Made it to Cambodia

Bill and Robin got a phone call from Adam in Cambodia last evening 11/26 .We look forward to a new post from Adam the travler.

tommy

Haven't broke my neck...yet -=]

Well after a few crazy days in Vang Viene the we decided to sell the bikes and move on to Vientiene via a kyak trip. Well it was mostly a ride in the back of a pickup truck, but there were a few hours of kyaking in there somewhere. A good cliff jump at lunch added some fun to the day. I'm in Vientiene right now, the capital city, but it's expensive (okay not that expensive, but relativley) I paid six dollars for a "mexican" feast last night, there seemed to be some creative flavours mixed in there, more indian (as in India) than Mexican, but delicous non the less. It's $15 dolars a night to stay in a big room with three beds (5$ each). Compared to the three-dollar a night sweet I had in Vang Viene, which by the way is one of my favorite spots ever. The plan is to hit the Islands in the Southern end of Laos before moving into Cambodia for a few days, and on to Vietnam. I hope Dwight is up for some South-Vietnam sunshine, cause it would be great to meet up when he gets in (around the first I think). I wont be making it to the Islands/beaches in Southern Thailand, and feel like I need another three months to finish what I've started over here, but know I will be back at a latter time and can hit the spots I missed. I register for class on the 27th of November and have a good schedual figured out already, it's a 13 credit load (a little light) but should be great, and leaves me tues/thurs off, to get up to the mountains. I'm trying to get PLSC 271: Intro to International Relations, INTL 201: Intro to Global Studies, and PHIL 364: History of Philosophy (Ancient). I will miss Thanksgiving, but when I'm swinging in my hammock at the side of the Mekong I'll have plently of time and reasons to be thankfull...Love you all,

Adam

Made It !! ~ Viange Viene

Fewwwwwwwww, what a reliefe to roll into Viange Viene. The cycling was beautiful, better than I would have imagined, exhausting but good. The scenery was incredible, the hills brutall. The first day had the hardest climbing (go figure) and 70km (70Km * .62 = 43.4mi)into it at sunset (1km=0.62mi) I caught a truck the final 9km to our guesthouse, Jorn joined me, Daniel is an animal and rode another 45minuets in the dark. The first climb of the day was 600M vertical over 10km, the next climb 1000M vertical over 25km, which led right up to the village where we stayed. The second day we rode 76km to the hotsprings and was considerably better than the first day, only one big climb, a 10km hill. The second night we stayed right next to a huge jagged-rock mountain, the guesthouse had hotsprings right next to it, and we all got our own bungalows for 5$ each. We were quick to ditch the bikes, grab a beer and get into the hotspring. Today (day three) was awesome, despite being pretty soar in the morning my muscles warmed up and we charged a little hill to start before dropping through a gorgeous valley (lord of the rings'esc) and rode on the flats for a long time, covered 75km again today. Stopped at one point at a watermellon stand and got outa the sun and into some delicous mellons. ...And now I go get a beer, a massage, some dinner, and a huge nights sleep, I think we'll stay here for three days or so before continuing on to Vientiene...love you all, adios



Adam

Drum Roll...

Photo op. with one of the guides...

Kids (brothers?) in the second village we visited...

Part of our trekking group, just arrived at first village

Mud-wall house in the second village

Daniel helping load a bike, Jorn just lovin it
(click on pictures to enlarge)

The Trek in Luang Nam Tha was beautiful. There were eight of us (plus two guides), two couples, an english teacher, and the three of us (Jorn, Daniel, and I). The first day we hiked for four hours or so before coming out of the forest into this surreal little Hmong village. It reminded me of MYST (the computer game) in that you didn't see much of the villagers, there were the huts with smoke rising from the leaf-thatched roofs, there were the animals, chickens, pigs, dogs, goats, a couple cows, one horse, the kids weren't as shy, and would come about curiously only to run off laughing in mock-fear. I kicked a ball around with one little guy for a bit and a few other children looked on but didn't want to join in. It's hard to explain but it was a great experience. I didn't take that many pictures of the kids, or the few villagers that looked on from their doorways, my fellow trekkers were shooting away, but it just felt strange verging on disrespectful, and the camera stayed in my pocket most of the time. At dinner the village chief came to eat with us, and after dinner our guide translated our questions to him. There were around 160 people living in the village, they were completly dependant on thier crops, animals and forest for food. Trekkers started coming to the village in 2005, and the money goes to the village bank which, we were told, went straight to improving the education system, books, pens, etc. Most of us also brought a few childrens books to give as thankyou's. The next night we slept over in a village that showed some modern influence, a generator, a road connecting them to the rest of northern Laos, and villagers that would approach with handmade things asking for a dollar or two. This night was different in that the lady that came to dinner brought a bottle of lao lao (rice whisky) it is strong...it twists your face and makes your stomach cringe...and it gets the job done. Well most of us were drinking it, the bottle was finished and then there was an awkard translation from one of our guides, that we should all share the price of drinks or something to that effect. No one really understood, but we all pitched in a dollar (10,000 kip), for what we thought was the bottle that we just drank. Ten minuets latter booze arrives, another bottle of lao lao and five or six beer lao's. Eh nobody saw that one coming, things went on for a while and we were having a great time. This old lady was very persistant in giving out shots around the table and then saying Ok? Ok? Ok? She was showing the booze more than the rest of us, and after a few enthusiastic high-fives toppled backwards off the bench...oops. She was fine, our guides cut her off from the booze (well we had to hide the bottle under the table). After we got back to Luang Nam Tha the trio of us took our guide up on an invitation for a dog barbeque (don't tell Sparkey). It was really chewy, good flavor I guess, not something I'll search out in the future.

And now I'm the proud owner of a Merida mountain bike...purchased in Laung Nam Tha for $120US, it seems like a good bike. Daniel Jorn also bought bikes, and we brought them down to Laung Prabang yesterday (via 9hrs on a mini-bus) and plan on leaving here tomarrow morning. Were sending our backpacks ahead, bringing only a small bag. Should be three days to Viang Viene where we'll meet up with our bags, spend a few days floating lazily down the river on innertubs before resuming our journey to Vientiene... It's going to be great.

Your probabley tierd of reading, I'm tierd of wirtting =], so check back in a few days for an update from Vang Viene..

Adios for now,
Adam

Nong Kiaw - Luang Nam Tha

Well never actually made it to Muong Noi...stopped at Nong Kiaw instead, stayed three days, moved onto Luang Nam Tha, and will do a three day trek tomarrow with both Jorn(Holland) and Daniel(Germany). They're good company and it's nice for a change to be travelling with a group. Were going to make an all out effort to buy mountain bikes and bus them from here to Luang Probang, before starting on an all out charge South to Vang Vien and then on the Vientiene where we hope to sell the bikes...it's a long haul, but were planning it out, and are

following in the footsteps of one of Daniel's friends who lent us his itinerary complete with good stops etc. We hope to complete the journey 7-10 days after departing Luang Prabang. Went fishing with some locals in Nong Kiaw for two dollars US, went wadding up a good sized creek, throwing out a net, beating the water with sticks and catching minnows...but enough minnows make a meal, and by the end of the day we had a good snak of our deep fried minnows, that baby in the picture was our guides brother's. The man that led us out envited us (Daniel and Jorn and myself) to dinner at his parents. It was actually part of the death rite for his father who had passed on seven days earlier. It was a great experience, and all of us have wrist-fulls of these strings that all of the relatives tied to us for good luck, also got pretty drunk on the local rice whisky simply called "lao lao." Got an authentic hair cut two days ago complete with a shave... and what a shave, no water or anything and a razor-knife, it was incredibly painful, the local kids were laughing the whole time through, so anyways I'm looking sharp =]. Then an all day bus/truck travel day and here we are in Luang Nam Tha, anyways all is well...I'm over the fever and just have a small residual caugh, I'll keep you posted on how the lead up to the bike trip goes, we hope our trek will get us slightly conditioned but I think the first two days of riding will be tough. Love you all, Adios

P.S. I messed the pictures up, have too many to get on here, but will try again next time

Moving on --Muang Ngoi

Here comes some adventure, I'm heading 6hours north up the Nam Ou river tomarrow with a guy that I've run into all over the place, I think the plan is to stay there a day or two, then head west acros Laos to Luang Nam Tha province where there is supposedly some great trekking, and a thing called the gibbons experience (google it if you want to learn more) that I really hope to go to. It's hard to book last minute but it could work out, people miss there dates etc. Its an eco tour sort of thing all up in the trees with zip lines to a from. Everyone thats been says it's incredible...one older couple said they'd been traveling for a years and it was an all-time experience for them...so I'm hopefull that will work out. Today I rented a bike with the same guy I'll be traveling with, who's name I can't remember right now, that was a good time, but I look forward to the ride up the river tomarrow, it's supposed to be goreous...All is well, I wont be around internet till Luang Namtha I believe so maybey a week? maybe a bit longer...love Adam