Success II: The Succession (🤔)
My journey back from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang was without incident or mistake. Anyone would think I’m getting the hang of follow this road, turn left, follow that road, stop which is great for the last day of biking.
Route 1C west of Nong Khiaw is probably the best quality I’ve experienced in Laos, outside of the main towns and cities. The asphalt-to-pothole ratio is remarkably high. A shame that it only runs for 28km before that turn left onto route 13.
Route 13 is (apparently) then most important road in Laos. It runs almost the entire length of the country north to south. Wherever there are built-up areas, there is road decay. Wherever trucks turn or corner, there is road decay. It’s great when it’s good, awful when it’s bad.
By the way: I have a whole section of my RAM currently dedicated to just how bad Google Maps is. I’ll save it for now because this is a nice post.
I’d love to tell you that I got some nice pictures on the way, but I didn’t. I took two, in a 30-second pitstop because once you’ve passed three trucks in convoy, you don’t want to have them catch up again.
Honestly I was so over it and going probably a little too fast in places, but in any case, I made it to LP in just over three hours, in time to get a fresh cut and shave from Mr 50,000kip barber, and deliver the bike back to Harry. We had a nice chat, him again offering praise and some astonishment at my choice of route. But he’s right: it would be rubbish to have nothing to say about a journey.
Sunsets
On a slight whim, I power-walked down to the river bank to catch the sunset. It’s always slightly surprising how fast the sun sets, and I thought I might miss it. I found a wall to sit on, far from the shoreline but then I spotted some steps leading down to the edge of the river.
And there I crouched as the sun descended from behind some clouds, dipping then behind the treeline on the opposite bank. It was all extremely lovely, and I think a beautiful end to my (let’s not forget) spontaneous leap into Laos.
