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Whew. The first internet bar since Pho Chao in Vietnam…200km ago! 

The distance may look small on a map, but the difference between Lao and Vietnam is like night and day.  We entered Lao on Jan 19th, after climbing a long 5km mountain road to the pass/border.  Vietnam had been cloudy and cold in the previous week, contributing to Adam and Jim’s day-long illnesses.  The moutain pass seemed to be holding the clouds on the Vietnam side though.  As soon as we crossed the border and started going down the steep valley road, the clouds thinned and soon the sun was shining full force, warming us once and for all.  60km in, it became so hot that we can’t bike comfortably from 11:30am - 3pm due to intense sun.  Luckily the weather is dry so the shade is cool.  For the 5th time or so now, I think we’ve finally arrived in the tropics.  I’d be surprised if the cold caught up with us again.

Besides sunshine and warmth, the other thing we immdiately noticed in Lao were the huge trees, certainly old growth all along highway 8 from Vietnam to Lao’s main north-south highway, 13 (these two highways are two of only a couple more paved roads in Lao).  What an obvious difference in lumbering policy.  I’ve never seen such big trees in China or Vietnam, though given their populations, its understandible that their wood resources are strained.  With 30 million people in Vietnam, even the countryside has a dense population.  We found it difficult to get more than 100m away from a house for camping.  Lao on the other hand only has 4 million.  So even though we’re on the main highway, the traffic is very light compared with China and Vietnam.  I’d heard about bikers loving Lao due to light traffic on this good road, but I had no idea most of Lao feels like a national park with by far the cleanest freshest air and water I’ve seen on the trip.  This has opened up wonderful camping possibilities, though the night before last we stayed with a family (Vin) who invited us in when Drew stopped to ask about tire shops.

We’re resting today, but look forward to continuing our journey south to Cambodia through this beautiful country, where most people live in small villages mostly composed of wooden houses on stilts.  Unfortunately some things are more expensive than Vietnam since they have to be imported, but fortunately people seem more honest in their commerence with us.  Another pleasant difference here in Lao is that although children and adults still say hello to us whenever we pass by, nearly everyone says hello in their native language, “Sa-ba-dee,” with a tone that seems more genuine and less mocking.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 3:02 am and is filed under Pete's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.