July 7, 2023
Day 2 Bike: Digital Detox
Thalat to Vang Vieng
It was another sublime day and Laos was starting to captivate me with all the natural beauty. This cycle tour was delivering in spades! This was exactly what I needed at this time. I woke up not knowing where I was, except that sleep was awesome and things were very quiet and peaceful. Then it all coaelesced on seeing this beautiful river view.
Laos is just knocking it out of the park when it comes to natural beauty and friendly people. Just being in nature surrounded by all this makes a world of difference to the rat race.
With that I started doing some research on digital detox. I was told ahead of time by friends that this trip would generate some pretty creative ideas and this was one of them. The goal isn't to completely do away with social media, but I will try to cut down gradually. At some point in the future, the plan is to do a digital detox tour once I know more about how this works. You could say, "It's easy, just start riding and turn off the phone" but it's not as simple as that. If you've been addicted to social media for so many years, you don't just suddenly quit cold turkey. You need a plan.
I left the guesthouse around 8:30am which is early for my style and returned the keys to the friendly owner. Everyone was all smiles. I didn't get very far before stopping for pho at the first restaurant. It would certainly be many days in a row of this.
The question for the day was all about routes. I learned very quickly not to trust Googe Maps because it kept insisting on using the new highway. All options including walking (there is no biking option) would gravitate to that. Meanwhile the old road (Route 13) kept being avoided at all costs since it added another 20km of distance.
But I knew for sure that bikes could not use the expressway. It is the same highway style built by the Chinese with toll booths and fences. Although it might be possible to sneak on, the risk wasn't worth it. If I got caught and booted off, the extra distance would be more than avoiding the highway in the first place. In the end I wasn't going to take this gamble.
I plotted my own route without the GPS. This one followed the river in a meandering course and eventually linked back up with Route 13. Around 25km into the ride I spied a nice shop and stopped in. The lady running the place was friendly and she insisted I buy two sponge cakes. So I did and she threw in two bananas for free. I asked if there was water. There was not, but across the street it could be found along with ice cream. The little girl running the shop coulnd't have been older than 8 years old and she was adorable. Where were her parents?
Satisfied with that I kept on going and then Route 13 was back in its familiarity. I knew from the many rides in the past that there would be a steep hill coming soon. But it happened sooner than expected. In the hot sun this time it was just excruciating and I don't remember it ever being like this. Sweat was just dripping the entire climb up and I knew that I would have to replace my fluids frequently. The descent was quite bliss and it felt like AC so that was heavenly.
Thankfully the town of Hin Houep came up quickly and I stopped for a nice lunch of fried rice chicken as well as two pepsis.
There was a chance to sneak onto the highway here. Google Maps was telling me to literally bike into a middle school compound and climb the fence to get on the highway. Believe it or not I actually tried that then gave up and realized the craziness of it all and what this GPS on steroids was telling me to do.
So back on the road. Mo pen yang as they say, never mind. But it got so incredibly hot I couldn't keep going at a very good pace.
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I then realized what's the point of the highway anyway?
But with this GPS madness, I now began to question the accuracy of the route it wanted me to take into Thailand later on. I could tell there were basically only two options: the Kennethao border or the Nong Khai Friendship Bridge. The Kennethao border would be totally brand new and I was mainly gunning for it, but I heard many years ago they stopped allowing bicycles on it, just like this highway. More research would be needed, and locals would be the ones to ask. I would find out for sure at the Kasi Hotsprings guesthouse later on.
But this was the way of the universe reminding me yet again: it is the journey not the destination.
As if right on cue, I cycled past an entire Hmong family drinking Beer Laos on the side of the road and listening to loud music. This is exactly what I've been told happens all the time, and this was an opportunity that couldn't be missed. I stopped and joined the party.
It seems my entrance had hyped the party up. After several bottles later, the whole family was all singing and dancing including the adorable young 9-year old daughter who busted a move with Senorita
I love it when you call me Señorita
I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya
But every touch is ooh-la-la-la
It's true la-la-la
Ooh, I should be running
Ooh, you keep me coming. For ya
Once I started singing and dancing, the music cranked up full volume and more and more people started joining in. This could be heard for quite a distance. Meanwhile I was wondering how I was going to keep on biking to Vang Vieng. It had already been a couple hours of this partying, but then why the fuck not. The weather is too hot for cycling.
The guy running things said, "You can sleep here if you want." That was a distinct possibility as I seldom book hotels. The whole point of my trip philosophy is to allow for situations like this to happen and if it happens that I get invited into some random house to stay the night then why not.
But what had me decide against this was constantly watching my stuff and looking out for safety. It was a delicate balancing act to have fun and drink alcohol yet also be smart. Probably nothing would have happened anyway, but there was enough daylight left that I could keep cranking out the cycling.
Well not so fast. He poured yet another bottle of beer for everyone. Oh boy. Even his deaf brother was getting in on the action. An exit strategy was somehow found, we added each other on Facebook and I hit the road. There were still 30km more to get to Vang Vieng and I was beyond tipsy. Making sure I had everything, as well as double and triple checking, off I went.
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There was an awesome hostel at the entrace to the town so that's the one I picked and then dropped in. The owner was super friendly and he helped store the bike safely. After a brief rest and updating the blog, it was time to hit the Sakura Bar for some more partying.
While there I met a German expat working in Myanmar here on holiday, and we regaled each other with horror stories. I had my share of China lockdown covid stories, he had his share of Myanmar junta stories. Apparently you needed permission to travel to other cities over there, and most people couldn't leave the country. In both cases, Myanmar and China restricted the internet and suspended the issuance of new passports. What a lovely world we live in.
Today's ride: 111 km (69 miles)
Total: 508 km (315 miles)
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