Moped Loop

Day 1 – Noodle Soup!
Ok, who said it was hot in Laos?! Oh yeah, I did in my last blog – I take it all back. Woke up the morning we were due to set off, sat in the hostel courtyard having brekkie and there was definitely a chill in the air – the sky was grey and the wind was blowing! Oh well, sure it will pass. 25 minutes out of town on the mopeds and it was time to stop and dig another layer out of our bags (well our only other layer!). Oh well, sure it will pass! Our plan for the day was to get to a town around 110km north east of Thakhek, doesn’t sounds far, but on mopeds and stretches of dirt road it’s a good 6 hours including a few stops along the way. First stop being to explore a small cave just off the roadside about 30km from town. We parked up the bikes and were quickly joined by a local who seemed keen on giving us a guided tour of the cave, all in Lao, so we followed him down and inside the cave climbing and paddling as we went. Parted with our guide and a few thousand kip (about 20p), jumped back on the bikes and off through the stunning scenery, the weather though seems to be getting colder, not helped by being on the bikes even if you’re only hitting the dizzily high speeds of 25kmph. We stopped for lunch at a small village cafe that only has one dish – noodle soup with veg and beef! After 5 mins of hand signals and lots of pointing we finally manage to order the soup minus the beef. The slight bit of warmth the soup gave us was soon lost once we were back on the bikes and winding our way higher into the hills, driving through villages and past eerie dead sunken forests in lakes. We arrived in a small village just as Shona was turning blue, as was her language (she was a little moody bless her!) but thankfully it was here where the guesthouse was – a little stilt hut with 3 or 4 basic rooms. It was the eve of Shona’s birthday, she was cold and we were in a 1 horse town with no sign of anything other than a few cows and even fewer locals selling random things to one another!?! Our guesthouse doubled up as a restaurant so after lots of hand signals and a bit of pointing we managed to order noodles and veg (errmmm Deja vu!), although this time we also got an egg – Shona’s chicken impression must be getting better.
Day 2 – Rocky road to Shona’s birthday
33 today, 33 today! Probably not the morning greeting Shona wanted having had a cold night’s sleep which was also frequently interrupted from around 4am by various farm animals – they weren’t in the room with us by the way, just being noisy below. Fearing for a noodle breakfast we quickly paid up and got on our way, only to stop 30 seconds down the road to see what the other locals had on offer – some stale crisps and a banana…perfect birthday brekkie!!?? This isn’t going too well so far, hopefully the day will only get better from now on…the road certainly doesn’t! A 30km mountain stretch that wound it’s way down through jungle took about 3 hours! Pot holes, rocks, sand, mud and gravel made this section extremely hard and long going, actually felt a bit like we were on the ‘Long way round’ bitching about the road and praying for tarmac (guessing I’m Charlie and Shona gets to be cool and Ewan!!), but it was great fun! Finally got back on nice roads and made a small village in time for a picnic lunch on a bridge. After this the road weaved its way over mountains, past karsts, through farmland and villages – its a beautiful area. We stopped to admire a view just outside one of the villages when a local approached us talking English. He was a teacher at the local school and asked if we wanted to come and see his pupils practise a traditional dance that they were due to perform tomorrow for a school celebration. We drove up to the school where a bunch of giggling girls were practising but also a little pre-occupied by the fact we were now there! We stopped and said hello and chatted for a while before being invited to the celebrations and to take an English class the following day…unfortunately (well fortunately for the children, can you imagine me giving an English lesson?! The lesson I hated most at school) we had to move on. All smiles and apologies we made our exit from the school, kind of relieved that we didn’t have to stand up in front of a class of 20 Lao students the next day! We made our destination by mid-afternoon and checked into the best joint in town, well you’re not 33 everyday! By best though I’m talking the one with hot water and just enough room to swing a cat – not that any cat swinging took place! We sat in the afternoon sun having a beer before ordering dinner and heading next door to the karaoke bar. Took us a while but after a few drinks we soon realised that not only were we getting strange looks for being foreign but also because I was in there with Shona – this was a boys only kinda joint where the gaggle of young women hovering by the bar were on offer to…well, you get the picture!! Never let it never be said that I don’t know how to treat a girl on her birthday!
Day 3 – Facing those fears
Shona being Shona isn’t afraid of many things in life, but there are a few! Settling down and kids, for starters! Well now that she’s 33 its time to face some of those fears, you can’t be afraid all your life. So the morning after her birthday I plucked up the courage and asked the big question hoping she’d say ‘I do’. Shona, I said all nervously, ‘Will you, will you – get on a small boat and enter a huge dark wet cave with me?’ Oh yeah, she is also afraid of dark enclosed spaces! Anyway, she took a while to answer, she likes to keep a boy hanging on but finally she said yes! So we packed up our bags and headed off down an amazing road to the cave, it is the biggest in Laos at around 7km long and in sections felt like you could fit St Pauls Cathedral inside. As you enter the cave you have a slight feeling of entering the earths core, half expecting that sooner or later things would turn red, water would be replaced by fire and a rather moody looking guy with a tail and a trident would be there to greet you!! Alias he wasn’t and we just slowly floated into the darkness, the water levels were a little low in some places so we had to get out and wade, which in the pitch black (well, all except a small torch our boat driver had!) and standing in a strong current was a little scary at times, but it helped Shona’s fear and was a cool little adventure – it wasn’t exactly enclosed though so don’t think she will be up for going pot holing just yet. Back into daylight and on the road again, we’d decided to try and get back to Thakhek tonight, this meant an afternoon ride of around 180km but thankfully the roads were all in good shape so we whizzed through more stunning scenery before getting onto the main Laos highway – not quite route 66 or the M25 but a 100km of easy riding through farming villages, arriving back in town just as it was getting dark. Not sure why we feel the need to do everything quicker than you’re meant to though, 4 day loop turned to 3 but it was great fun and gave us a small taste of Lao countryside and the want to see more! Really should have stopped more to take pictures but it’s hard enough when Shona is walking to get her to stop, put her on a moped and you have no chance!