Thursday, October 30, 2008

Savouring the mountains of Lao

Map courtesy of Lonely Planet

Two Battleship Blue + One Khaki Green SURLY LHT reporting for duty!
Pic - Chris Wee CGOAB

Pic taken fm Crazyguyonabike - jan houtermans

Laos, sandwiched between China, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand is the poorest country in IndoChina. Yet, it is the richest in terms of amazing scenery and beautiful people. 3 of us all on Surly Long Haul Truckers will be attempting to cycle the mountainous route from Luang Prabuang to Vientiane for 2 glorious weeks in Nov. Its a 500km ride reaching up 1600m from sea level and offers plenty of climbs. It's also the start of the cool season, so days should be about 22c and nights 15c. Delicious!

I have learnt that riding through mountains mean lots of pain but the spectacular scenery promises to be worth every excruciating pedal, I'm told. We shall be flying to Bangkok first, then connect via a domestic flight to *Udon Thani, taxi 50km to the border town of Nong Khai. Then ride 30km across the Mekong to Vientiane where we will fly to Luang Prabuang on a twin propellor plane. Quite a hassle to get there which makes this trip very exciting indeed.

Stay tune as I savour the mountains of Lao, on the saddle. Will try to update when able.


*I did a brief trip to Vientiane in early 07 and promised a return trip so ...
http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/22956

2 comments:

Nat said...

good luck. I hope it turns out well. As usual, I will be lurking around for stories.

Oldyonfoldy said...

Lurk away! I note you have a LHT too :)