Off the beaten track in Lao PDR...

For all those of you out there who havent given us up for dead at this point, thanks for tuning in. Internet connections are few and far between here in Lao, especially once you get out of the major cities, but we'll continue to do our best to keep yall posted.

Since we left the capital city of Vientiane we've put about 380 miles on our bikes, usually doing something between 30 and 60 miles a day. We're both feeling pretty good, aside from the normal aches and pains of spending several hours a day in the saddle. From Vientiane, we headed down the main road paralleling the Mekong R. (Route 13 South) for a couple of days, with one foray up into a national park in search of some waterfall action--it was very hot and a longer, gnarlyer road than we'd imagined but we did find a sweet swiming hole in a jungle river in the middle of pretty much nowhere.

We left the Mekong (along with the easy, flat road) at the town of Viang Kham and headed NE into the mountains. Riding all morning up the first real climbs of the trip was a little rough, but we rolled through one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen: the Nam Phong Valley is a postcard perfect river valley full of rice patties, waterbuffalo, traditional Lao houses all set up on stilts (when it rains here, everything floods) and the friendliest Lao children you can imagine framed by amazing Karst mountains overgrown by rainforst. We finished our ride at Ban Na Hin at aound 11 am, and by noon we'd met up with an Aussie dude and a couple of English chicks and we all set off to go see a place called Kong Lo cave. Kong Lo cave is basically a river that carved its way underneath a huge Karst mountain--and when you get there you hire some dudes in a long canoe-like boat with an outboard motor that looks like a weed-eater (only it has a prop instead of a string--the prop is on a long arm that sticks way out behind the boat) who run you all the way to the other cave intrance for about an hour and a half. Needless to say, this was pretty sweet and definetly a high point so far. The cave was HUGE, and we got to walk around and see cool cave formations, etc.

The next couple days we rode through more mountainous country, including one 60 mile day over very rough unpaved road. I cant do the scenery justice in words (pictures are not great either--its just too expansive) but the mointains are very rocky and wild and the jungle is very thick--much moreso than places ive been in S. America. These last few days up in the mountains, we've felt very much "out there"--I get the sense that few foreniers pass this way, and those who do generally do so in an air-con bus. Being on bikes, we have much more contact with folks in the small towns where other tourists dont stop, and we've got the flexability to stop just about anywhere. Its difficult not knowing any Lao, but the few english speakers we've met have been extreemly friendly--I feel like if I could speak Lao I'd pretty much be freinds with half the country by now.

Today, we droped back down to the Mekong at a town called Thakek. Its a nice place--real laid back (even for Lao where the national sport seems to be watching other people play Bocci ball--it a VERY relaxed country) with a nice waterfront. Our next move may be treking for a few days (might be a god break from the bikes), but we'll see what we can put togeather.

So far, we are having a great time, riding hard, relaxing quite abit, and enjoying some great food. Lao food is usually some variation of fried meat and veggies with rice, but they use lots of fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, mint, lemongrass, etc. The street food is also amazing--you can get any part of the pig or chicken on a stick, and it all tastes amazing marinaded in chilli sauce.

I'll wrap up my ramble now, sufice to say we are happy, healthy, enjoying life and hoping this finds you all doing the same.