14th June
to
18th June

Day 267
to
Day 271

Today we regain regularly spaced mileposts - and with nothing worse than gentle undulations we are glad to watch them click by speedily. Tim seems to be back into his stride today - riding methodically. Nick however has picked up a stomach bug and through the day deteriorates to the point where he rides for 10k's and then finds a bench in a cafe to lie down for 15mins. Tim kindly offers to look after Nick - and suggests that I get going to meet Dean and make arrangements for Birthday Tea! The last 30km's flash by - as we join first a tributary and then the Mekong River once again. It is a glorious sight in the mid afternoon sunshine - and even with its mighty girth at this point in its journey, its waters continue to race along - the monsoon waters clearly swelling it greatly. I ride through a warm shower of rain on the final run into Louang Prabang - but the anticipation of the ancient Capital of the land of 1000 elephants is enough to hold my excitement. Palm trees line the streets and the entrance to the city is over a rickety single lane wooden bridge. As I pause to catch my breath I feel the sticky warm air surround me. The quiet flow of bicycles, pedestrians, and monks, the rain clouds overhead, and the hints here and there of the bygone French colonial era give the place a special feel. Buddhist Stupas (statues) appear by the streetside as I approach the city centre - they nestle amongst unkempt green undergrowth. Now overtaken by Vientiane, the modern Capital, Louang Prabang is a little isolated up in the north of the Country - but this isolation has surely helped the town to keep an air of mystery and romance. The town lies at the confluence of the Mekong and one of its major tributaries - and so in times past, before the growth of road transport - the river was the city's (and Laos') major artery. Cargo and passengers continue to shuttle up and down the Mekong - but as a fraction of its former glory. World Heritage status has been accorded to this most atmospheric of towns - and so now one of its principal functions is to serve the nomadic traveler and tourist community. For us this is clearly good news; especially on my birthday! Red wine, Champagne, Steak and Chips and Creme Caramel for dessert make a tongue tingling feast - by the end of the evening I have a spinning head - what a location for my 28th birthday - and how glad I feel at what has come to pass since my last birthday. Andrew and I ride together out of Louang Prabang after another rest day. Unfortunately the birthday revellery continued rather too long and so Andrew has an awful hangover. We don't leave town until 14:00 and we are plunge directly into a steamy, sweaty afternoon. The road climbs almost directly after Louang Prabang and it seems that we ride uphill most of the day. Andrew rides slowly and deliberately - whilst I try to work out how long it is going to take us to make sufficient distance to allow us to get to Vang Vieng tomorrow. I conclude that we need to make at least 80km - which will leave us still a rather ambitious 151km for tomorrow. The view to our side of the sunset characterises Laos perfectly. The sun dips down behind a mighty tree covered hill. As the rays sneak around the edges of the hill, each successive range of hills is highlighted in a slightly different shade of dark green grey. The clouds are forming down in the valleys below us - and tendrils of mist climb up the forests towards us. Meanwhile as the sun drops further we see fiery hues in the evening sky and beautiful deep blue as the heavens recede into the night. Its almost enough to take our minds off the hill that continues to rise - but not quite. Not knowing how far this hill will carry on for is quite disheartening - and we try to figure out when we will crest the hill. A clue to our forward route is given by the pylons that follow our road. At each pylon the wire stretching across the countryside changes gradient. If the wire continues upwards - even though we can't see the next bend in the road - we know that we too shall have to continue upwards - because in these remote areas the roads and the pylons or telephone lines always travel together. Similarly we get excited when we see the lines begin to go down - as we know that we also shall begin dropping. This evening the daylight fades to dusk before we see the wires begin to descend. We ride on into the night and find ourselves surrounded by deep jungle. The noise of the nighttime creatures is deafening, and from time to time we hear rustles in the undergrowth. I'm a big fan of wildlife normally - but I'm also well aware that its at night time that things really get going - and I'd really rather not come face to face with a leopard - not just now! The rain begins to fall - and we are quickly soaked. From out of the gloom I also spy the shadow of a local walking back to his home. I also am able to discern as we get closer that he is carrying some kind of automatic weapon - and so we both cheerily call out to him 'Saabaddi! Saabaddi!' and ride on quickly - hoping that he is not offended by bicycle travellers! Our home for the night is the floor of a roadside cafe - but the welcome is first class - the woman who runs around after us laughs as we struggle out of our sopping clothes and shower beneath the water pump in the street - we are filthy! Another early start sees us setting off into cold rainy weather. We're at 1600m (yesterday was a climb of over 1000m). Within just a few minutes we're soaked through with sweat and rain - but its refreshing at least. We set our sights on a small village marked on the mileposts at 48km - Phou Khoun. As I ride I turn the name over and over in my head....it begins to resemble a swear word - and with the ever strengthening rain storm I begin to curse - 'don't worry' I muse to myself - 'only another 120km to go. It turns out to be an epic day. The highlight of which is undoubtedly the Limestone scenery - known to Geologists as 'Carst' - but to laymen as amazing sharp poking up rocks draped in gravity defying trees. We are lifted in the early evening by the wonderful news that England have defeated Germany for the first time in 34 years in the Euro 2000 football tournament. We chatter as we ride, making crazy suggestions that England might actually do quite well in this tournament. (This ridiculous suggestion is scratched 2 days later when we hear that England lost against Romania......we take no further interest in football talk!). The last 30km of the day in the warm but bearable evening temperatures take us down a river and into the small town of VangVieng. Our longest day (in distance) since I can't remember when......maybe as far back as Iran!!!