I’ve become very popular. I could be as big as Taylor Swift soon. Well, maybe not, but all the kids in Laos seem to love me … so eat your heart out, Taylor.
Ride 8: 31 km and 680 m of Ascent
Our ride today was relatively short, but all on rough dirt track and it took us from Muang Ngoy to Nong Kiau. It was very foggy when we got up in the morning, so my dream of getting some early morning photography was crushed by a thick, impenetrable gray cloud.
The journey started with a short boat ride down to a spot on the river where we joined the dirt track; the boat driver nearly missed it and Xue had to give a loud shout to get him to pull over in time. We unloaded our stuff and right out of the gate, it was a steep, muddy uphill to just get started.
I didn’t feel like starting out poorly so I walked my bike, along with everyone but Xue. I am pretty sure I would have ridden it no problem, but starting out with a crash in the mud is not the least bit ideal.
The road was rough, but nothing I wasn’t used to from riding my gravel bike in New Zealand. If you keep your eyes open and make sure you use good bike handling, it’s pretty straightforward.
It was a lovely route and it was nice to be riding something a bit more challenging (handling-wise) and without traffic. The traffic had been light the whole trip, but I like gravel riding and dirt.
I was in a bit of a funk, too.
There is a great gravel racer named Cam Jones from New Zealand (and more specifically, the Nelson area) that I happen to be in a Strava group with. He’s amazing and won the Unbound Gravel this year which is like winning the Tour de France in gravel racing. I noticed that I was ahead of him on climbing for the week. This was my chance to kicks Cam’s ass. Woohooo!
On Saturday, I had about a 300 meter lead over him and Sunday was going to be more elevation for me. I was confident I had it. But, the bastard. He must have known that I was out to crush him and he went out and did some big-ass ride on Sunday and ended up ahead of me. I was devastated.
My chance for fame and glory was crushed. I am sure he knew it, too.
Luckily, the kids of Laos brought me out of my funk. Like in Vietnam, when you would ride by, they would run out and start waving and shouting “Sabaidee! Sabaidee!” That always put a smile on my face. At one point, an entire school full of kids ran out and we stopped. They let me take a selfie with them; it was beyond cute.
The road was mostly pretty straight-up riding, but all the hills were pretty steep (12% to 15%). For Anne and Roland, this was a bummer because they had equilibrated to e-bikes and now were having to ride regular bikes due to the SNAFU on the Vietnam-Laos crossover. I would lie if I said they weren’t hard for me too, but at least they were short. At one point, we came upon a dude with some cows heading down the road.
Gerald popped through without a problem, but as I approached all but one cow got to one side and one cow was trapped on the other side. I could hear it breathing hard trying to figure out whether to run or charge or whatever was going through its head.
We had some sacred, scared cows. Or some scared, sacred cows, if you prefer.
It was a bit tense, but I managed to get through without issue, except then I came to the wagon where they had two dogs which, just as I was going by, broke out into a fight. Lovely. Just what I needed—to get a redirect bite and have to get treated for rabies. Luckily, the scared, sacred cows had given me some good mojo and that did not happen. Or was it the sacred, scared cows … I’m not sure. I’m a bit dyslexic.
We stopped at a small village to have some snacks and drinks. Again, I am so unused to the starting and stopping and snacks all the time. Not that I am complaining about the yummy little almond treats, but it is different than the usual scarcity of stops I normally ride with. There were a bunch of kids there checking us out. As we got ready to leave, Anne gave them some of the treats and they were thrilled.
It was a surprisingly challenging ride on the dirt, especially with the gravel bike, which is not quite as well-equipped for rough terrain as a mountain bike. There were ruts, mud, scared cows, motorbikes, and a couple creek crossings. When we got to the pavement, I was kind of glad that we didn’t have to do 60 km of that kind of dirt—that would have been a long day.
It was an easy ride into town and our hotel. There was an optional 10 km ride out to some caves where the Lao government hid out for over 9 years while the US relentlessly carpet-bombed the area with B-52’s.
We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed off to the cave.
It was an easy ride to the cave through town. It was a bit shocking, after having been in such remote places, to see the volume of tourists. I guess there is a lot of trekking and multi-day boat trips that attracts people to this area.
At the cave area, you could still see the craters and bomb casings from where some of the bombs had landed. At the time, they had bamboo ladders to climb up into the cave, but now they have some concrete stairs to get up there. They were steep and narrow; it must have been a bit terrifying climbing up on a rickety bamboo ladder.
We headed back to the hotel, which was quite nice, especially because it had an amazing pool that overlooked the river. We cleaned ourselves up, got in the pool and reacquainted ourselves with Beerlao.
Gerald, Anne, and I had signed up for Lao massages at 5. Xue had a place that he liked, so he had booked our sessions. It was a nice massage, but I would not say it was the best. Regardless, they were very nice and it felt good to have the muscles stretched out after 8 days of riding.
I will admit, I was starting to get tired and missing home. You could feel the trip was starting to come to an end, but at least my muscles were all relaxed now.
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