D26: Lac Village (Mai Châu) to Bản Lóng Luông

March 1, 2018

In 2006 the roosters started crowing well before dawn and didn't really stop. The dogs also liked to bark. Bark bark bark, who is walking there? Bark, bark, bark, get away from my roosters. Bark, bark, bark, another dog is barking so I also must bark. On both counts, Lac Village has improved in that in lacks quite so vibrant a barking dog or crowing rooster scene. Both are still there but not at quite the levels they once were. Unfortunately, although it has lost some of the noise that we don't think about when we think standard idyllic countryside, it has also gained some of the noise we don't think about when we think standard idyllic countryside.
Techno karaoke.

Fortunately, the "music" stopped thumping from somewhere across the rice paddies around 11pm.

As you can see, the walls aren't very thick and any sound from anywhere in the neighborhood can be clearly heard

Wooden posts are best put on top of a stone column base to prevent the wood from rotting out. The tall concrete bases on all the houses around here would have been done long after the buildings were first built

The road was definitely paved when we were here 12 years ago but it certainly wasn't this nice

This well, wash area, and set of public flushies dates to 1967. I'm kind of impressed

I definitely remember a higher percentage of the locals (especially the women) being dressed in more traditional clothing 12 years ago. This not really all that old PSA about protecting the environment certainly tends to lend credence to what I remember

I woke up at 5 and 6 and 7 and 8. I woke up because the Israeli got up from his bunk to go to the bathroom. I woke up because there were songbirds happily trilling a welcome song to the sun. I woke up because someone set off an alarm dog. I woke up because everything hurt from the climb to (and from) the cave. I woke up because I couldn't fall back asleep again.

Packed my gear from where it had gotten variously scattered about. I'd been very good about not leaving just leaving things where I'd been at the tables in the dining nook or the hammocks underneath the one stilt house. However, since I'd asked them to do my laundry, my things were still scattered with the majority of my clothing hanging on the line under the eaves of the house I was sleeping in but my socks and gloves and underwear somewhere else altogether.

Minor panic moment at a missing glove which was later found in the pocket of my jersey.

Strictly following traffic laws means everyone is happy

Just in case things weren't confusing enough with the road numbers on milemarkers being different than the numbers on maps, many of the important roads have more than one designation. In this case, AH13 means it's the Asia Highway 13 that goes through more than one country in Southeast Asia.

Can anyone tell me what game this post is used for?

On the smaller, less important roads, the milemarkers alternate between telling you the distance to the next town and the next BIG town. On this road, they just tell me how far I am from either Son La or Hanoi.

Breakfast eaten, luggage packed, laundry and yesterday's beers paid for and it was time to go into town to find the ATM as I had under 10,000 dong left to my name. Otherwise I might have decided on a morning massage. I still went with a long luxurious hair wash at one of the little barber shops in town as I lost my bandanna yesterday when out with Mark and bandanna-less I can smell my hair.

Back in 2006, a decent percentage of the various tchotkes for sale were made out of recycled hand woven brocades and embroidery. Now, although there was still a hand loom with a length of half finished cloth on display in front of my homestay, it's all brand new and mostly machine made. What's more, the few pleated brocade skirts I took a closer look at were all a printed synthetic made to look like one of the embroidered handwoven brocade skirts. I thought this was all for the tourists but, having spent much of the day noticing about 1 in 6 local women going about their various daily chores wearing a mishmash of traditional ethnic clothing and modern clothing, it seems that these skirts are not being made just for the tourist market.

Obviously, I wasn't going to go up to someone and ask if I could touch her clothes. However, there was a dirty skirt abandoned in a rubbish pile and it was the same printed synthetic as the ones for sale in Lac Village.

I've got some really nice embroidery that I picked up in Yunnan out of a trash heap...

The only time I saw anyone in full traditional minority costume was when I saw a large group of people on motorbikes first coming up behind me and passing me and then, an hour or two later, dribbling back from the same direction. Even the guys were dressed up. Whatever special event they'd been going to, it was clearly a specific special event as I had plenty of time while I labored up the crazy steep climbs to watch them taking selfies or pictures of friends.

I think there are three people on that bike

Speaking of the crazy steep climbs, the GPS says I averaged 7% over 19.5km of going uphill. Averaged! Anything in my legs that wasn't already hurting and twinging and ouching from yesterday's stairs has now been given plenty of opportunity to be stiff and sore. I suspect tomorrow will probably be a short day again.

My camera has an in-built level. The hill really is that steep.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 1,245 km (773 miles)

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