Wake up – breakfast – climb – lunch – climb – shower – dinner – sleep. The new daily climbing ritual was a nice break from the constant moving momentum of riding. Surrounded by all climbers and some 160 routes, it was hard not to only thinking about climbing and the present moment. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary (and hopefully many more to come!) and Christmas by finishing our projects.
Access:
From the main highway AH1, the turn-off to a secondary dirt road is at the milestone 63 (from Ha Noi to Lang Son direction). Follow the sign for “Yen Thinh” on the dirt road for 8km. 200 meters before the crag, there is a deserted gas station on the right. You will find the crag on your left, behind a group of houses and an orchid.
Accommodation:
It is possible to find “homestays” at villages near the crag, since locals are very open and hospitable. However, it is better to settle in one of the hotels along AH1 first before venturing into the local villages. There several hotels near Huu Lung town on AH1, roughly 12km away from the crag. We recommend Lam Son Hotel – friendly host, clean beds, hot shower, and free WiFi.
You can get food and basic groceries from Huu Lung town, and there is a market near the ATM. However, most of the restaurants are not open for dinner, except the ones on AH1 near the hotels.
Transportation:
There is no motorbike rental in the area. You will find plenty taxi ads posted in the hotels and a ride to the crag should not cost more than 100,000VND.
Land Access:
The orchid owner will ask for a land access fee. After some hard negotiations, the land lady agreed on 25,000VND per person per day, which is much better than her original proposal – 200,000VND per day.
Just go ahead and climb when you arrive. The land lady will always show up to collect the fee.
Thakhek is truly the best climbing place we have seen. Other than the convenience of access and accommodation, the quality of the rock is superb – diverse features and unpolished holds. The winter weather in Laos can’t be better for climbing – super dry and cool. We spent a whole day thoroughly enjoying the routes. Looks like we will be here longer than we thought.
Green Climber’s Home is every climber’s wet dream – affordable accommodations right next to the crags – 147 routes all within 20 minutes (at the most) of walking, but many at under a minute. Though in the middle of no where (at least 13km from town and 7km from the nearest guesthouse), Home has all your needs met as long as your wallet can afford it. Home offers the choices of private bungalows, beds in dorm rooms, rent-a-tent campsites (fixed location with extra tarp) or bring-your-own-tent campsites (wherever you choose to pitch). Compared to the majority of local restaurants, the food served in the big open lofty canteen is second to none with generous portions filled with plenty of veggies and protein.
After we pitched our tent in the woods, Chopper swept the leaves away to create a parking space for our trikes, made a path to our doors, and put up a nice taut laundry line. With our household settled, we are ready for another climbing session.
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.
No more chills and no more fever! With our chains well lubed and everything in order, once again, we were roaming on the road again ready to conquer whatever lie in front of us. I laughed at myself for almost considering taking a bus, as we steadily peddled up the zigzag road.
After one big climb, we eased into more gentle terrain. We met 2 cyclists going in the opposite direction, and stopped to exchange travel info for the road ahead. One of them started from Bangkok, planning on going through China and eventually reaching Europe. I guessed that he would head north and cross into Yunnan, China. Growing up in Yunnan, I’m very much aware of the elevation awaiting him. Hopefully his lightweight luggage and diamond-frame bicycle will make the journey easier.
Chopper’s trike started to make an clicking noise. It sounded like it was coming from his rear cassette, or possibly the hub. Either way, it would not be fun to end up with a broken trike in Laos. We stopped several times trying to find the problem, but even after Chopper tightened the lock ring on the cassette the clicking noise still persisted.
After lunched at the Route 8 and 13 intersection, we decided to call it a day. A nap is on my agenda, and Chopper has the clicking noise mystery to solve. Hopefully we won’t need ICE to ship any replacement parts.
I have never been so relieved to find out that I have a sore throat – when it means I just had an infection, instead of malaria. Chopper didn’t want to give up on his noodle cooking yet, and started practicing at 7am. This time, we had noodles that cooked al dente with perfect sunny side up fried eggs for breakfast.
Since we entered into Laos, I couldn’t help noticing how much responsibilities the kids are taking on. We saw kids no more than 10 year old driving motorcycles; a 5-year-old taking care of her infant sibling, without adult supervision; a group of 8 or 9-year-old children helping out with slaughtering a calf. With 90% of the Laos population working in agriculture, the reality render Child Labor Laws out of place – either you have your children to help out, or you have nothing to feed them.
Feeling much better today, I ventured into the market late in the afternoon. Expecting a closing-down market at sunset, I was surprised to find the market in full swing. The empty lot in the morning was filled with more stalls and buyers. After a stroll, I had to run back to fetch Chopper and a camera. It was a different market now than earlier. “Bushmeat” is common grocery here. Dozens of rats were neatly arranged along side with a couple of squirrels. Some unknown (to us) wild furry animals were “sleeping” peacefully on the table. We were not sure if the pretty birds were sold for meat or for their feathers. Also, there were plenty of “protein buckets” filled with tiny shrimp and fish, crawling bugs (including cockroaches) and halves of little crabs.
This new discovery cast a new light on our dinner later. Feeling adventurous early this morning, I had bought some mysterious items for lunch and dinner. We had consumed what we knew for sure were a bag of horse-radish greens, and barbecued liver for lunch. For dinner we were left with a bag of mysterious minced meat with vegetables, and 2 lumps of something wrapped tightly in banana leaves. Gingerly I unwrapped the banana leaves, bracing myself for some insect delight appearing at the end of the roll. It turned out to be pork (hopefully) skin gelatin. We never find out what was that minced meat was. With some questions that I chose not to dwell upon, we cooked up some rice noodles and stuffed our faces with mysteries before finding any answers. It was a delicious meal nevertheless.
Both of us had troubled sleeping that night. Cuddled up with our stuffed rats that we brought all the way from home as our travel companions, I wonder who are the more absurd.
15 hours of sleep still left me with fatigue and muscle ache.Chopper busied himself with trike maintenance, which was much needed after all the mud and rain we had put them through. He made his very first adventure trip on his own into the local market to get some fresh vegetables and fruits. Like a caring mother hen, he offered to cook lunch since I was very much bed-bound. He might be a great Mexican food chef but never ask him to cook noodles or anything Asian. With my diminished appetite, the burned noodles with uncooked vegetables was very unappetizing, while Chopper inhaled the whole pot. Being an invalid, I now retain a normal and sane view on the food without being biased by hunger.
For getting to Thakhek, we could take either the scenic Route 8 westwards or 1E southwards. After a careful study of fGoogle Maps, 1E appeared to be a better choice for our human powered vehicles as it is less mountainous than Route 8, but as we soon discovered that 1E is unpaved dirt road. We kept on hoping it would turn into concrete just around the corner, but as we toiled on for 9km it became rockier and rockier and we deemed it unbearable and backtracked.
We were very happy to be on the smooth concrete of Route 8 again. However after our 18km sidetrack, we weren’t sure if we would find a place to stay before nightfall. Instead of civilization, we were surrounded by glorious nature. After several uphills, the road started to take a toll on us and I started to have chills and muscle aches – as if I was going to get a flu. Not a good sign as we just entered into a malaria zone, and I did get bitten by mosquitoes several times before we started the malaria pills. I was all in for wild camping this morning, but now I yearned only for a hot shower and a soft bed. It appeared that 60km away from Lak Xao, there is a sizable town with the possibility of hotels. With that comforting thought, we peddled on.
Approaching another hill with a warning of steep terrain ahead, and Cher’s flu symptoms growing worse we thought about stopping at a small guesthouse. A young boy of 11 manned the gate and grabbed the keys to show us the room. The inside can only be described as a prison. Bare concrete walls covered with smears and filth, and a “bathroom” with no shower and just a large blue barrel with a plastic ladle. The price for this palace, 50,000. We politely declined and started up what we hoped would only be a short incline.
Many uphills and downhills later, only 3km from the town we were aiming for, we came across a small road side town called Ban Phonkho, with 1 guesthouse, 1 restaurant and 1 gas station. Encouraged by the size of the town we saw on Google Maps only 3km away, we decided to press on for more choices. First of all, we missed the town completely, since there was no sign of civilization. Secondly, what appeared to be a sizable town on Google Maps was no more than a group of half finished abandoned houses. The sight of the town was eerie against the sunset on a mountain-enclosed plateau. As we drove across the “town center”, we saw maybe a dozen residences living in little more than wood sheds.
We had to backtrack, once again. Back to the small road side town, we settled in the only guesthouse we saw on the way in just before dark. After a quick shower and some peanut butter on a banana, I couldn’t be happier lying in bed, even with a fever burning me up. My symptoms alarmed Chopper, as he stayed awake to keep an eye on me. When I woke from my restless sleep in the middle of the night, I found him watching me intently, with his shiny white face glowing in the dark, 2 inches away. He told me he was just making sure that I was still breathing. Such is the comfort that we travel as a pack.
Freshly showered with natural spring water and properly fed with instant congee and PB&J sandwiches, we set off on our border-crossing journey early in the morning.
Everything was perfect for a hard day ahead of us – the rain had stopped, and the temperature was nice and cool. The uphill began as soon as we were on the road. After the first 2 hours of constant uphill, we felt pretty good as we were appreciated waterfalls and mist rising up from the mountains. However, as we pressed on for another 2 hours, the damp mist kept up hot and cold at the same time – so damp that our perspiration wouldn’t evaporate, and so cold that with our wet shirts our fingers and toes were completely numb.
Just as I thought I couldn’t pedal any longer, we arrived at the check point. Chopper was savvy about the immigration process, as he learned that the 1 USD “stamp fee” will be charged on the Laos side, while it is illegal for the Vietnamese immigration officers to charge a “stamp fee”. A trick he learned from the Internet was that if you start to write down the immigration officer’s badge name, he will most likely be too intimidated to receive this illegal income. However, this was not the case with us.
Seeing people throwing money and passports into the immigration window to get stamped, we decided to give the trick a try nevertheless. After being told by the immigration officer to pay 40,000VND for stamping our passports, Chopper got out his note book to write down the officer’s name. The officer immediately took his badge off and hid it in his pocket, running out of his office in a fury to grab the note book from Chopper. After much yelling and cursing in Vietnamese, he tried to throw our passports out of the window and refuse to stamp us. Probably realizing this would not be a wise move, he speedily took them back and stamped them before throwing them out. Before leaving, Chopper was kind enough to try to educate the passengers waiting around the window that the “stamping fee” is illegal, but all of them looked at him as if he was a maniac, and proceeded to pay their 20,000VND stamping fee for a fuss-free border-crossing.
After exiting the Vietnam border, the Laos border was 1km away. At this point, we were extremely hungry and tired, and freezing cold in the bitter wind wrapped in our wet clothes. Visa on arrival from the Laos immigration officer was no simple, as we had cash in USD and photos ready. Though if you don’t have US dollars handy, they conveniently provide you with an ATM in the lobby, and if you don’t have a photo, it costs 1USD extra.
The thought of downhill all the way from this point cheered us up, as we put on our winter clothes we were ready for a cozy ride into Lak Xao, 36km away. The descent offered such a breath-taking view – we followed a pristine mountain stream all the way down to a plain, barely touched by civilization. The dry and crisp breeze felt great under the tropical winter sun. Then we realized we made a stupid decision – not taking out money at the ATM. We tried to buy some lunch at a village with the left-over Dong, but to no avail. We would just have to postpone our lunch until we reaching Lak Xao.
Lak Xao is the popular stop for crossing the Cau Treo/Nam Phao border, with all the conveniences you will need. We had no trouble finding a decent room for just 60 Kip, and a money exchange to get rid of the Dong. Lunch/dinner was most rewarding, as we tucked ourselves into a little bungalow, and had barbecued pig ears and tongues served with plenty of fresh vegetable and rice noodles, all washed down with a couple of Laos beers. Even though we decided to throw our 20USD/day budget into the wind for a proper thanksgiving dinner, the feast didn’t even come close to breaking the bank.
Just as we were falling asleep I began to hear what we dreaded – heavy rain. It rained all night and was raining when we woke up. Definitely very bad news for us, if the muddy and trying terrain was ahead of us, in addition to some steep uphills. The rain stopped around 8am and we decided that unless we waited a week, the roads would still be muddy so we chose a point that looked like a hotel before the border crossing, 30 km away, and hoped for the best.
Just as we were leaving, a local man stopped us and asked if we were going to Laos, and then indicated that cycling was no good and gestured that a motorcycle is what we need to pass the steep mountain roads. Regardless, we had to press on.
Fortunately, the horrible muddy road stopped as we got out of Pho Chau. Indeed some of the terrain was steep, a 10% grade at one point, but it is at least paved and smooth. The uphills were not too long before releasing us down the other side, and stunning views accompanied us all the way. This was a lucky break since the rain picked up as soon as we started today and didn’t stop until 5pm.
At 20 km we entered a small town with some very nice homes with new Lexus’s and Toyota 4 Runners parked out front. We stopped and treated ourselves to a wonderful chao lunch and some Vietnamese jet fuel coffee – 4 tablespoons of coffee and less than a quarter cup of water sweetened with condensed milk. Warm, fed and caffeinated, we bounded off to find our in-the-middle-of-nowhere hotel. Approaching the turn-off road for the hotel, we noted that it was a dirt road with puddles that swallowed the wheels of a Jeep that drove by. The hotel was supposed to be 4km in on that road. We were left with no choice but to continue on.
It was indeed our lucky day. Pedaling 100 meters further down the road, we saw another hotel on the road side. We were quoted at 250,000 VND, which for the state of the rooms we thought it was much too expensive. Again, we decided to press on and got on our trikes. They stopped us and offered 200,000VND. We happily took the offer, as we were in the middle of nowhere and still quite far from the border crossing, which we might or might not find any accommodation. After checking in we discovered the higher price was because the hotel sits on a hot spring. If you pay the full price you get to use the “hot spring building”, in which there were several rooms with large tubs and shower heads. After some bargaining, we were allowed to use the hot spring shower for free, since there is no hot water in our hotel rooms. Such a treat after a rainy cold day of pedaling! Although the sulfur aroma was strong, the water was extremely hot, the pressure was excellent, and our skin is now silky smooth.
After some more sign language with some guests at the hotel we have learned that the border is now passable by car, although 2 months ago it was damaged by torrential rains. We hope to make it to Lak Xao, the nearest town after the Cau Treo/Nam Phao border crossing. I tried to ask how the roads were on the Laos side of the border by jumping from the concrete to the muddy lawn, alternatively shouting Vietnam, Laos and pointing at the ground. It was more entertaining than informative. Anyway, it looks the rain is clearing and hopefully we will get there before night fall.
Today was a day of contrasts. Taking the most direct route out of Vinh, we passed a short stretch of muddy rutted paths which opened up into spacious fields and villages on smooth concrete with almost no traffic. We were in bliss, as we pedaled side by side, we were tailed by some curious children, and waved and shouted some hellos to the women working in the fields. Our road then took us winding over and around the railroad tracks and across a train trestle. Google Maps did it’s magic by guiding us through these tiny roads, no wider than sidewalks.
Our bliss was short lived as we started on Route 8, which will took us all the way across Laos. We moved out of the valley into the hills. Our smooth road became one of the most muddy, bumpy, and challenging roads that we’ve seen so far. Even though it had not rained in 3 days, tire sucking mud was 3 or 4 inches deep and for long stretches the road was so uneven that we only kept ourselves from flipping over by leaning over and balancing like sailors on a catamaran. With our extremely low gears and large tires, (thank you ICE for recommending 1.75 tires) we managed to inch through the worst places and never had to get off the trikes. I did have to stop once to remove my rear tire and scrape mud from my the mud guard, a process which involved taking all the luggage off my trike. We kept each other laughing while a family closely watched the two maniacs having a great time fixing their strange vehicle in the mud.
It took us almost 7 hours to get to Pho Chau, the nearest town with hotels. Pho Chau has all the feel of a town on the border. There’s a little bit of everything that you need before getting back on the road. With plenty of hotels, convenience stores, auto parts, mechanics, and even fresh baked bread. We stayed at the Bach Dai Dung Hotel for 200,000 Dong and were happy to have a clean room facing away from the hectic main road, a hot shower, and WiFi. Although it was a long rough day, we were both excited at having surmounted any obstacles the road through in our way while laughing at the worst and patiently enduring the rest. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring but we’ve already come this far so little by little we hope to make it through and enjoy ourselves as well.