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After the unsuccessful attempt to get into Laos yesterday I took the afternoon to consider my options, should I wait for the bus, if is does come it will arrive at 12.30-1pm. If it doesn't it I will have waited all morning until the heat of the day leaving me insufficient time to make it to the boarder before it closes, and not enough time to get to my planned destination in Laos; or should I sack off the bus cut my losses and head for the hills on the bike. I chose to cycle. I set off early, 8.30 to face the 25k up hill road to the boarder. Up hill does not do justice to the road I cycled! I was a mountain 1668m, all 25k of it, with 10% min gradient, hauling 15kg of weight on the bike was not easy. I started off pretty annoyed that I had paid a fortune for a bus ride that never happend and ended up having to cycle it anyway. I soon ran out of energy to care about this! I soon got into my stride and was on my merry way. It took me 2 hrs of relentless climbing before I reached to boarder. The scenery was spectacular, again my pictures do not do it any justice. I cycled through some really remote hill tribe villages, watched them doing traditional dancing in traditional dresses in the school yard. I also met a flock/swarm/herd of butterflies- thousands of big black butterflies fluttering around. To be honest I'm glad the bus dropped me at the bottom of the hill, it was the most amazing cycle I've ever done. Crossing the boarder itself I was expecting the 'set menu from hell' as the guide book had stated. It couldn't have been simpler, the Vietnam side stamped, the laos side were very friendly spoke great English, issues the visa and charged me less than I was expecting. I rested at the crossing for a short time looking forwards to the downhill run to the nearest town. Wishful thinking Laura! More mountains, a further 13k. At this stage it was 1pm hot, I'd not managed to get a proper meal yet just crap snack food and I was feeling tired, but I knew I had to get to the nearest town before the buses stop running as there was no accommodation and the city was 120k away- no way I could cycle that far.
As soon as I set out in to Laos it was immediately clear this was a much poorer country than Vietnam. The road surface was poor quality, there was less infrastructure in terms of power lines etc, the houses was less well constructed- as far as I can tell from a house made of bamboo! I was taking regular stop where ever I could find shade from the trees, aware that it is the most bombed area of the planet I didn't stray too far from the road. There were significantly fewer people around, the villagers were smaller and the roads were empty literally. This made me feel somewhat vulnerable, I had clearly just crossed the boarder, clearly cycled uphill, clearly worn out, and carrying all my possessions. I needed to press on. After about an hr of struggling in the heat I flagged down a bus truck thing, a converted pick up truck with seats down the side, he took the the remaining 5k ( this was the down hill bit I discovered!) to the town. I then managed to hop on another truck which took me the 4hrs to the town of Pronsavan. I was just glad to see civilisation, and have a hot shower. I rewarded myself with an amazing curry and found some White people the first I'd spoken to in 3 days!
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