on the road, in Laos...

Tarseal, road signs, bullards indicating the kilometers... The road is a real change to Cambodia. We stop a few kms after the border on Muang Khong Island, where the Mekong river changes into the Mekong falls. To our surprise, we arrive in the middle of a.. petanque tournament! In the centre of the village, young and less young Laos have gathered and play at every opportunity they get. Already, the first signs of Laos' French inheritance appear... In fact, France has left 4 things easily visible in the day-to-day life of Laos: petanque, baguette, the French language (spoken by a lot of the older generation) and a few buildings... Oh, and the remains of the only train track ever built in Laos...

After this, we get back on the road, heading north still. More and more, we can feel the signs of fatigue that will not leave us until Vientiane. Our Cambodian adventure, combined, probably, with a few weeks on the bikes, in the heat, and a "different" diet have taken a toll on our bodies. Our bodies start behaving like machines lacking fuel... We both have caught a couple of nasty little things: giardia and chest infection (how can you get one of those when temperatures go from 40 to 50 degres every day?), and a couple of extra things for mike on top of that. Each day, it is becoming a bit harder to crank. The locals are not helping: every morning, they light new fires to cook, get rid of the rubbish or carry on with the slash and burn... The air is saturated with smoke, encouraging our coughing.

On top of this, we get a little 3-day storm in Lao style: 3 days during which temperatures will fall (around 15 degrees, not that low, but from 45 degrees, it is a fall!), and the wind - man, the wind! - will decidedly work against us. The wind is like an invisible wall in front of us and make us go so slow, despite the nice undulating terrain. For the Laos, it is like it's Siberian winter! They wear all the clothes - and everything else - they can find it seems: balaclavas, wolly hats, layers and layers of jumpers, jackets, coats and other duvets... They keep warm by the fires. In one night, we have changed seasons.

Around 200km south of Vientiane, our cough, our aching muscles, the fact that we struggle to breathe or eat without feeling sick, all of these signs ring an alarm bell in our heads and we decide to take the first bus we can find to Vientiane and the first doctor we can find there. As New Zealand citizens, we are allowed to use the medical services of the Australian embassy in Vientiane, a real bonus (saved by our Australian friends, once again!). We are looked after well, and get a week of rest in the capital city, before heading north again towards the mountains and the special zone of Saisombun (rf "crossing the Saisombun special zone"). For the "kilometer lovers", we will ride the kms missed on the bus during this detour!

After that, it is the arrival into the charming little city of Luang Prabang, where we go through some severe gear cull to cut down on weight. We manage to get rid of another 10 kilos. Everything one might call "unnecessary" goes: our espresso machine to start with, but also spare cycling shorts, etc... There are too many mountains waiting for us up north, we have got to be lighter! From Luang Prabang, we head north yet again, towards China. With the mountains come the alpine weather: temperatures going down, but also mist, rain and thunder storms... From now on, we will have to make the most of the the good patches of weather to ride.

We leave Laos with so many emotions, so much in our minds: all of the "Sabaidis!" sung, screamed or danced by the children along the road, the lollies, water and other lao-lao whiskys offered around the corners of villages, the smiles of these ladies who cooked more than a noodle soup or rice dish for us along those kilometers, the surprises when trialling the only food available at times (when one is hungry... mike even got to eat dog or buffalo kebabs (not sure) at some point, without his knowing) , our meeting with 2 snakes (a king cobra and a 1.2m long, 40 to 50mm thick "no-name" snake), our fascination seeing buddhist monks who, contrary to all other countries crossed so far, seem to be of "human dimension" (they actually work, ride their bikes, go on the internet, do some gardening... like every one else!) and finally, the many minutes, so precious, shared with the inhabitants of this country, discussing - as best we could given the language barrier (but Lao is so much easier than Mandarin as we are soon about to experience) - in front of our world map...