Vientiane – Pakse

Well, 750km and 7 riding days later, I find myself in Pakse in the south of Laos. It was fast, flat and hot riding- here’s the story!

So January 2nd saw me riding out of Vientiane early, heading for the Thai border, about 20km away. On the way I passed the Beer Lao brewery- the home of a lot of my joy in Laos! haha.

My 30-day visa was about to expire and I wasn’t done with Laos yet, so I was crossing into Thailand just to pay some more money to come back in! It was a fast ride, and a painless process crossing into Thailand, and I even found a 7-Eleven on the other side to grab some snacks without paying the mark-up that Laos seems to put on it. Then it was back across the Mekong into Laos. Going from Thailand to Laos the bridge had signs saying no motorbikes or bicycles but the guard waved me on so I was happy!

By 10am I was back on the road with another 30 days to enjoy Laos! For the rest of my time in Laos I’m following the Mekong River south to the border with Cambodia.

On the way I passed Buddha Park, which a few people had recommended to visit. I was a bit underwhelmed by it- a big concrete sculpture park built around 1960. I dunno, maybe I was just keen to push on. It just didn’t strike me as an authentic tourist attraction. I guess that’s how desperate Vientiane is. Maybe if it was closer to town- I’m just glad I didn’t go out of my way to visit it, it was on my route.






It was a rough sealed and then dirt road beyond Buddha Park. I was following a local road beside the Mekong before it swung back to the left to join up with Highway 13S – the main ‘highway’ that runs the length of the country. It was some great riding though, passing some nice fields and as always, friendly locals!

As I was taking the last two photos above, I was approached by a local woman called Olin who spoke english and invited me to her house where some New Years celebrations were still underway. I smiled and said sabadee to all of the family, and drank a few beers with them! It was really nice, but I had to excuse myself before I drank too much and wouldn’t have been able to leave!

The rest of the day was spent pushing on to Tha Bok where there was a couple of nice guesthouses. I stayed at the T&M Guesthouse where the proprietor spoke good english. As always I was allowed to take my bike into the room!

There’s not a lot to say about the next 2 days to Viang Kham. It was flat and hot riding, and they were shorter days (60 and 90km) because of the spacing to Paksan and Viang Kham.. I’ll just throw in some photos.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but Viang Kham is on “The Loop” – a popular side trip that a few other cyclists I know have followed. Frustratingly I didn’t do my research before leaving my internet connection in Vientiane and only realised when I got back online in Thakhek, at the southern end of it.
Here are some photos from the most boring part of The Loop that I did..





Hehe, it’s funny, because there’s a truck beside the sign. I’ve been on the road too long….

I spent a couple of nights in Thakhek, at the Travellers Lodge, which is a little bit away from the centre of town. I went for a ride in to pick up some tasty baguettes! I’m finding that outside of the main towns the food is getting pretty monotonous- noodle soup twice a day with some sticky rice now and then to add some variety!

It was a very hot 140km day to Savannakhet (once you take into account the ~10km of riding around town looking for a guesthouse!). I was thinking about having another day off the bike here, but decided it wasn’t worth it and would just push on to Pakse. There were some decent baguette vendors, but the guesthouses were generally pretty expensive (or had closed down), and I was getting frustrated with the one-way system!
Here are the photos from the ride to Savannakhet:




Lao-Thailand Friendship bridge #2. I’m guessing the brown bits show how high it gets in the wet season!

I’m starting to get pretty far south now.. One of the problems I’ve had with this section was knowing where the guesthouses were- seeing as no-one had added them to OpenStreetMap. Luckily Emma and Justin at Rolling Tales mentioned that there was a guesthouse near the 545km marker. I headed for this to break up the journey between Savannaket and Pakse into two 120km days. As I rode south from Vientiane I’ve been marking all the guesthouses I pass in my GPS and have now added them to OpenStreetMap, so any cyclists using this data in future should be a lot more prepared.

 
The guesthouse was pretty average and overpriced- a lumpy mattress on the floor with a bucket to shower with, but it did the job in the middle on nowhere. It’s been 30ºC every day since I left Vientiane, so I’ve been on the road by 7am while it’s still relatively cool. That would be great if my daily distances were only 60-80km and I could be at my destination by lunchtime, but these long distances between destinations mean I’m usually not rolling in till the hottest part of the day. My shirt and shorts are getting literally caked in sweat- I started licking my shirt to get some salt back into my body! There’s no shade on the road here, and I’m drinking about 5l of water a day. The sun’s harsh, and burns skin quickly if you don’t have sunscreen on. But then because it’s so hot even my SPF 50+ struggles to stop me getting tanned. I’ve got quite the glove-line!

On the plus side, coming from the mountains to the flat has meant my speed has increased- I’ve maintained a speed of over 20km/h the whole time south of Vientiane. This is even with the new wider tyre on the front (which cost me about 3km/h when I switched the back on the the wider tire in the UK).

Finally, flat another 120km took me to Pakse. The photos show how dry the landscape is here- it must be amazingly different in the wet season! Pakse is a bit of a hub in southern Laos, with lots of backpackers stopping here. There are some great cafes serving coffee from the nearby Bolaven Plateau, and I even found one that makes a decent Flat White!



 

So now I’m here for a couple of days- chilling out and getting ready to head to the 4000 Islands. These are a collection of islands on the Mekong that sound pretty awesome- I’m hoping to spend about a week there! I just found out that I don’t have to do my medical examination for the container ship journey until a week before it sails, so it suddenly gives me a lot more flexibility in my route from here to Bangkok. It’s less than 6 weeks till I get to Bangkok so the trip really feels like it’s getting close to the finale- I hope you keep following the journey! :-D

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