Tour of Laos

The day has finally arrived for our mountain biking adventure in the mountains – a solid 40 km ride for $25 per person, lunch included. When we got to the meeting point, we ran into the Irish girls who had their camera stolen in Vang Vieng. As I mentioned before, you often bump into the same people on this journey :) Our group also included a German couple and an Australian girl. To my delight, there were more girls than guys, so I was hoping for a more moderate pace. It turned out to be a tough ride. Our first stop was at a temple, and then we faced a long, grueling uphill climb for three hours. We biked through the forest or jungle for most of the way. The roads were muddy, and we often plunged into huge puddles, so we ended up pretty dirty. At one point, we had to cross the Mekong River. We were ferried across with our bikes on a long boat. Finally, it was lunchtime! We had rice with chicken and oranges for dessert. After that, we took another long boat ride to an elephant center located by a waterfall. The water was cold, but we all needed to wash off and cool down. We also went to say hi to the elephants. This center is dedicated to helping preserve the elephants in Laos, which really need the support. Then it was time to hop back on our bikes. Our behinds, and especially our wrists, were killing us. It wasn’t a joyful reunion with the bike saddle. To get back to town, we had to bike for two hours and pass over two mountains. Yes, thought Honny, who was the first to conquer the last mountain, causing most of us – even the guide – to hop off our bikes and push. Once we were back in town, we agreed to meet up later that evening to celebrate that we all made it to the finish line. There were eight of us going out to dinner together, so they had to rearrange guests in the restaurant to make room for us. Afterwards, we headed to a bar. We probably looked a bit like a group of old folks walking in, since we all, except for Honny, were feeling pretty sore in our behinds, hands, and shoulders :) The first bar we entered turned out to be a gay bar. Suddenly, we realized that all the girls were ladyboys. But it was also a lot of fun! Next, we made our way to Hi - Ve, which is THE place in town. We partied there for the rest of the evening.