Tour de Laos

Hello!!!

Today can you guess what we did? Hahah we biked around the country side.

Stage 1:
We got hooked up with our bikes that were Giant brand moutain bikes because we figured since it rained last night (that is an understatement... it poured) we needed some bikes with thick wheels and thick tread to get us through the mud with more than one gear.

The terrain was flat with huge rocks sticking out everywhere and muddy it took us over a bridge to which you have to pay to cross and then through the village on the other side of the river. Our first stop was a cave to which we locked our bikes and walked about 600meters through rice paddies and mud.. thick mud... thich mud all over!! We had to pay to get into the cave and two little kids followed us and then turned around half way and said 10,000 kip each for guide.. we looked at eachother and said no.. no no... 5,000 for the both of you and we have our own torch (headlamp) they declined us and went the other way. So on our own we went. It was a steep climb up to what we thought was the cave but it actually was a cave just not the cave we were going to see, but we explored it anyways. It was dark and Tyson saw a bat he claims. But it was very slippery inside. Once out of the cave we found the real cave which was a very steep climb up the side of a vertical krat. We were sweating our faces off and it was slippery as hell. But the cave was skinny and long. Once inside we walked over a bamboo bridge and there was some crawl spaces to the sides but we didnt crawl into them for fear of bats.

Stage 2:
Uphill for a bit past some rice paddies with a beautiulf backdrop of huge limestone krats we peddled through the rocks of the road getting passed by tractor/tuk tuks in a farming sort of way. We past some options to other caves and to actually trek a limestone krat but by this stage of the race it was almost time for lunch and we were getting tired. We peddled to a lagoon which also had a cave nearby and it was written up in the guidebook as a good half day excursion. We locked our bikes and decided to start the climb up the vertical (not kidding it was pretty vertical slippery rocks/mud and bamboo railing to hold on to. We made it half way when I (sara) just couldn't go no more, legs were shaky i needed food. So we stopped on a rock and had our lunch (Cinnamon bun and a coconut bun and some water ... lunch of tour de france winners eh?) Or Tyson says POW. After the sugar kicked in we made our way to the top .. it was tiring.. but we did it and inside the MASSIVE .. massive is an understatemenet.. GIGANTIC cave we went. It was sooooo big with huge staclites (sp?) and it had a buddha shrine inside part of it. I was still tired so i just chilled inside soaking it all in .. then Tyson went more inside and climbing and he said it was even bigger further in but he got too scared to go all the way to the end by himself and tried to convince me to come with him but i was just too exhausted. Tyson says the cave he climbed into was the size of a football field.

Stage 3:
After our decent down the mountain... it was a little scary... we sat by the lagoon washing our muddy feet and legs. We then proceeded back to the road where the rain began to fall. On the way back we stopped by a little monestary to which we sat with some monks who just laughed and smoked... it was a little awkward at best... and the monestary was small. From there on we came accross a little hut where a women was weaving a silk peice of cloth. Tyson wanted to buy one so we did.. the lady was not much of a bargainer but it was still cheap. The peice he bought wasn't even finished yet and we had to wait 5 minutes for her to finish off the ends.

Stage 4:

The race against the rain began.. making things more muddy and slippery but fun none the less. We had a steady flat finish over the bridge again to cross the river and back into town. The rain was coming.. but not monsoon hard.. but enough to get wet. Good thing it is warm rain. We then took our bikes back and got a snack of champions some chips. Went back to the bungalow to shower up and read. Tyson finished his book, i as usual tried to read.. about 20 pages and fell asleep.

We then ate dinner, and booked a half day rock climbing adventure. Even though we are both physically exhausted... but i think the limstone krats will have some good holds. It should be fun. Might have to bust out the cliff energy bar.

PS: Ummm we go on a kayaking adventure and no one emails us? What gives?

Sara and Tyson