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

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

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.

Now there are reports that the might Mekong, is at 20 year lows, and apparently no longer navigable.

Although tourist inconvenience is the the least of the problems  caused by low water conditions, anyone looking to travel between Chaing Khong, Pak Beng and Luang Prabang should be consulting the internet and reports of whether boats are making it.  At a minimum, be prepared to spend an overnight on a beach somewhere in case the boat gets grounded or can’t make it.

It was only a year ago that the Mekong was over its banks.   Currently there are massive works in Vientiane to build a containing breakwater.   Things can change fast on the river.

There are always reports that China’s mgmt of the river upstream is to blame, but it seems the current condition is simply lack of rain.  It rained only once (overnight in Muong Khua) on our recent two weeks in Laos.

Boat services suspended as level of Mekong plunges.

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

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.

That night we had the usual blow out final dinner at the floating restaurant with the dancing waitresses.  No pics on that.  I was too busy shaking a leg…or hand or whatever you do for Lao dancing.  Sometimes….what happens on a tour should stay on a tour.  You will have to come to find out…..

Best,

Bob

No mistaking the town where you catch the boat to Nam Ngum. You can smell the fish drying from a mile away.

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Our boat for Nam Ngum. This thing was huge. We went in style. It took a couple hours and elimnated between 80 and 90k of riding.

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Graeme and Elaine on the boat. Everyone took the boat except Robin, Chantal, Fede and Paulo.

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Plenty of room on this.

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Maryvonne relaxing on the boat ride to Nam Ngum.

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Nam Ngum - home to the floating restaurant with dancing waitresses!

I went with the kayakers.  There were 6 of us in total:  me, Chantal, Paolo and Federica and Gwyn and Bob B.  The weather was fantastic.  We also had a great guide in “Aloon” who cooked up some great chicken kebabs on the river.

To top it all off…everyone….everyone went off the trapeze.  No one was going….then I went….then Chantal and Fede and Gwyn.  The guys couldn’t put up with 1 gusy and 3 girls so they ended up going as well.  It actually is scary.  I have some movies.  I will have to put them up when I find some better internet connections.

We had a nice meal on the Nam Song River that night.  Vangvieng really is a chill out town full of kids on a perpetual spring break, but it does have it’s attractions.

Best,

Bob

On the road to Vangvieng

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Bob Bloomfield on the road (team shiflless)

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Ready to tackle the Nam Song

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The big swing....it's damn high.....

We had a nice dinner in KK, but let’s face it, unless the village is putting on a shindig (we have run into a blow out one before) there really is not a lot to do. Before dinner we had a cocktail hour behind the restaurant….just past the toilets for the bus people and just before the hog pens. Neither of those two things diminished the ambiance or the pleasure of watching the sun vanish behind the hazy mountains.

The setting sun even provided some great light to take pics of the kids playing by the small brick catfish pond. You have to know where the good spots are in Kiu Kacham. Earlier in the evening Gwyn and I visited the school grounds. We found 4 small boys playing a version of “rock, paper, scissors” that somehow involved little tiny playing cards that they would throw on the ground.

The yard of the school had some playgrund equipment…style….parallel bars….chin up bar….basically just big sticks attached together. We both made use of those. I think I have a few pics.

In the morning we had eggs cooked by Ms May along with bread, jam and peanut butter. We also had some left over rolls from the JOMA bakery in LP. We all stopped at the hot springs for a dip.

There, we unloaded the bags of Jerry and Linda for who are biking independently and for whom we carried panniers. They were trailing somewhere behind us. Jerry and Linda were spending the night at the hot springs, while we were heading on to Kasi. After we all arrived in Kasi for a couple hours, the van people showed up. It seems that everyone else is turning in early.

Chantal and I wondered the streets a little, where we met a couple guys from the Basque country traveling by motorbike and some Lao kids that were eager to practice their English. We gave the later an english novel and Chantal also bought them a translation dictionary.

Tomorrow is a short day to Vangvieng. We normally kayak the last 7k in to town. There were only 6 takers this time for the kayaking. Me, Chantal, Freddy, Paolo, Gwyn and Bob B.

Best,

Bob

Heading towards Kasi

Enjoying the hotsprings

At the hotsprings

Anyway, after the monks, I visited the main drag to buy a dozen sandwiches for lunch and then bought 20 or so pastries at Joma to fuel us for the 7,000 feet of climbing that lay between us and Kiu Kacham.

Back at the Sabaidee, we all said our good byes. Jeff and Jenny were headed to Phuket later in the morning. Bob, Barbara, Jim, Elaine, Doug and Maryvonne are all hanging in LP for one more day and will meet us in Kasi. Fede, Paolo, Gwyn, Robin, Graeme, Chantal and I all forged ahead. The day actually turned out to be a great one. No one really had any problem at all making it in before 4pm.

We met Jerry and Linda on the road who were traveling self contained and I offered to take their bags to Kiu Kacham for them. They are still on the road so I hope that they are doing ok. The starte in Chaing Mai and have been on the road for 3 weeks. They seemed pretty happy to have their load lightened.

Kiu Kacham has changed a lot in the 4 years since Gwyn was last here. The restaurant is brand new. Their is an electric geyser in the shared bathrooms and what looks like a mini night market in front of the guesthouse.

Tomorrow we head to Kasi. It’s a spectacular ride. It’s not easy though. The weather seems unusually dry. Jim and Linda mentioned that they talked to people that took the slow boat from Chaing Khong to Pak Beng and did not make it due to low water. The paying customers had to spend a night on the beach when they ran out of daylight. Apparently, some people were completely unprepared for that. I bet they have some stories.

Best,

Bob

Group in front of Sabaidee GH in LP

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...decorating the yard of the Sabaidee

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Downtown Kiu Kacham

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Gwyn working out in KK

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Jerry and Linda from California with all their stuff

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Kid out back in kK