On a Slow Boat to Laos

Although we were loving riding through the plains of Thailand, we were getting a bit anxious to get into Laos if we were to complete our hopes of a Southeast Asia circumnavigation. This, coupled with our increasingly sore legs and butts prompted us to hop on a bus northward towards the border city of Koh Chang, where we then hopped on a longtailed boat with a guy from Boston who had ridden his loaded-down mountain bike over from Chiang Mai (only the third other cyclist encountered in Thailand!), and crossed the Mehkong River into Laos.

On the other side there was nothing more than a somewhat depressing border town, as the place was used by almost all travellers as a one night layover until they caught the slow boat down the river. The boat was really the only game in town, as the roads heading out were notoriously decrepit and beat up, and the mountains were looking a bit too ominous for our bikes. We bought our tickets for the two day slow boat ride, thinking that it couldn't be too bad and happy that we saved $1.20 per ticket by riding to the boat dock ourselves instead of paying for it through a travel "agent".

It turns out that a two day boat ride is really about as long as it sounds. The novelty of the hard wooden seats and views of the river scenery wore off in about 20 seconds, and for some 17 hours of our lives we were packed into a boat floating down the Mehkong with scads of other tourists and a good number of locals, who knew to sit up in the front of the boat where the air was freshest and the engine noise quietest. At times we felt like we were in some parallel universe people-safari, as the boat actually began to tip over from all the tourons rushing to take pictures of the local village dwellers performing everyday tasks with their telephoto lenses. Yes, this is how you get good pictures, but one can imagine how it would feel to be followed by boatloads of Paparazi was you went to the grocery, got off at your BART stop, or stepped out of the shower. It became annoyingly obscene at points, and the price that we paid for not putting up with the madness is a not so suprising lack of good people-photos from the trip. Thankfully the social life of our trip was saved by a largely disproportionate amount of Bay Area folk on the boat, including a rad lesbian couple living in the Mission in San Francisco. We hung out with them, swapped stories about life at home and on the road, at drank as much Nescafe Turbo as our stomaches could handle.

To add to the eternity-like feel of the trip, we stopped overnight in the small village of Pak Beng, about halfway before getting to Luang Prabang. Pak Beng, which used to be a small subsistence farming village, is now the major stop on the tourist trail down south. As soon as the boat pulled in, throngs of local children ranging from ages 4 to 24 hopped on and swarmed the luggage compartment in the rear. What followed for the next 30 minutes was a sea of chaos that revolved around these kids pulling up rucksacks from under the planks of the boat, throwing them to a friend, and then their compadre taking off running up the hill to a guest house. The foreigners have no choice but to follow their bag, where they are charged for the porter service and already have a room booked for them at the establishment. To add to the excitement, while Mat was in the back trying to catch our bright yellow panniers before they landed in the arms of an accomplice, a full-on fist-fight broke out between two of the adolescent boys, and a joking play-fight turned into a Muay Thai performance in mere seconds. While this scenario was hectic, stressful, and more reminiscint of India than anywhere we've been so far, it does show the complexity of an economy that so recently has had tourist dollars introduced. Yes, these kids are perhaps rude and inconsiderate, but in the end they're just trying to make a buck to buy food for their family and live another day. You can't blame them, but it does sometimes make the situation difficult.

Thankfully, by reasons unknown to us, the second day of boat travel went much quicker than the first. We both finished our excellent books, chatted with out new found friends, and managed to get our luggage off the boat without hassel or fistfight. Willing to overlook the experience of our first few days in Laos, we headed into Luang Prabang full of optimism for a city that Lonely Planet called "a tonic for the soul".

Cycling Through the Land of Smiles

As predicted earlier, things have become a bit easier after leaving the tourist trap of Bangkok and getting on our bikes. Cycling through Thailand thus far has gone suprisingly well. The roads are well paved with huge shoulders on the side, there are a plethora of food and drink stands every five kilometers (can you say 10 baht thai ice tea?), and the locals we have seen along the route have been incredibly supportive, honking horns, giving thumbs up, and practicing their English phrases of encouragement. One elderly man also riding a bike yelled at us "I love bicycle trip!" with a veracity that seemed to indicate he had been waiting his entire life to yell these four words.

After a hectic day riding through Bangkok we were a bit concerned with the traffic patterns, not to mention remembering to ride on the left side of the road (fairly easy until you get to some crazy traffic circle and have no idea where to go). Once we hit the open road, however, our concerns with traffic subsided quickly. It seems that roads and drivers in Asia are quite used to having all sorts of vehicles and such on their roadways; at any given time there will be pedestrians, cyclists, motos, buses, trucks, rickshaws, elephants, scooters, cars, taxis, and lories all sharing the same space. Slower traffic simply keeps to the left, and if you have to pass someone you make sure the lane is clear enough and then you go for it, usually giving a warning honk, ring, or yell to make sure everyone knows that you're coming through. Everyone on the road has given us more than ample room when passing, with some large lories even slowing to a near-stop rather than barreling by full-speed. This scenario is quite a contrast to the idea of riding on a busy highway in the U.S., where the roads are designed for fast moving cars and that's the only thing that belong on the highways, gosh darnit.

While the going has been relatively easy thus far, it has not been without excitement. We have been trying to stick to the smaller roads, and while our map is decent it doesn't exactly have every turn, bend, or road number that would be nice to have. Combine that with long stretches when the road signs are only in Thai, and it's easy to see how we can get lost every now and then. At one point we were following a small country road that our map had crossing the river on what we assumed to be a bridge. We rolled into a small riverside town and certainly didn't see the bridge we were expecting, much less any apparent way across the river. After some broken Thai and English map studying sessions with a Tuk-Tuk driver we queued up on the street with the other cars and motos and waited for the ferry to come across the river while a fried-coconut-banana saleswoman tempted us with her wares (we bought some and she through some in for free!). We somehow got a special bicycle rate on the ferry across the river and were rewarded with a near-deserted stretch of beautiful road on the other side.

We've been resting our legs (and butts!) for a few days now 400km+ from Bangkok in Sukhothai, an ancient Thai capital, and enjoying the amazing food and ruins. We ran into another couple on bikes crazy enough to be doing something similar to what we're doing, expect that they are loaded down to the max and headed into China. We're still planning on staying light and fast for the time being and will head out North in the morning as we move closer to the Thailand/Laos border and a river trip down the Mekong. Yeee-haw!

Sur le Velo

If you ever want to know how to attract attention abroad, carry around lots of seemingly heavy and awkward gear. We pushed our way through the crowds of people at the backpacker area of Khao San Road in Bangkok, with our bike boxes in tow and SPD cleat sandals clicking with every step. Mat carried the bike boxes on his head, Asian style, much to the amusement of ex-pat beer drinkers and the Indian boy on the corner trying to sell him a suit ("Hello sir, would you like a nice suit when you are done with all of that work?") Adding to the confusion, we tried to convince our guest-house owners to allow us to pay them money to store our empty cardboard boxes, so that we have something to protect our bikes on the airplane for the return flight. Despite what you may think, paying someone to store an empty box in Bangkok is not as easy as it might sound. Unlike India, in Thailand not "everything is possible".

Tomorrow we are leaving by train, heading northward to Ayuthaya, and then will be hopping on our bikes to ride to Chiang Mai, a hilly city in Northern Thailand that neither of us has ever visited. We have been practicing our communication skills and strengthening our stomaches by eating only at local restaurants without English menus. Thanks to Mo's practice on a Thai language game on the flight from Taipei (Air China isn't that bad after all!) we can now say "two, please" which is quite effective when pointing at your preferred noodle and meat type. While this methodology has worked quite well, for dinner tonight we ended up with the spiciest meal we have ever eaten, seemingly sauteed hot chili peppers on top of rice. Barely able to finish, we ran straight to the 7-11 for a yogurt drink in a bottle to quench the fire in our bellies. Being optimistic yet perhaps foolish, we keep repeating our mantra: It will all be easier once we are on our bikes...

P.S. For the francophones reading this, we really tried to properly accent our post title - but alas, the Thai language keyboard we are using wouldn't have any of it. Hopefully you can figure out what we were talking about despite the missing accent aigue.

P.P.S. We stole the inspirational picture of women waiting in line to cross the border into Vietnam from China from our friend Ryan's online photos. We'll think of this whenever we start complaining about how heavy our "loaded down" touring rigs are.

SFO-BKK

We bought plane tickets last Thursday and are leaving at midnight tonight for Southeast Asia. The big change from previous trips is that we are bringing our bicycles, loaded up with touring gear, reflective tape, spare parts, and warm-weather clothing, with the idea being to somehow circumnavigate Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia on our bikes. Before you start asking for details, we don't have too many yet, besides a few detailed trip reports from people who have done this before, including a good friend we went to Berkeley with. But all sources indicate that it is not really as crazy an idea as it seems, as the roads are well sealed, the people friendly, the traffic not too bad (although on the left side of the road in places!) and the roadside noodle stands endless.

We are excited to return to Southeast Asia, especially when it is our primary destination and not a month-long break from the chaos of India. We are also excited to travel the country by bike for many reasons. First, when flying through the countryside on a bus or train, one eventually just starts connecting major tourist hubs and getting a snapshot of cities when they disembark for a few seconds here and there. On our bikes we will truly be off the tourist path and able to explore much less traveled areas at ease. Secondly, while riding a bike around Asia might seem like a crazy idea to us in the USA, it is the primary mode of daily transportation for billions of people around the world. We will definitely stick out like foreigners, but at least we will be getting around on the greatest invention in the world, using power derived from our legs, mystery meat, and local fish sauces. Riding bikes is fun!!

After some crazy dateline shenanigans we'll land in BKK on Valentine's day, just in time to also celebrate Mo's bday. We'll try to be better about updating our blog as we'll probably have all kinds of interesting adventures to write about soon!