Day 63, 78km: by Chris

After 16km Amy's tyre suddenly deflated. The valve on the inner tube had failed so we had to use the spare. Our fingers are crossed we don't need another one until we reached Luang Prabang in Laos, the next major city where we might be able to buy one.

Shortly after it was fixed, heavy rain hit is as we cycled through giant bamboo groves and farms, saturating our shoes and cycling shorts. In the afternoon on several occasions I witnessed parents of young children hold their offspring arse-end first, out of their front doors and letting them urinate all over their doorstep. I have seen this before in china - it is an odd practice.

We reached a big town after a good days cycling but my mood was dampened by a dog which did a sloppy poo on my trailer. I had to spend ages poking it off with a discarded drinks straw. Because it rained most of the day, that evening we saw giant snails 3-4 inches long on the pavement (Amy made me write about that because she was fascinated by them).