The Wobbling Sprocket

Hey, Maryvonne and Doug Mack are featured on the front page of the Canon City Daily Record (Canon City, CO).

Cañon City Daily Record – High Adventure.

They got some plugs in for Far and Away Cycling!  They are right about the biking.  It’s not easy.  Lots of mountains and there was plenty of construction at the front end in Vietnam (it should be done by the end of the year).   If there was good news for us regarding the construction, it was that we were there during Tet and no construction was actually taking place while we were on the roads (and not much traffic either).

Chantal made all the arrangements for the climb up Mt. Fansipan.  The group included  Chantal, Robin Mason, Gwyn Kutz and the Mack’s.   They had some excitement that went beyond the climbing.  There was a forest fire raging on the mountain and they were the last ones allowed to make the trek.  While our group  was coming down firefighters (the military) were heading up.  The firefighters wanted the group to turn around and go with them to help fight the fire (“Ahh, sure, we definitely would…but we have to meet some bikers.”)

Fansipan is the tallest mountain in Vietnam at 3,150 meters (9th tallest in SE Asia).   According to Chantal, the biggest challenge of the climb was the steepness.  It gets to 60% so it is quite a scramble.  That didn’t slow Robin down.  She went to the summit twice…just for good measure.  The highest mountain in SE Asia is Mt. Hkakabo Razi (5,880 meters).  It is and located in Northern Burma.  We’ll keep that one in mind for a future adventure.

Fansipan may be our first trekking add-on for a bike tour, but it won’t be the last.  After the Sikkim (India) bike tour we have a 4 day hike to Dzongri planned….the better to gaze upon Mt Kangchendzonga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world.

Here are some picks of the gang scrambling up the mountain together with  a link to the article as it appears in The Daily Record.

Fanispan

L to R: Gwyn, guide, Doug, Chantal and Robin

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Maryvonne and Doug

Maryvonne and Doug

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Chantal and Gwyn

Chantal and Gwyn yukking it up in trek hut.

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A scramble.

The participants in this year’s Tour d’ Indochine:

Barb M. from Wash DC

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L to R: Gwyn (from Ottawa Canada), Federica (from Italy) and Paolo (from Italy)

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Doug M from Canon City CO

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L- Maryvonne M (Canon City CO); R- Mr. Ken (Odomxai, Laos)

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Graeme (Austrailia)

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L - Chantal B (Arlngton,VA) R-Bob Bloomfield (MD)

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Jim W (VA) on his Bike Friday

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Elaine W (VA)

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L - Jeff T R- Jenny W (from Jersey City, NJ)

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Robin M (Arlington VA)

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Mr. Daolit

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Mr Thune (Odomxai, Laos

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L to R: Fede, Robin and the fabulous MS MAY!!!!

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Me....Bob

Thanks again to each of you who made it a fun tour.  It’s never really been about the biking (of which there is alsays  plenty).,.  It’s all about the people.

Chantal and I head home from BKK tomorrow.  So does Graeme, who is in BKK also.

Best,

Bob

Today we bring it all home.    Everyone has made it this far and you don’t want anything bad to happen on the last day. That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty that happens on this  final day of riding on the tour.

On the tours, we always do something to help a school along the way.  We all pitched in this time to buy some books from Big Brother Mouse.  Big Brother Mouse publishes books for children.  Books are hard to come by in Laos and many kids never have hardly any books to read.  We picked out school along the way to stop and drop them off.  We never really know what to expect in doing this.  We don’t plan it so the school never knows in advance.

I send our local guide out up front to make sure the school knows we are coming…maybe 15 minutes ahead of time.

That was apparently plenty of time, since the whole school of a 150 kids or so were in the schoolyard waiting for us.

I make a little speech and so does someone from the school.  The highlight though was that Jim W. offered to teach the kids a song. ….”Old McDonald had a Farm”.  This was a big hit.  Apparently, ‘oink, oink” works in any language.

We had the usual lunch on the floating boats at Tha Ngon. All 17 of us went…..bikers and the Lao support crew. We had Shrimp tempura, lao salad, chicken with ginger and mixed veggies. We also had Beerlao and Jim bought a couple bottles of wine.

It’s only 25 k after lunch. Some folks took the van in and others rode the final distance. The biking in the last 25k is really not much. It’s always crowded, hot and chaotic. We all made it though.

Doug Mack gave his bike to Mr. Daolit, our Lao guide.  Maryvonne Mack gave her bike to Mr. Thune, our driver.  Ms. May, Mr Daolit and Mr Thune all did a great job.

I’d like to thank everyone who came on the tour. It was a great group. I will get everyone’s pic up in the next day or two. We have two nights in Vientiane at the lovely Intercity on the banks of the Mekong. I”s a recovery of sorts. This is not an easy ride.

Best,

Bob

Some of the kids at the school where we donated books....

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The School where we stopped....

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Despite having only 15 minutes advanced notice, the entire school turns out. It was great that we had Italy, Canada, France and the US represented among us.

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Jim Wilson teaching the kids "Old McDonald". He had them going!!!! Us too!

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The assembled kids. They stood like this for about 1/2 hour.

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Chantal greeting the kids.

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A couple kids at the school.

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On the floating boat. For some, this was the end of the riding.....

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Shrimp tempura, Lao salad, mixed vegetables and ginger chicken.....and some Beerlaos.

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Doug and maryvonne Mack gave their bikes to Mr. Daolit and Mr, Thune. Nope, they are not hanging up their biking shoes (although they gave them away with the bikes). They simply have better bikes at home and thought they'd be better used with Daolit and Thune. That was very nice of them.

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The Old Burmese Stupa in Vientiane. The end of a tour is always bittersweet. Yeah, there is relief that the challenges are over, but sadness that the adventure ihas come to an end. This is not an easy tour, but that really is the attraction. You suffer through the hard spots, you take pleasure in the beauty, you meet a lot of great people and in the end perhaps understand the world a little bit better and yourself as well.