The Wobblin' Sprocket

Joan Oppel wrote this piece which appears in the March, 2010 issue of The Pedal Patter, the monthly newsletter of the Potomac Pedaler Touring Club.  Joan was on Tour d’ Indochine a year ago.

The article had no pics so I’m taking the liberty to add a few from the trip.

Visiting the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi

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The guy who owned this water buffalo could not believe that it would let Joan hop on its back (apparently they can smell people and don't like it). I couldn't believe that Joan even tried it.

Joan on her way to Tram Ton Pass outside Sapa

Joan with Hmong girl in Kiu Kacham

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Joan outside school getting ready to distribute books from Big Brother Mouse

L- Riding pal, Wayne R- Joan

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The whole group at Tay Tran border crossing from Vietnam to Laos. L to R: Clive, Jose, Shawn, Wilma, Me- Bob, Joan, Richie, Wayne, Mark, Graeme and Dan.

A big thanks to Joan for sharing the experience!

Best,

Bob

The Lao people are friendly, the destination is spectacular and uncrowded and, perhaps more than anything else, in the countryside, it’s a throwback to a different time when people primarily lived off the land…doing things they always have.  Laos has a way of leaving an impression.

For me, there is nothing that makes doing these tours more worthwhile than to read participant accounts of their journey.

In the grand scheme of things, the tours are not particularly long: 2 or 3 weeks of biking, at the most.  But that’s  long enough to see and experience plenty that leaves an impression.

Anyway, I returned home from the last Tour d’ Indochine (Vietnam and Laos) to find a couple things written by participants:

1. A  letter from Fred Carson to the Lao Ambassador in Washington DC.
2. An account of last year’s Tour d’ Indochine, written by Joan Oppel, appearing in “The Pedal Patter”, the monthly newsletter of the Potomac Pedalers Touring Club.

Below is Fred’s letter.  I’ll put Joan’s lengthier write up in a separate post.

Best,

Bob

The author removed the question mark behind Slovenia from the title of this piece.  He did the right thing.  Slovenia’s success in sports is no surprise.  It’s an outdoor wonderland and has had all sorts of sports success.

People in the US will be hearing a lot more about Slovenia in the future as the US and Slovenia are in the same World Cup qualifying group (along with England and Algeria).  Don’t be surprised if Slovenia advances and the US does not.  The former will let it all hang out and go for broke from the get go.  The US has tons of injuries and has yet to show much team chemistry.

What’s this have to to do with biking?  Nothing…just when you’ve been there a few times, you begin to take notice of a place that has it’s sports crazy act together.

The Real Olympic Champs: Norway, Austria…and Slovenia – BusinessWeek.