12 days spent in Luang Namtha I’m on the move again. I can say, I had a good physical rest :-) I’ve got 15 days left in Laos to get to Vientiane from where I will renew my visa. I must do 70km per day everyday with one day off in Phonsavan. If I feel I won’t make it I will take the shortcut through Luang Prabang. For the first day, I have done more kilometre than expected but that’s good! I prefer to be on time this time :-)
Map.
Elevation.
I did not take very much pictures of the town since I came here. Most of the time, I stayed inside. Luang Namtha is not very different from what I have seen previously. It’s just bigger than the villages I’ve passed through. I know there is a temple few kilometres away that is kind of famous but well, as you know, temples… I had enough!
This morning, the first road I chose was a dead end. Maps showed a road crossing the river but when I got there, there was no bridge! The river was too wide and certainly too deep to try anything so I came back from where I was coming from. That was only 3 or 4km lost. Once I finally crossed the river and started my journey I was already hungry. At the next intersection, there was a tiny village where I could get a noodle soup for 12.000 Kip.
The road is gently going up hills and I can enjoy some downhills to. The traffic is quite low as well.
The road goes on.
And on…
I tried to make a “natural” shot but the 10 seconds timer of my camera are still too short! I pushed the button, run to the bike, started cycling and did not have the time to find my balance… “click” too late… haha.
As always, I’m a “fan” of these sceneries. That shows you how much humans care about this planet. Disgusting! At least, if you miss the turn you will have a colourful cushion to recover you. I know Laos doesn’t have the infrastructure to collect and recycle waste but being poor doesn’t necessary mean being dirty. They could dig a big hole somewhere. It’s not a solution but at least it’s a try.
It’s now too hot to cycle. I’ve found this spot on the side of the road. It’s not great but it’s under the shade and they is benches to sit on. That will do for the next few hours.
In Luang Namtha, I bought some food because I want to cook again one or two times per day to save money. The food is a bit more expensive than Thailand here so I’m back as a chef ;-) Very simple food: Noodles, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, eggs and some chinese flavour.
When I came here, I was alone but suddenly 4 young women arrived. There is two benches under this shelter and only one of those is flat. Behind me is the good bench, on my side the other one. I thought I would have a nap after that but the women arrived, without saying hello or anything and sat right behind me on the good bench. I could hear them saying “Falang” this, “Falang” that which refers to “Stranger” (surely me). I don’t think it’s very polite.
My guess is, Laos people cannot speak english so they don’t try to interact with strangers. Few of them stare at me warily. Of course not everyone is like this fortunately. The kids are always very happy to say “Sabaidee (Hello)”, Thank you! (the only english words they know), or “Bye bye”. But once they turned like teenagers, their behavior changes.
I was too long to act and when I decided to, this too student girls were too far away but we can still see them cycling with their umbrella which is what I wanted to “catch”. Laos people doesn’t like the sun. They want to stay as white as they can. Everywhere around I come across those people wearing umbrella in the middle of the afternoon.
It’s now around 3 and 4pm and I’m back on the bike.
There is lots of tiny villages along the road that look very authentic.
Animals like porc, chickens, cows, buffaloes, ducks move freely around the villages.
Aaah, I like this kind of sign :-)
A moment ago, I’ve met an American cyclist who is cycling towards China. We did not have the time to talk very much because we go in the opposite direction. Like I said before, China is not very far from here. This portion of the road where I am now is the main road between the Laos Capital and the border.
After those 2 kilometres downhill, I’ve just arrived in a valley where I expect to find a place to have a shower and to rest tonight. I’ve found a petrol station where to have a shower but then, when I’ve started cycling again to find a good spot for tonight it became more complicate. Actually, I did not find any so I kept on cycling.
This is why I’m starting to climb again and I’m sweating again too. The road is not steep but the climb is quite long.
I finally made it to the top, came across a village and just after that found this shelter. They might use it as a market I guess. For now there is no one and tomorrow morning I will leave very early so I should be fine.
Well, I thought I would be fine until a group of young Laos travellers with scooters arrived here. As always, they did not say anything, no “hello”, no “Sabaidee”. At that time, I was cooking. On of them, came close and stared at me for few seconds putting his torch in my face. He came back to his friends and said something about me. “Falang” blablabla…
As you can see, this shelter is quite long but the group decided to stay just next to me. First they lighted a fire and the smoke came all over me at some point. After dinner, when they decided to rest, they moved around me and laid down 1 metres next to me on the other side. The guys talked, talked and talked. Until 11pm I could not sleep. They put some music on their phone, called their friends using the speaker of their phone. Do you care about people around you? Naturally they don’t understand a word of english so what can I say? I’m not in my country, they are 4 guys and one girl. I don’t want trouble now. The way they behave is not respectful even if I’m a “rich” (as they see me) stranger.
Finally, after they became quiet, I could have some sleep. Around 2:30am the guy started talking to his friend again. Raah! I guess this time they were cold because they moved back to their first spot and lighted the fire again. So annoying…
An hour later, maybe, the silence was back…
It looks like a quite countryside. Local people are interested in you, but too shy to talk ?
I hope you could sleep better after that.
It looks like hard traveling… I am sorry to hear the locals are not so friendly… I wonder if this is why the Thais seem to have a better economy and connections with the rest of the world ?
Hey try to learn a little bit of their language maybe it will help, aha!