Sabai Dee is Lao for Greetings or Hello. While traveling we tried to learn the most basic pleasantries to interact with the locals. When we decided to bike the almost 400 kms from Luang Probang to Vientiane on Hwy 13....We had no idea how often we'd be saying it...Every village, every kid (visible to us or not) and most adults, shouted this out as we biked by. Naturally Becky & I responded to every greeting and it seemed non stop.
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| Nice that a beer company sponsors the road signs |
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| Sabai dee Sabai dee |
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| Sabai dee |
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| Road side Petanque court (Bocce) pretty popular in nothern Thailand and Lao |
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| Our first day out was long, especially considering it was all up hill and we started in the rain. So with about an hour more riding to go, I decided it was time for a ride in the support vehicle while Stretch and Lee pedaled on. |
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| Sabai deeeeeeeeeee The terrain become more varied after the first day. I began feeling like we were a parade, waving and shouting greetings back to the locals. |
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| Road side huts on our second day as with ran the ridges above the limestone mountains. |
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| Beautiful country - we rode down hill about 12K to the right side of the peak you see on the left. Here we found bungalows and warm springs to soak in. Ahhh |
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| We bicycled into a small town one day for lunch. There was a carnival set up: darts & balloons, a music blaring merry-go-round, and we were the "faranga" side show. This kid took a picture of Stretch with his phone, but was a little more reluctant when Stretch wanted to take a shot also. |
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| Many villages set up roads side stalls to sell what ever they were harvesting from their fields, the forest and streams. These folks had all sorts of concoctions they'd brewed and various birds and fish. |
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| Even a couple of fresh rats...They're great lightly toasted! |
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| We began seeing graveyards along the way. The tombstones were styled like small colorful stupas, which were different from the other Buddhist countries where tombstones were simple stones on family land. Graveyards became more frequent and larger, a reminder of the "invisible war" here during the Vietnamese/American war years. |
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| Sometimes it just got too hot and a vacant road side stand offered the shade we needed. |
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| Wallowing with the buffalo would have felt good too! |
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| Locals getting around by whatever means they have. |
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| Our bike riding over, we had a look around Vientiane which was anti-climatic, it has only been the capital since 1975 and only had a small French colonial area. The rest was over-powered by Soviet style building and striking Lao & Communist flags. |
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| But we spent a hot day walking around to various temples and structures. |
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| These young girls were on school lunch break. |
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| A delicious bowl of Lao noodle soup was our lunch treat. A small family run place, with lots of locals. A good indicator that this was THE place to eat. |
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| We traveled by overnight sleeper bus down to Paske, then on to the Mekong river area known as 4,000 islands. We took this boat from the mainland to Don Det, one of the 4,000 islands. As we approached the beach this water buffalo wasn't going to make room for us, so we all splashed ashore while the buff continued his bath... |
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| Mekong falls |
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| Local homes along the river. |
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| An oven for making charcoal. The charcoal is then bundled and sold to use for cooking. |
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| Large wheel barrow |
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| These young girls were shucking the tamarind seeds to get the sweet/sour paste inside, used in many Laos dishes. |
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| As I biked by a school on Saturday, I heard a lot of noise coming from inside and went to have a look. I met these young people who knew a few words in English. I pulled out my Point It book and showed them where I was from, along with some Alaskan postcards. Then one of them did a math problem on the board for me. Being a teacher, I of course praised him for his good work. |
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| Out looking for the rare(almost extinct) Irrawaddy dolphins |
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| You couldn't see the dolphins all that well, but you sure could hear them when they surfaced to breathe....Very Cool |
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| Evening on the Mekong...Yet another sunset |
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| The local women were always carrying something |
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| Guess we were one of those.....@ Pakse |
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| This one one of the VIP Sleeper Buses that we didn't get to ride on. Ours was a little more low rent, but still double-decker. |
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