Sabai-dee Laos!

Total distance: 5900 km 

Boten - Na Mor - Oudomxay - Pak Mong - Luang Prabang

We're in Laos for about a week now and we love it! The day we entered at Boten we only cycled a short distance and then relaxed at a guesthouse on the way. Even on that short distance the difference to China was visible right away. The street was much smaller and almost no traffic at all. Sometimes we cycled about 5 km without one single car overtaking us. In some parts there were construction works going on again, but it was ok to cycle since it was dry. But the biggest difference is in the villages. In China, even the smallest point on the map was a rather big city, with at least a few hotels. Here the points on the map were 'real' villages, nothing more than a few bamboo huts on stilts, no places to stay and only if we were lucky a small stand selling cookies, bananas and drinks. This meant that we didn't have much of a choice where to stay at nights and so we had to cycle some rather long days. The last day into Luang Prabang was with 113 km the longest day on the whole tour so far. This makes us appreciate that we cycled so many mountains in Yunnan already. Our legs are definitely prepared for this now.

Another difference is the food, rice noodles and sticky rice instead of plain rice, fish sauce instead of soy sauce and great papaya salad everywhere. Yum! But the best change are the people. Everybody is incredibly friendly, as soon as we enter a village we hear people shouting 'Sabai-dee' (Hello) from every corner. The kids come running out of the house to wave us, they have so much fun lining up to give us a high five, running behind us (at the climbs they can easily keep up with us) and even the tiniest ones, barely able to speak crow cheerfully 'Bye bye' (or 'Bai bai'?) from their mothers arms.

Here in Luang Prabang everything is very touristy and this is the place where we've seen the most European tourists on our whole trip so far. China of course was touristy too, but there it was mainly Chinese tour groups. This feels strange, but it definitely has its advantages as well. Tourists are well catered for and the French influence is still very strong here. The first morning I had Baguette with 'La vache qui rit' and strawberry jam for breakfast, we had real good coffee, joghurt with granola and fruits, muffins, doughnuts and Oreo Milk Shakes :) Apart from that the city is great. On a peninsula between the mighty Mekong and a smaller river it has a great atmosphere. Streets are lined with coconut and banana trees, there are wats (temples) around every corner, monks walking around with their orange dresses and you can see the French influence in the architecture as well. There are no skyscrapers, no big supermarkets, buses are not allowed into the city center, everything rather small and relaxed. We're splurging on luxury here, our hotel room even has an own balcony with a view on the Mekong. Sitting there, munching fresh papaya, with a book in my hands I wonder if there can possibly be a better place on earth....

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