December 4: Nhong Song to Thakhek – 100 km
Day 52
Freshly out of the mountains, we decided to push for a long day on the flat terrain ahead of us today. Both of us were eager to get to the climbing spot Thakhek and relax till Christmas.
The gentle curves of the hills followed us all the way through. The road, though paved, was still rough and coarse. The only inspiration for the hard work was watching the number on milestone getting smaller and smaller, km by km.
Finally we found a roadside restaurant to stop for lunch, just when I lowered my expectation for food to chips from little convenient stores. Compared to the millions of little restaurants and the variety of food in China and Vietnam, the lack of either in Laos was the hardest part so far. Both of us swear that we won’t eat another bowl of Laos rice noodle again, yet that was the only choice for lunch. Laos food is heavy on the starch with few vegetables, and even fewer protein, and the overall portion is not cyclist-friendly. We often found ourselves hungry and unsatisfied after a meal, till Chopper started to order 2 servings.
Just before dark we arrived in Thakhek, the biggest town we have seen since we entered Laos. We had big hopes for our hotel tonight – finding WiFi to let our family and friends know we were still alive. After circling the town for an hour and partially being blinded by exhaustion, we didn’t see any of the guesthouses. Just before dark we settled ourselves in the grand Mekong Hotel (with WiFi and only 100,000 Kip).
Inspired by the large number of westerners we saw in town, we decided to indulge ourselves in some non-Laos food tonight, so we won’t be lying in bed hungry with images of food spinning in our head. We ended up having Laos/Thai food, serving portion as big as tapas. However, we were delighted by the fact that we didn’t have to force down another bowl of Laos rice noodles.