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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

The trip starts with a really stupid crash on my bicycle back in my home town the day I leave. With a hurting wrist I carry my bikebag and the other stuff from train to train and finally into the Frankfurt airport. Some hours flight, a long stopover in Dubai Airport. Arriving in Kuala Lumpur at night, bound to take of for Vietnam the next morning. From the regular airport by bus to the LCCT, where I find nice company to talk about Nepal and Thailand all night. While boarding the plane, my group gets lost walking the runways, ends up on the wrong plane. Sleep deprivated as I am, I only laugh about this.

Reaching Hanoi in the morning. Wrist still hurst like mad. Well, why not take a taxi into town and then a bus directly on Cat Ba and relax a few days in Halong bay, I think. And so I start to pay my education fee to some smart Vietnamese, with no idea about the prices nor exchange rates. Eventually I reach Hai Phong by bus. The driver, who sold me a ticket to Cat Ba, drops my bags out of the bus and disappears. A flock of motorbike and taxi drivers surrounds me and wants to "give me a lift". The staff at the bus terminal isn't really helpfull either. No one really speaking English. I'm tired, but determined not to waste any more money on them. Start to assamble my bike right in front of the bus terminal, still surrounded by a dozen of smiling kids and another dozen of taxi drivers who touch basically every part of the bike. Scary... The constant stream of horning motorbikes and busses and lorries just ahead of me is even more scarry. Finally, the bike is ready and working well - my biggest concern is calmed. But where is the ferry port? No signs visible at all. One of the guys points to a direction... Off I go, eventually getting the drive and enjoy the messy traffic.

A somewhat English speaking lady brings me - not to the ferry port, but to a ticket office. Eager to get to Cat Ba, I pay 15$ for bus rides, and a speedboat transfer. Anything but happy I arrive just after a misty orange sunset on the island, get another bus ride to Cat Ba town and end up in a hotel on the main street. That first day in Vietnam ends with a big headache, probably from exhaustion. Motorbikes horn all night in front of my hotel, it seems. When I unpack my bags, I cannot find my new camera anymore. This is not Japan, I think by myself...

Next morning I discover a nice bakery just next door, the splendid view of the (noisy) harbor and the limestone rocks behind the line of hotels along the street. Two nice small beaches just half a mile away from the town, swimming in the warm sea in the morning sun. That's Asia, that's what I wanted. Spent days then cruising Halong Bay on houseboats and kajaking, hanging out on tiny beaches on small Robinson islands and collecting Shiva eye stones. Trecking in the Cat Ba National Park. Meet the right people in town, get the flow, fall in love and keep postponing my departure. Heaven, sort of. Why leave?

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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

After 8 nights on Cat Ba I'm ready to take off. Bike is packed, wrist seems to be okay, time to rock! Almost 20 miles to the ferry port, up and down. Slow boat to the next island, another 5 miles crossing laid back villages and crop fields towards the next ferry port. Children waving at me. Good vibes. Another ferry to the industrial area of Haiphong. Get myself a somewhat cheap digital camera as replacement for the disappeared good one. A few hours of daylight left, and I jump into the madness of Vietnamese traffic out of Haiphong, onto the Highway towards Ninh Binh. Motorbikes are barely faster than me, the nonstop-horning trucks and busses suck way more. Ghost riders are common, as well as sudden stopping of vehicles without indication. However, I make excessive use of my bell and bang through. As everyone, basically only watching what happens in front of me and hoping the people behind me do the same. Self organizing chaos. Happy to have a helmet. At 4:30, I stop in a town on the busy road, half sick from the noise and the fumes. Get a room for a few bucks. The guesthouse owners (or at least their daughter plus her husband) speak good English and invite me after diner for a bit of Karaoke singing. Wonderfull night. I should marry a Vietnamese girl, that's what they recommend. I'm not sure about that now...

Next day – 65 miles to go to Ninh Binh on that very highway. Earplugs and Beatles help a lot to deal better with the traffic noise. I meet an Japanese speaking young man by accident and talk for an hour, and learn a lot about Vietnam. Easy riding today, only flat and straight good roads. I reach Ninh Binh in the early afternoon, find the first really nice Cafe bar and end up with a surprise invitation to a Vietnamese wedding for diner. Lucky to escape the heavy drinking just before loosing my orientation.

Two nice days in the best hotel in town, going around Ninh Binh on a rental motorbike with my travelling sister, first getting trapped in beautifull yet annoying tourist spots and eventually escaped to get some first taste of rural Vietnam off the beaten track. Then it is time to say good bye...

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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

After a couple of relaxed nights and days in Ninh Binh I moved on, heading west for the border to Laos at Na Meo. Soon after leaving the highway, the scenery changed a lot. Almost no traffic out here, easy riding without horns and fumes for a nice change. A couple of small concrete houses every once in a while between the sugarcane, rice and corn fields. Banana and Papaya trees here and there, and in a little distance forested mountains and giant limestone rocks. In the middle of nowhere a neat and cozy cafe shop with a nice garden and bamboo huts to sit in. Shall I stay here? I move on towards Cam Thye, and end up in an old colonial style hotel with orchids hanging from the balcony. On a noisy and smelly road again...

Next day, I head for Quan Hoa, again on small roads without traffic. Farmers plow rice paddies with the water buffaloes in the small valleys between the steep limestone rocks. There's more and more wooden pile houses the more I move on, and few towns with shops only. Steady ascending. Just after lunchtime I reach Quan Hoa, have a stopover and a coffee in a neat wooden "Eco Guesthouse" off the road beside a big river. Looking at the map, it's approximately 50 miles to go to the border, which I decide to do tomorrow. Finish for today. Two little boys join me for a walk and show me where to swim in the river...

Struggling to find my road to Na Meo next morning. The locals all send me 12 miles back to where I came from today, to take that road. Steep uphill from there for an hour, a truck collapsed on the road and a crane is maintaining the truck. The entire road is blocked, yet the locals help me to bypass the scene. Jungle, small wooden pile houses here and there, terrace rice paddies in the small valleys. Up and up the road goes. The locals take bamboo from the woods, cut it into meter long pieces and half them, pile them up. A few Eastgerman trucks bring the piles back down. Sunset, and still 20 miles to go to the town at the border. No guesthouses nor restaurants out here anymore, and the road is just steep ups and downs and serpentines in the jungle. I'm tired, stop by a concrete house with official symbols in a very small village and ask for a room to stay. The friendly silent man shows me the meeting room of the house, making a gesture I could stay here. Providing even a diner, and two shoots of the local liqueur. I'm more than happy with that! We talk with paper and pen and hands. Only one lamp in the police station, and an early rest. My savior refuses any money. A firefly in the moonlight.

Last miles towards the border in the early morning, some trouble with the payment for the visa due to the old dollar pieces I'm carrying. 55 miles till Xam Nua, the first real town where I expect to get Laos money. The same crazy ups and downs as yesterday, with tired legs. At a cigarette break in the jungle, an old man on a bicycle hands me three potato like big white roots and shows me how to peel and eat them. The kids on the street would wave and scream "Sabaidee" now. Nice welcome! Same wooden pile houses as in Vietnam, but more deforested hills. Unlike 8 years ago, there is electricity everywhere on the road now. But still hardly any traffic. I manage to cycle only 34 miles to Vieng Xai, a small town with no ATM but guesthouses, that is famous for the cave systems in which the Laos Communists lived during the heavy bombings during the Vietnam war. Get a room in a wooden guesthouse on a lake, and coffee, food and beers on credit. Air, a 20 year old relative of the owners, talks good English and teaches me my first few words in Laos, gives me some advices. Manage to change my remaining Vietnam Dong into Kip, just enough to get a bus to Xam Nua on the next day. Need a break from cycling. When I arrive in Xam Nua both ATMs are out of service. It's Saturday, and all banks closed. I'm close to freak out, when a tourist on a bicycle passes by, and tells me about an Indian restaurant where I could possibly get my old dollars exchanged. He's cycling towards Phongsavan tomorrow, he says, and I wouldn't mind some company on my way. A few minutes later the ATM is working again, and I finally receive some KIPs, return back to Vieng Xai. The caves can only be visited with a guide, and I miss the afternoon tour. However, I get some information to read and have a nice walk between the nice limestone rocks. After diner with a nice American motorbike tourist, Air invites me for some barbeque with his friends. Nice moonlight walk, great barbeque and talks about freedom and money dependencies in modern Laos.

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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

I met Paul, the Australian cyclist, in the morning at the Indian Restaurant of Xam Nua. Decent Indian breakfast without Glutamates. We decide to go together towards Phongsavan through the mountains. The first night should be in Nam Neun, more than 80 miles away from here. Paul did that road already by bus, and make proper notes about long ascents with landmarks. So he'd know about that first heavy 10 mile uphill from here, and all the following ups and downs and switchbacks. We decide to take a Songthaew for the first 30 miles, a small truck with two rows of seats in the back, the usual local transport for small distances in remote areas. It takes the truck pretty much two hours to climb the steep road up. From there, its another 50 miles of ups and downs in the thick jungle. Cicada noises, barely traffic, small wooden hut settlements every once in a while, and breathtaking views.

No matter how hard we tried, we don't manage to reach Nam Neun before sunset. Hitching with a manic racing guy in the back of a brand new Hilux pickup. Squealing tyres in the switchbacks. The two of us trying to survive, holding the bicycles thight. When our Formula 1 driver sets us of a a junction, there's a final 7 mile steep downhill ride at sunset. What a feeling! Nam Neun is a sort of disappointing prospering junction towns with little comfort and few smiles and phantasie prices for food. No one would speak English. Anyway – it's Fullmoon and we reached our first target.
On the following day we do something similar for the the remaining distance to Phongsavan, riding the last 30 miles of pretty flat in the burning midday sun and reaching Phongsavan more dead than alive...

Phongsavan is famous for the Plain of Jars, that is about 2000 year old jars made of single pieces of sandstone, some as tall as a human. Bomb craters from the secret war the stories of cruel times here, and numberless of the so-called UXOs, undetonated boms of all sizes, are still out everywhere in the rice paddies and woods, causing severe injuries and many deads still nowadays. We'd see them every once in a while a garden fences in the villages, and in Phongsavan we'd watch some documentary movies on them. Phongsavan is a prospering town too, but with a much better feeling, and many guesthouses and restaurants with much better price-quality ratio than those small junction towns we passed by.

Two more days to go towards Vang Vieng, cycling in the morning and hitching small trucks after lunchtime to avoid the burning sun. Breathtaking views again, endless chains of mountains, sea of clouds, stone-age villages with good vibes. Last day – 70 miles left to go towards Vang Vieng. Heavy rain at night and thick mist in the early morning hours. paul#s gonna wait for better weather he says. I'm eager to leave that "prospering" junction town we're at. 13 miles downhill, 2 miles uphill. Coffee break with a cute red cat on my lap. I spot two German trucks on the road. Big "Servus", nice talking, a swim in the public hot spring pond just beside the road. They'd give me a lift, I'm very happy about this since the skin on my bottom has already gone...

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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

Reaching Vang Vieng almost 8 years after I've been here the first time, I just don't recognize this place at all anymore. That sleepy tranquil wooden bar village has developed into a big number of concrete guesthouses, internet cafes and restaurants with English speaking TV all day. And numberless loud bars at night. Find a relaxed and good-priced guesthouse 2 miles outside and enjoy a nice sunset behind the limestone rocks on the other side of the river, with flocks of young backpackers floating by on big tubes, yelling and screaming and drinking...

Well, the famous tubing - you'd get a lift few miles upstream, sit sort of helpless in shorts in the burning sun and wait for the river to take you down to town again. There is a section of wooden bars cramped closely to each other on both sides of the otherwise tranquil Song river with load music roaring from big speakers all day. Advertisements for cheap „buckets“, mud volleyball and these kind of activities. Later in town, you can watch bandaged and limping youngsters that survived the adventure. It's said that during rainy season when the river is more wild, some wouldn't return. And it is easy to understand why the locals don't mind – it's just so much money that is spend on alcohol every day...

The good thing with Vang Vieng is the beauty of the nature surrounding it,with less silly entertainment like kayaking, climbing, trekking... As well as good prices and the wide choice for food and accommodation. Finally I found quiet and peaceful moments in a cave and on top of a hill with no one there but me and my cycling mate.

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Category: Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011

Running short of remaining visa days and eager to spend a few lazy days in Southern Laos, I leave Vang Vieng by local bus for Vientiane, with my bicycle mounted to the roof of the old roaring bus. Just do a quick 7 mile ride on the bike through the kind of exploding, prospering Vietntiane City to the Souther Bus terminal, and luckily there's a VIP bus waiting already to bring me to Thakek. A long day on busses, yet quite pleasant after all. Aircon not to fierce, not rip-offs – perfect.

Thakek is, according to Lonely Planet, a nice town on the Mekong with lots of caves and a remarkable National park neighbouring it. I arrive after sunset, find me a little appealing place to stay for the same price as my hotel in Vang Vieng. I decide to skip the marvelous caves and limestone rocks and cycle towards Xeno instead, 65 miles down towards Pakse. Flat area, shadowless straight road, and only a few trucks and cars passing by while I'm sweating in the burning sun, fighting the headwinds and my laziness. When the legs refuse the pedalling, I hitch and a Thai pickup gives me a lift for the last 10 miles to Xeno. A bus bound for Pakse is supposed to leave there at 6PM. 130 miles to go - I might be there by 10 PM I hope. Spend a beautiful sunset with Tai Chi, and with some small kids eager to imitate. Good vibes in this town. The bus arrives and departs in time, yet takes a different road at the junction. Al right, detour via Savanaketh. It comes worse then, as the bus stops every once in a while for no obvious reason. Enough cigarette breaks anyway. When I wake up at 4, everyone is sleeping in the bus that is just parked at a gas station. A little later, the engine starts and we arrive in Pakse at dawn. That is, we spent the night just half an hour away from the destination...

In a guided tour with two Dutch travellers, an English lady and a Swiss I get to visit the Bolovan plateau some 2 miles east of Pakse. Hiking through its Coffee plantations, its rocky pine forests and waterfalls below in the jungle. Swimming in the electrifying and cold water of the ponds underneath the first fall, having a gorgeous picnic on the rocky riverbank of one of the rivers on top of a second waterfall with the best Lao food I've had so far. Wading across rivers, climbing up and down rather invisible trails. Sunset, a marvellous red glowing sky. What was supposed to be an easy hike for a few hours turned into quite a challenge now. Luckily, everyone has a torch. Still a good hour to sneak through the jungle. Leeches on the legs, snakes in the trees. Me (stupid as usual) in Flipflops. Guides seem to be confused and lead us around in big circles as it appears. Everyone is happy when we reach the village with the Songtheaw to bring us back to Pakse.

Next station is Champasak, an easy half days ride away from Pakse down the Mekong. Champasak is known for its ancient Wat Phu Khmer settlement and temple ruins that are certainly worth stopping over for a day on the way down to the 4000 Islands. It's a rather small town stretching along the quiet main road with a few neat resorts on the Mekong, a perfect place to chill-out.

By chance, I met a few girls that share the same idea – going down the Mekong by boat. For 20 USD each we get a 7 hours boat ride to Don Det in a decent Longtail boats with sunroof, curtains and rattan chairs. The river flows. Terrace plantations, small wooden huts and great trees with eroded roots on the sandy riverbanks. Sarah’s Ukulele plays “The ring of fire”, and makes me stay on the island for 10 splendid and peaceful days. Wonderful sunrises and sunsets, followed by moonset and shooting stars. Dreams become true...