We have camped a couple of nights during the last few days and I have prepared a longer text about our ride from Kunming towards the Laos border. It takes longer time to write while sitting in a tent and it isn’t ready yet. When we checked in at a hotel last night and found out that there is internet in the room I decided to make a short update to tell that we are alright.
We have cycled together with Greta for five days now and we have traveled on a minor provincial road that is very beautiful. The road passes small villages and occasionally some minor towns. The landscape is very hilly to say the least and the last three days have been a roller coaster. We have slowly climbed up the steep hills and speeded down the serpentines. The road has been in good condition apart from an almost 20 km long and very muddy section where the slushy mud sometimes reached up to the hubs of our wheels.
This area of China has many minorities and for a few days we have been wondering when we will see the first signs of thai and lao culture. A couple of days ago we could see buildings that looked very similar to those in northern Thailand and when we arrived to this town we saw a temple that looked just like they look in Thailand. When went out to have dinner we thought that the people running the restaurant spoke something that wasn’t Chinese. Wej gave it a try and addressed them in Thai and they immediately responded in Lao. Thai and Lao languages are very similar (like Swedish and Danish) and even I could join the conversation. No need to communicate with sign language and using google translate on the smartphone anymore…. 🙂
The distance to the border to Laos is now 100 km and our plan for today is to stay ride as far as we can but not cross over into Laos until tomorrow morning. Once inside Laos we won’t have any internet connection until we reach Luang Prabang either on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. This means that the next blog update will be published late next week.
Please enjoy the photos below as a teaser for the proper update of the blog that will come next weekend.
Misty morning very close to the Lao border
Our tent at night
The entrance to the thai style temple next to the hotel where we are staying right now
Greta and Wej enjoying a short break
At one of our camp sites
Dinner at Camp Gravel Hill
One of our camp sites turned out to be next to a grave
Nice view