Out of this world...!

 Since leaving Luang Prabang we have had some of the best days riding of the whole trip! Wow! The first day saw us ride 80km with 2 big uphills (20km each!) and 1 super long down (20km!). Great day to be riding, not too hot and passing through some stunning valleys and fields and along a very cool ridgeline. We think this guy was telling us we could climb the rock up there if we wanted.....or go around it....something involving lots of pointing and hand gestures and us nodding our understanding!

We spent that night in a village called Kiewkacham which was perched on top of the hill - had a breeze and we actually felt cold! Selling point of the guesthouse was the dining area with a magnificient view out over hills, where we sat for a few hours playing ukelele, journalling and eating!

 The next day was probably my favourite of the trip yet! Mostly downhill, we stayued high on the ridge for a while and then dropped down to a village called Phoun Khoun for lunch. Just stunning riding! Then met these kids who got excited by some hacky sac action while we recovered eating lunch....it lasted until one of the kids put the hacky in his pocket and walked off.....bad choice of hacky inheriter on my part perhaps!

 Feeling refreshed by a good noodle soup we set off and passed these boyus a few times as we stopped continuously for photos. Their best line was "I love you!", along with much laughter, high fiving and pushing each other all over the road. Lads.

 Then BOOM! This big rock appears in the distance! It was almost raining hence the washed out look but the cloud and mist made it so captivating and we stopped to stare at it for a long time! We then had a super smooth 15km of downhill right down the valley until we were beside the big rock where we spent the night! Epic! We stayed at a "Hot Spring Water Resort" which sounded amazing. Stunning wee waterfall into a pool....it wasn't really hot at all but it was nice to laze in the water for a while after another 80 kms of riding.

 Us, still smiling!! Our bodies must have eaten up all our reserves as today we downed 3 bowls of noodle soup before midday and arrived here at 2pm and got more food! Just sooooo hungry!!!

 We met these 2 guys from Korea - we have stopped to talk to all the other cycle tourers (haven't been many until today!) and exchange routes and plans and general experiences. These guys were 7 months into a SIX YEAR round world bike trip! And they seemed to be loving it! Theyu had clocked up 12000km so far and congratulated us on our 900kM! Their bikes were so loaded down with gear but they seemed pretty fit! We biked away feeling inspired and in awe of them!

Amber on the road - again, spent the 80km today cycling past stunning rocky mountains and cliffs. Just beaut.

Now in Vang Vieng, known for the tubing trip where you get horribly drunk and copious amounts of Opium! Rest day planned tomorrow to check out a few sights tomorrow and then it will be 2 long days into Vientiene, the capital city of Laos.

LOVING CYCLING IN LAOS!!!

Into Laos...

 We decided to take the bus over the border as we had heard dodgy things about the road and so were dismayed as we travelled on a brand new road for a LONG time down hill....anyway, back on the bikes the next day saw us clock up 100km on an amazingly good road. Beautifully undulating and felt like more downhill than up despite the fact we were following a river upstream...! I think we were just happy to be back on our own two wheels! People are super friendly here, but much quieter than Vietnam. The whole country is working on a slower pace, with less traffic, less background noise and less yelling. We have almost felt like we should honk our hooters sometimes and have reverted to just waving and giving the kids high fives and we pedal past. They know Hello! OK! and BYEBYE!

 We have had a few massive monsoon downpours which have seen us pedalling for shelter (this one in a locals house/shop/verandah where we enjoyed a Sprite and a biscuit and had to turn down numerous offers of Lao Beer.This was after 90km and had only 10 to go to our destination so eventually we just set off iin the rain. A good thing as it continued raining for about 48 hours....

 As you can imagine the motivation the next morning was a little think on the ground but we got moving only an hour or two later than usual and hit it. This was possibly the hardest day biking yet - 85km with about 50 of that uphill, mostly in the rain, with mostly contradictary information but we eventually made it to a small town, found a guesthouse and convinced them that US ddollars were real and that we should be able to pay with them (we had had trouble getting enough Lao KIP from the ATMS...)

 2 days of riding past very simple, poor villages but beautiful places to ride through. Life must be pretty hard living here though...

And a wee river in monsoon flood that was stunning. Pic a bit random but...oh well!

We are now chilling in Luang Prabang, on the banks of the Mekong, enjoying some variety in our diet! There is truckloads of good food here so we are making the most of that! Also enjoying the company from other travellors and just generally exploring a new place and taking a few dyas to fix our bikes, order parts and refresh for the next leg!

Map and Coffee obsessions!

We have had a stunning week biking from SaPa to Dien Bien Phu, at the border of Viertnam and Laos. After our punishing 38km uphill battle we were rewarded with 20km of downhill the next day through some stunning valleys. We were sidling along the edge of sheer cliff mountains and then alongside some great paddling rivers. Locals were constantly calling out Xien Chou!, I love You!, and Hello! Pretty classic shot of seeing the fields being worked by numerous people - and of course, their bull!

 On a flatter section of road, when the tar seal ran out and we were back on gravel. Some good techy bits and still great riding.

 Beautiful lush fields and valleys once we were down out of the mountains and into hill country. 

 Turns out I have a map addiction. We had a seemingly friendly man shadow us as we left town one morning and we couldn't figure out what his deal was....10km later the road disappeared into a river and we realised he was poaching us so we didnt get on anyone elses boat. We took a bit of convincing that we were in the right place, as there was no river or lake on the map (the map knows all....!) and with the language barrier and us asking road? River over there...where is the road?? The boat men were probably laughing at us as they kept trying to explain this was the road (but its a river..??!!). Eventually we gave in, handed over our money and as we were going started to notice half submerged trees and figured it out - monsoon season equals flooded roads. Ah ha!

While I fret about the map, Amber is on the look out for her morning coffee, which has sometimes been hard to find. But we have arrived in Laos and are happy that coffee here is almost as good as Vietnamese coffee!

 "Amber, do you want the good news or the bad news...?" What? Good news - Check out this place!!!!! Bad news - we may have to bike over those mountains over there.....

50km later, thats right where we were but the downhills made the slogging up worth it. Stunning place.

Have just crossed into Laos so are busy trying to learn some new words and figure out the way from here. Many more adventures you will just have to wait to hear about later!!!

My slashed finger has healed well, Amber now has 3 stitches in her foot which is adding to our sense of a grand adventure! I read that to be a hardened traveller you have to have spent time in a dodgy hospital where they stack bodies 5 high in the corrider (Amber ticked this one off for us) and get arrested (so far the police have only waved and smiled at us and on occassion told us they love us. Not quite what we're after).

Peace out.

In the absence of BoatMasters, Bridges and Boyfriends...

 We are underway! The last few days have been filled with culture, accilimatisation rituals and meeting new people. We have ventured into Hanoi traffic, and dominated!! This is our first scooter ride while attempting to find the local bus station so we could sort out getting our bikes to the coast. Biking down the same road the next morning fully loaded was jolly exciting!

 We bussed (eager to be on 2 wheels rather than ...10? Bus trip sucked.) to HaLong Bay so we could start our trip at the coast. Glorious! We signed up for a wee spot of pychocentric tourism with a tour heading around HaLong Bay (apparently the 8th wonder of the world!!) Our boat used to be in that small gap in the background by the wharf. This is a big gap to Vietnamese skippers who seem to be able to squeeze their way into any small gap in a bid to get their passengers on shore. This would definitely not meet rigirous maritime safety standards in NZ! The bumper boat experience was out of this world! Was worth doing the tour for this alone!

 First stop: Conveyor belt mass tourism through a big old cave with lots of colourful lights. Nature at its best!

 Amber with our new wee friend Mai on the boat trip. She started very shy but soon got used to us!

 Me watching (admiring? dreading?) boat manoevring skills (i.e. bumping, scratching their way up the side of ours , expanding the gap as they go, getting into position. Yikes.)

 Our new friend Kev! He seemed to be stalking us for the last few days but was great fun to keep running into and to have some fun with.

 Out amongst Ha Long Bay! Stunning rock cliffs and small islands all over the show. Theres a wee fishing village here (floating) which we paddled round for a while. Invested in some local fruit (from the land) and watched life go by. There is a school and everything at this village.

 Classic HaLong Bay.

 Amber with appapently the most impressive rock in the whole place......we didn't think so.

 The christening of Ambers new underwater camera and us loving being in the water for the first time in a while.

 Our Ukes! So, we got home, took a coffee out onto the footpath and soon met 2 other cycle tourists who ended up staying for a while. Turns out Tina is a Music Therapist so she helped us tune our ukes which was amazing. We sounded better instantly! Mark has the job of carrying Tinas large African drum on a bike trailer (which they were trying to sell) so we got that out, and my Nepali drum and had a wee jam session on the footpath! Was great! After comparing distances and speed and other dorky cycle touring bits of info we wished each other well. I think they are headed to Indo to go surfing.

And day one actually cycling! Amazing day! Long story short, this was our lunchstop in a cafe which turned out to be more like a fmaily meal than anything. We were well looked after and got AMAZING food, despite a large language barrier!! Our 10 vietnamese words, miming, cartoon drawing and laughing seem to get most messages across!

Bridges - We inadvertantly ended up on a ferry crossing a river which was definitely not what we were expecting, but quite fun! Met a lovely Vietnamese lady who gave us tips like the police number, her number and clues for getting to our destination. Fun much!

Boyfriends - Most conversations are based around "How old are you?", "Do you have a boyfriend?". I had one chap on a scooter ask me as we were biking along and about a minute later declared his love for me. Why don't boys in NZ take the good opportunities when they see them??!!! Had to let this guy go though as that was all he seemed able to say. I love you.

Reached our destination just as it started to rain and are now feeling happy, exhausted and glad to be on the journey! 

Vietnam baby!

We're here! Watch out Vietnam!

After feeling very sad on the plane leaving Nepal, (cool place!) I quickly shifted my attention to the upcoming adventure - cycling with Amber! Yea baby. I was so excited I could hardly sleep and it was VERY EXCITING when I saw here strolling into our hotel with her bike box. We were trying to catch up on so much and share our respective adventures that no sentence was properly finished before it led to another memory that we just couldn't wait to share with each other. We're still working our way through the conversation topics! Thankfully both bikes lasted the extended plane travel although the cardboard box was in pretty bad shape!!

After a day in Hanoi city doing very important things like getting a massage (started the way we mean to continue...!),  finding maps, needed bike paraphinelia (sp??) and starting to get our head around this new country we have ended up in Ha Long Bay. A beaut tourist spot on the coast. I haven't seen the ocean for a good few months so we thought it'd be nice to start our trip proper from here and end up at the coast in Thailand. So we endured 4 hours on a bus all the while just wanting to be on our bikes!! But after being dumped on the side of the motorway with a general wave in the direction of the road we needed to go down (turned out to be a wrong way one way!) we were left to begin cycling for real!!Woop woop! Bikes had survived the journey and felt good! We are fully loaded with a Nepalese drum and two ukeleles which we intend on learning how to play as we go. We already have the beginnings of Ring of Fire and Wagon Wheel. Nice. Amber raised the question - "Do we have room for these..??" and then we looked up and saw a man carrying enough spouting for an entire house on his bike and we thought....Yea! We're in SE Asia, land of the impossible bike loads! Of course we have space.

It is fun biking on the roads - just keep biking at the same pace and if you need to cross just work your way across as if its the most normal way of crossing the road in the world. We also invested in squeaky horns which help in the traffic. And  help bring smiles to the faces of the many people who stop to look at us as we pass!

Haven't managed to find a comp here yet that can upload pics so sorry bout no photos. We are here and smiling though!!

Tomorrow we are exploring Ha Long Bay, getting out for a kayak and enjoying a day looking round. Then Sunday will see us starting the bike back towards Hanoi and then onwards to Sapa which is in the Northern foothills and meant to be stunning! Yay! We are both itching to get cranking!

I keep comparing things to Nepal, and Vietnam so far feels like the developed world!! Nice roads, traffic rules, general order....you don't see as many random things in day to day life here but it is still pretty fantastic. I'm super stoked to be out of the city too as you get to see more cool stuff.

Will try post some pics soon.
Arohanui xxo

Thanks Nepal!

In a few hours I will be winging my way past the mighty Himalaya on a circuitous route that will land me in Vietnam! YEA BABY!!! (i am only a little bit excited...)

This, of course, has bought on some reflection about the last couple of months. Short version - Nepal is flippin awesome! Great land, beautiful people, fun language, yummy food (mito cha!) and adventures a plenty. Here are a few things I will remember as I leave....

The dogs that sleep all day and bark all night.
The thrilling taxi rides where horns are used more than the brakes.
Friendly people always asking what country I am from and replying (without fail) "Ahh, NZ. Nice country."
The donkey trains which caused traffic jams along the trekking paths (and their melodious bells clanging).
The shocking waste management system (put it in the river).
The views of the Himalayas that (sometimes) appear on the horizon.
The views of the mountains when you are in them! Holy. Moly.
Very young children shyly greeting me with 'Namaste"
Older children not shy at all, gang mobbing me and all yelling "MAM! GOOD MORNING! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
Street vendors who even after three months try to sell me the same things. Every time I walk past.
The Ahhh team.
Pasang and his amazing food (our sherpa chef in the hills).
.......

Ok and lots more but that will do.

If yu get a chance, come to this country. Its cool. I am leaving with plans to return someday to complete a few missions that didn't get done this time, but also with anticipation for the next adventure which I am VERY EXCITED about! Am meeting my friend-in-adventure Miss Amber in 48 hours (plus or minus a few for time zone changes) at which time we will unpack our bikes, pack our panniers and start turning the pedals!

(I drink about 5 litres of water a day here so Im no sure how I'm going to cope when I actually start doing exercise, outside, all day! Perhaps bike 2 minutes, pee, drink, bike 2 minutes, pee, drink....)

Well, until next time Nepal!

 My spot - communal area in the girls hostel. Toilet, washing and the stairs to the roof.

 The school day starts with Assembly which involves Simon Says, National Anthem, "Ättention!, Stand at Ease!, Attention!, Stand at Ease!..." and then the students head into the pink building one line at a time (literally because there is only space for that and they fill up the back classrooms before filling up the front ones. Think sardines!

 Year 10 (top level at this school) get the outdoor classrooms. Just as hot as inside but nice when the fan is working. Very funny class this lot which I taught a few times.

 Some of the young students who mob me every time they see me.

 My 2 very good friends, Monita and Knobin. We can't understand each other....but we have an understanding...!

 Games and laughing fills in most of the afternoon/evening.

 Some of the staff who have been coming for English lessons. Note the staff uniforms! Yellow is primary and blue is secondary.

 I have been befriended by Subha (2nd from left) and have had a few meals at her house and hung out lots. Next to her is her husband and one of her children. Other side of me is another teacher.

Fridays are house days so the students wear their house colours instead of regular uniform. Then in the afternoons they play sport. This court is the only space they have and there are 900 students so think like a mini tournament with alot of kids sitting watching around the edge.

Now, tomorrow I leave here and head back to start sorting out the \final few days in Nepal, sending some stuff home and getting ready for the cycle expedition. I will be very sad to go - and this has been a great way to spend my last week. I have had to practise my nepali lots but they are an english speaking school so i have never been in trouble!