Woke up this morning after 3 hours sleep. Was raining hard all night and i was worried about the coming day in the hills. 3 weeks ago some villages were evacuated cause of heavy rainfall,and the road was closed some days cause of mudslides/landslides. Yesterday all looked fine,but i was worried about what 12 hours steady rain might do to the road. Had my porridge and a lao coffe looking out on the rain,checked the bus-route and saw there was a bus at 10.00. Had one more coffe and it stopped raining. 10 minutes later i was on the road again. Downhill for about 10 km going trough mud and gravel feeling my breakes got weaker the more mud i picked up,and in the end i was fed up with that long downhill cause i really had to break for potholes and mud in the road. Was quite happy to come to the small village at the bottom of the valley,but this was one of the places that was evacuated 3 weeks ago and people did not seem very happy. Really poor conditions in these villages,and to my suprise the kids ran along my bike not shouting the normal "sabaidee" but actaully spitting at me and when i speeded up they started throwing rocks! Never hit me,but i was absolutely suprised. Went straight into some climps again,and saw parts of the road was more or less destoyed by rainfall. Mud and gravel,and i was slipping and sliding uphill over some parts. Absolutely hard work,and my mind started going on about the rest of the day. I knew i had to do 60 km in total to get to Phou Khom where there was a guesthouse and i knew it was all about climbing trough lots of messed up road and going downhill braking hard. Next climb was endless! I slipped in the mud a few times and lost control. In the end i even had mud on my helmet! After a long and totally draining hour i stopped in a tiny village to fill up my waterbottles. The woman spoke some words english and i asked her how far to Phou Khom. (my speedometer is messed up...)She did not know the numbers in english but wrote 20 on her calulator. I asked "uphill all the way?" and she said "up up up" and gestured in a very convincing way i was going up. She also said the magic words "lain lain,load bad bad" meaning rain and bad road ahead. I already felt i had enough bad roads,but got back on the bike and continued,realising it just got steeper. So steep i had to push my bike uphill. (i wished i had a lower gear....)
I was absolutely getting drained by now. Guess it was cause i actually was puking a few times and lost lots of liquids. My legs started to cramp! And then at the worst moment of the whole day while i was absolutely thinking about selling the bike and jump un a bus to a beach with palmtreees and Gin Tonics the most beautiful sight comes up the hills: A Toyota Hilux! First car going my way for a long time! 3 chinese guys on their way south! No english spoken,but before they could say Sabaidee i had all my gear on the back of the car and just pointed out the directions!
(note:it was in fact only(?) 7-8 km more uphill and then rolling hills to Phou Khon)
All smiles from the chinese guys even if i must have smelled like shit... They took me to Phou Khon,i had one look at that gloomy looking tiny village in the rain and fog and jumped a songtaew (local transport) to Kasi 40 km ahead. Going downhill from Phou Khon i saw too much bad road to do anything else than catch a new songtaew from Kasi. I will regret it forever! Flat road trough amazing scenery in sunshine and misty mountains and there i was with all my messed up thoughts suffering trough 50 km of potholes and shitty road on a bumpy truck full of vegetables.....
Willl sort out my mind and relax here in Vangveing 2 nights before going south against Vientiane.
Honest reporting! Bad planning doing this on a cyclocross with slicks in the rainy season.....
Too be continued....
I was absolutely getting drained by now. Guess it was cause i actually was puking a few times and lost lots of liquids. My legs started to cramp! And then at the worst moment of the whole day while i was absolutely thinking about selling the bike and jump un a bus to a beach with palmtreees and Gin Tonics the most beautiful sight comes up the hills: A Toyota Hilux! First car going my way for a long time! 3 chinese guys on their way south! No english spoken,but before they could say Sabaidee i had all my gear on the back of the car and just pointed out the directions!
(note:it was in fact only(?) 7-8 km more uphill and then rolling hills to Phou Khon)
All smiles from the chinese guys even if i must have smelled like shit... They took me to Phou Khon,i had one look at that gloomy looking tiny village in the rain and fog and jumped a songtaew (local transport) to Kasi 40 km ahead. Going downhill from Phou Khon i saw too much bad road to do anything else than catch a new songtaew from Kasi. I will regret it forever! Flat road trough amazing scenery in sunshine and misty mountains and there i was with all my messed up thoughts suffering trough 50 km of potholes and shitty road on a bumpy truck full of vegetables.....
Willl sort out my mind and relax here in Vangveing 2 nights before going south against Vientiane.
Honest reporting! Bad planning doing this on a cyclocross with slicks in the rainy season.....
Too be continued....
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