Laos: The Bolavens

In true Eurovision style, voici la premiere entree bilingue de notre blog - here is the first biligual entry on our blog... France 10 points!

(Beautiful French Presenter) Nous venons de passer un sejour de reve dans le plateau des bolovens au Laos. Tout simplement magnifique! Nous avons fait un tour du plateau avec Jean-Charles, un cycliste francais que nous avons rencontre a Savannaket, ici en photo avec son beau velo.

(Terry Wogan) And here's a little introduction to the Bolaven Plateau near Pakse - a beautiful place of hills, waterfalls, jungle and nice poeple. The girls teamed up with Jean-Charles from Nice for the trip... found him a decent bike before they set off though..

(BFP) La premiere chose a noter au laos, c'est qu'il y a du pain. Hourra!

Sylvia a meme pu avoir un sandwich a la vache qui rit.

(TW) Before we tell you about the cycling, Sylv would like to share her joy at the availablity of 'good bread' in Laos ... she's filling up on processed cheese sandwiches now and smiling all the way!

(BFP) Ensuite c'est la beaute de la route, que nous avons fait en 4 etapes, dont une premiere de 50kms de monte non-stop de plus de 1100m de denivele. Mais un denivele doux; ce n'est que plus tard que les pourcentages de la cote se sont corses...

(TW) So, breakfast over, here's some pics of the beautiful plateau - there was a long climb up for 50km to get to the top... a long day's climb that was soooo worth it!

(BFP) La route au Laos est un vrai plaisior a velo car il y a tres peu de circulation et les paysages sont magnifiques. Rajoutez a cela les enfants qui accourent sur les bords des routes pour vous faire un enorme sourire et crier 'Sabaide' (bonjour en Laos), et c'est le bonheur.

Les routes principales sont en bon etat, en general, a part quand elles sont en travaux. La, c'est la boue et la poussiere rouge.

(TW) Apparently the roads are pretty ok here and pretty empty too, which makes riding a pleasure. There are kids all the way along the route waving and calling out hallo (in Lao, of course) which is nice... even when you hit a patch that's being resurfaced and spend a few hours getting covered in the lovely red dust of the mountains, freshly watered into red mud by the nice men on the water lorry..

(BFP) Et dans les villages, les ponts ne sont pas toujours des plus actuels...

(TW) The team have wobbled across a few dodgy looking bridges...

(BFP) Nous etions donc au pays du cafe. Des plantations a pertes de vue, avec l'odeur exquise des cafeiers en fleurs et les grains qui sechent partout au bord de la route.

(TW)... and enjoyed a return to coffee land - the wonderful scent of coffee bushes in flower, that of coffee beans drying in the sun next to the road... and a fresh brew or two too I should think!

(BFP) Les Francais avaient implenter le cafe sur ce plateau. Le cafe des Bolovens est reconnu comme etant l'un des meilleurs cafe au monde. On s'est regale! Le 'Cafe Laos' se boit comme sur la photo: un cafe tres noir (voir goudroneu) avec du lait condense sucre.

(TW) The French claim they were responsible for bringing coffee to the plateau and it's meant to be one of the best tasting in the world ... they would say that of course and between you and me, our two French tasters made a number of comments about the oil like texture, linking it to the re-surfacing works we'd just ridden through... so it might be a little stronger than we're used to at home, and doesn't change colour much when you add a bit of Carnation!

(BFP) Sur le plateau, a cause de l'altitude, il fait frais la nuit. Quand nous sommes partis de Paksong a 7h du matin, il faisait pres de 10 degC et il y avait une brume epaisse qui nous empechait de voir a 20m mais nous a offert des paysages sublimes.

(TW) It was a bit chilly in the mornings up on the plateau... nice views of the world submerged in mist and the sun trying to get through. Sylv took her socks off not long after midday..

(BFP) Par contre, des 9h, ca se degage, et le soleil perce a nouveau, pour faire grimper la temperature jusqu'a pres de 35 degC l'apres-midi.

(TW)... it warms up later in the day as you can see!

(BFP) Les maisons sont faites de bois et sur pilotis. Voici un petit magasin de bord de route, et une maison de village.

(TW) A little view of the villages they rode through...

(BFP) On trouve chien, singe en laisse, coq, poule, poussin et cochon dans les villages.

(TW) There are lots of animals around... here's a couple of nosey porkers...

(BFP) On a rencontre une famille de voyageurs de Marseille.... at passe des soirees inoubliables autours d'une bouteille de Lao Lao et des assiettes assorties de on ne sait quoi

(TW) This is the only photo available of the lovely family, Mattieu, Sabine and Nora from Marseille the team met in Tad Lo - many evenings spent tasting the local drink, Lao lao and various un-named delicacies..

(BFP) Et les nombreux bombes et missiles non-exploses, largues par les americains lors de la guerre du Vietnam, sont utiliser pour toute sorte de choses. Par example, comme vase.

(TW) The plateau's position on the route home from bombing raids during the Vietnam war means they're still turning up unexploded bombs, some of which have been used in interesting ways... a fetching vase for instance

(BFP) Dans les Bolovens, il y a plein de chutes d'eau.

(TW) There were waterfalls... lots of them

(BFP) Nous en avons traverse certaines a dos d'elephant
(TW) And Sylv and Jean Charles took a tour on an elephant to get a better view

(BFP) et avons loges dans des cabanes dans la jungle au bord des cascades, dans une 'tree house'.
(TW) To top it all off our team spent a night in a house in the jungle, overlooking the waterfall... and unintentionally feeding a super-scuttler forest monster, who kept pinching the bananas and waking them up!

(BFP) Voici l'interieur de notre cabane des 3 petits cochons.

(TW) The house was a bit like home to the 3 little pigs.... 3 beds, 3 mosquito nets, 3 soaps and 3 pairs of shoes in front of the door, and pink!

(BFP) Et nous vivions un peu a la Robinson Crusoe. Ici, petit linge a la cascade.

(TW) In true jungle fashion, the washing was done in the waterfalls...

(BFP) A Phasoum nous avons pu voir des tribus qui tissent encore les fameux tissus Lao avec des metiers a tisser manuels.

(TW) And the tribal people next door were happy to show us how they made the lovely fabrics admired in the villages

(BFP) Et jouent des instruments fait en bambou.

(TW) Ah, Eurovision wouldn't be the same without the annual pan pipes act....

(BFP) Allez, pour finir des photos de rizieres et de buffalo d'eau.

(TW) Don't know where these are from... a few pictures of the paddy fields further north.... pretty green in the morning sun...

More pics from the ashram... better late than never!

While I still can, a few more pictures of the Ashram in October, views I'll let speak for themselves... a taste of the calm beauty of the Himalayas

Happy Year 2553

It's in nakhon Phanom that we've celebrated New Year's eve in style.

After feeding the elephants with Jude and Dave, 2 american cyclists who stayed in the same

hotel, we went for a Pad Thai before joining the celebration along the Mekong.

A stage with officials and some strange games. For example, if you were wearing glasses you had to go at the front to receive a prize: harriet got a shopping bag!

And then the sparkles, the countdown and the fireworks! Beautiful over a full moon.

And straight after the King's NY speech, the national anthem and some other official songs.

Christmas at Mut Mee

Thanks toTony there is now a picture of the two of us -a very rare occasion as it's otherwise always one or the other. As you can see, evidence from our sober Christmas eve, although we did let go a bit and had a Bailey's at midnight (thanks Tony again).

A lovely night at the Mut Mee guesthouse in Nong Khai, in a garden overlooking the Mekong river. No Santa Claus, mince pies or mulled wine, but a wonderful vegetarian buffet and traditional Thai music and dance, followed by a remarkable Irish band. A lovely evening, and the lovely company of Tony.

update from the Mekong

A reassurance post to let you know we're still here!.. and have been pedaling happily over hills for the past few weeks... powered by copious amounts of nice food.

We've been visiting along the way - not just random Thai towns where we've found a bed for the night... thought there have been plenty of them! We've been in the beautiful ruins of Sukhothai, through beautiful sunrises over the mountains..

The scenery is magnificent and cycling is such a lovely way to visit. We stopped at waterfalls before attacking a BIG climb on the way up from Phitsanulok

And had a few days rest in Phu Ruea where the national park is beautiful and we were lucky enough to meet Tiger the ranger (true!) who put our bikes in the back of his pick up and whisked us up to the peak - a very steep climb, too steep for a 'rest' day! The views were great from up there, and the creep down with the brakes on was worth it!

Here's Sylv chilling out in front of our Chalet - and the view from the top

From Phu Ruea we made it down to the gastronomic centre that is Loei - veg restaurant and lovely tasty night market with puddings to taste (interesting mixtures of beans, rice, onion and sweetness..)! and then pedalled on to the Mekong...

Chiang Khan was a chilled out little village with fancy hens, good soup thanks to Mr Tu and a nice man who cooked up some fab veg food for us :o)

Here we met Carolin - a 'real cyclist' just on her way back to Bangkok after tackling the mountains of Laos (not on the pink bike you'll be glad to hear... ). We shared routes, thoughts and a slap up dinner on a bench at the market... all very nice!

Then it was off for a marathon ride to Sang Khom - village on the Mekong... with a lovely long chat with Elsa and Ollivier from France (literally... they cycled ALL the way!) and a slap up, tear-jerking green papaya salad lunch along the way for Sylv :o)

We finally arrived and we've settled at Mr and Mrs Toy's bungalow heaven... hammock with view over the river, lots of lovely food and laughter and singing.... might leave tomorrow if we can pull ourselves off the veranda!

A map

In yellow: journey on the train - In green: on the bicycles

And here is a map of our journey in Thailand. Might help to locate us...
We started in Bangkok where we took a train to Ayuthaya. From there we cycled in a few stages to Nakkon Sawan. As the roads were quite big and busy, we took a train from there to Chiang Mai.
Then from Chiang Mai back down on the bikes on smaller B roads through some lovely landscape and hills to Sukhothai.
Since then, we're heading East through Phitsanulok towards the North-East of Thailand to reach Nong Khai by Christmas and cycle along the Mekong Thai-Laos border up to Mukdahan where we will finally cross into Laos. At least that's the plan!
Today we're in a little town just before Phu Rua. And it's hilly!!!

Quiz time

What is this woman selling at the night market???

Yes, there are dog's outfit, to keep them warm in the winter. But when we say winter here it's nothing compared to Europe: it's not very cold. And the great thing with these doggy outfits is that they have holes in the right place to allow doggy to do wewe and poopoo without dirtying the nice outfit, as evident from the picture below.