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

February News:  Get psyched up for The Criterium Internationale which takes place in Corscia starting March 27.  Also, promos on India and Laos.

F&A Cycling: India and Laos added.

I think this week will be Laos week.   We are headed to Vietnam and Laos in just a few days so I think it will get me psyched up (although I am already).  Everyone has their own take on Laos.

What’s fascinating to me though, is the different perspective you get from some of the accounts.  Most people think of Laos in terms of  Vientiane and Luang Prabang and  and Vangvieng.  Occasionally, they will toss in an overcrowded slowboat ride down the Mekong or a horrendous minivan journey over the mountains.   To me, that’s not Laos.  Laos is the countryside.  It’s the villages.  It’s the washer women beating clothes in the river.  It’s the kids hunting tiny fish with even tinier little spearguns.  It’s old ladies spinning cotton.  It’s grinding sugar cane.  It’s the Basci (spirit) ceremony and the roadside wedding and the guy on the road trying to shoot birds with a flintlock that looks like it should be in the Smithsonian.   It’s whole families trudging back to their homes with bundles of wood balanced on their heads.

Luang Prabang is definitely enchanting, Vientiane a little less so,  and Vangvieng is definitely a perpetual spring break town, but none of those capture the real Laos for me.

How might one find “the real” Laos?  Take a 4 day trek.  Ride a bike from town to town.  Sleep in a village.  Bathe in a river.  Visit a school.  Visit several schools.  “Talk” to the old man that hasn’t had a “farang dong mo” (long-nosed foreigner) speak to him, ever.

Laos is the agrarian countryside.  That’s where most people live with a lot of manual effort and, frequently, the boredom of a very simple life.   The roosters wake you up EVERY morning before daybreak and you go to bed early by the dim light of a single 40 watt bulb….if you are lucky.  You bathe under the single cold water spigot that serves the entire village. You go every day to the market to buy whatever you are going to eat that day.  That’s Laos.  It’s not so much visiting a destination as visiting a way of life.

Here is another report.   I second this view of Luang Prabang, but still, I feel the real Laos lies somewhere beyond:

Mad Tom’s Almanack: Luang Prabang.