from Vietnam to Laos

Our last night in Vietnam was at Pho Chou, less than 50 km to the Vietnam-Laos border. The highway that runs north-south through Pho Chou is called 'Ho Chi Minh' - surely that is the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail of Vietnam War days. 20 km along the road was Tay Son where we saw these piglets being prepared for market. They came out of the cages on the back of the scooters and were put into the individual wrappings and weighted.

Tay Son is where the relentless climb to the Laos border began... it is also where we would have started today had the area not been hard hit two weeks ago by a typhoon that brought with it more rain than they had seen in fifty years, washing out roads and putting our accommodation out of action.

travelling wishes as we head into the washed-out areas

one of the slides that had been cleared...

...and one that they're working to repair...

Ursula getting by the construction on a steep grade

Doug, our bike mechanic... that's actually a 10 present
grade that he looks like he's pulling the baggage cart up.

The Laos border post where as Canadians we pay 43 USD for a visa... no other nationality pays more than 35 USD!!!

We're immediately amazed at the natural beauty of Laos, the clear blue sky, water in the river that looked like it could be swum in...

There is evidence of the unfortunate lingering consequences of the conflicts in this region...

...looking into the valley where we'll spend the night after the 145 km ride. When the countryside is this beautiful, the km go by easily.

On our way the next morning with this rock formations lit by the morning sun...

... and a 9-km 650-metre climb brings us to this scene... breathtaking... 

 

...but then we left the spectacular scenery behind at 30 km and descended into the heat (meaning 35+ degrees with the sun beating down - good complaint to have I guess, but it's hot!!!) meandering through agricultural land in the Mekong valley for another 120 km before getting to Thakhek, on the bank of the Mekong to the Mekong Hotel where we get our well-deserved rest day.

Sunset from the hotel, looking across the
Mekong at Thailand... we won't enter Thailand
for close to another month.

Rest day was an opportunity to visit one of the closer caves in the area, caves that have served as holy places...

...and beside it we watched the beginning of a local wedding...

 ...So here I am, sitting in the outdoor corridor at the hotel... I'm out here in the heat because the wifi doesn't penetrate the room... watching the sun coming down...

Laos... If we had any preconceptions about Laos, they were vaguely that this little landlocked country with a currency whose value you can't find on the Bank of Canada website, a currency that you can't take beyond the borders of the country and exchange it for anything, a country that the tour guides say to stay on the road for fear of land mines... all of those things led us not to have high expectations.

What we've found is cleaner air, more beautiful landscapes, blue skies, friendly people. Sure, garbage is still a problem mitigated only by a smaller less-dense population, not by consciousness of the environment. And life for many is probably pretty basic, but it doesn't appear worse than anywhere else that we've been. There are many colourful, well-kept houses in towns. Older buildings in villages are usually wooden and are built on stilts, not so much for flooding as for cooling and keeping the vermin out, and providing space for carts and tools etc below.

So the last couple of days are the nicest we've seen since leaving Shanghai six weeks ago.

Tomorrow we start southwards along the Mekong.