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Monday we were thinking that the
trip to Chiang Khong would be an easy 65k or so and thus took it easy
in the morning. We talked to a couple Dutch folks at the hotel who
were also touring on bikes, but they were just doing a loop of Northern
Thailand from Chiang Mai. Since it was to be an "easy day" we took a
30km detour in the morning down to a good sized cave south of Mae Sai,
and then back to the turn-off for Chaing Saen - the town halfway to
where we were going. or so it was thought. Started at noon - should
know better by now, and I was feeling extra crispy already. Gretchen
was feeling better, so she kept me pushing along to Chiang Saen,
despite the couple hills in the middle. And there for the ugly
surprise: Chiang Khong would be another 54 km! And the map
showed some more terrain between us and there - and a very short line
for 54 km, so we could bet on it being hilly. Uh Oh. 3:30 pm and it gets
pretty dark by 6:30 - and there's prescious little in the way of
twilight buffer at these latitudes. I should note that we're averaging
23km/hr on the flats, but a fair bit slower on steep hills, since we're
both toting at least 35 kg of bike & gear. |
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So 3 hours, still hot, but we
figured what the heck, since our visas were supposed to be waiting in
Chiang Khong in the morning and we wanted to get a jump start into
Laos ASAP. First 30k were flat. Then a long slow meandering
switchback. and then the road builders got bored with switch backs and
went straight up. and then up some more. drenched with sweat we
hit the top and then came screeching back down the other side. This
left 16km to go, and it was 5:45pm, with the sun setting behind the
ridge we'd just cleared. It would have been very scenic what with all
the locals threshing rice (?) and such were we not trying to beat the
sunset. Now for the unpleasant surprise; while the road went back to
running along the river, it continued the insane straight up and down
nonsense all the way into Chiang Khong, every time we turned a corner,
another hill, and a little darker. (Did I mention that our map has
very very little elevation resolution? certainly not to this scale of
+/- 200m) |
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Finally rolled into town around 7 and found the SP Guest House
- a night there was included as part of our Laos visa applications.
Right off the owner explained that it would be at least the afternoon
before our visas showed up. Figures, could have saved ourselves the
116km day.
So we've had a day to chill here, and it was very nice being
able to avoid the sun from noon-3 for a change. Ran into two more
bikers - also Dutch, early 50-something who take 6-8 weeks to do this
every year. They're following right on our heels actually; doing the
exact same itinerary we've covered, and ending in Vientiane (big city
in Laos). I knew the Dutch had something for bikes, but didn't realize
they packed them as standard luggage! Hope their bikes have more than
the 3 gears on your standard issue Dutchcycle
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So here's the plan modification; we are really hoping to be in
Luang Prabang by New Year's eve (31st) since that will be a darn cool
celebration to see in a reasonable sized city (ok, 20,000 - big for
Laos). There is absolutely no way we could do that by the
northern, road-only route; heck the BUS is supposed to take 8 HOURS to
do the first 190 km, so the road is NOT in good condition. So, since
we lost at least 2 days with all this Visa mucking around, we're going
to take the speed boat to Pak Beng. This is 3 hours down the Mekong
river through Laos, and then head up rte 2 from there to the first city
that afternoon. Road is reputed to be in horrible condition, so 50km
will be plenty. Day 2 will take us to Muang Xay (90km on still
horrible road), and then day 3, we'll tackle the 60km of intense
cycling through the mountains (but much better road), and then not feel
so bad about grabbing a bus the last 70+km down to Luang Prabang if
necessary on new year's eve. That's the plan, we'll see if reality
copies this time.
So now that we've finally figured out a little bit of Thai,
Thai food, and Thai hotels, it's time to switch languages, cultures and
currency again! Next time you hear from us will probably be New Year's
day in Lang Prabang - Happy New Year!
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