Day 73, 77km: by Chris

Dense fog enveloped the jungle this morning and were we're woken by the pattering of drips from wet leaves hitting the tent. It didn't take long to burst out the the cloud into bight blue sky's on our way up the first of two hot 2000ft climbs on a badly potholed road. We had lunch next to a spring under a palm tree where I was harassed by irritating little flies which would buzz incessantly back and forth in front of my face and then punch me in the eye. (To be fair to the fly, this blow comes from my own fist trying to kill the exasperating pest). After the second big sweaty hill we rolled downhill, past children waving and shouting greetings including 'good morning' despite it being well past mid-day. At the bottom we found a guest house opposite the bus station that had a spider the size my palm above the shower and geckos on the walls.

 For dinner we ate noodle soup, as it is the only thing we have worked out how to order. Unfortunately, this is a small snack as far as I'm concerned so immediately ate 3 packs of biscuits and 6 bananas when we got back to our room.

In Laos, as in China, most of the time we have no idea what we are eating:

72, 63km: by Amy

Thankfully it had stopped raining. The provisions in the village consisted of bananas, yoghurt drink and cookies which we stopped to eat for breakfast a few km up the road. While we were stopped a strange looking electric car drove past.  It was an elderly couple from China trying to get into the Guinness book of records by travelling around the world in a carbon neutral electric car powered by pedals and solar panels on the roof. There was a mattress under the roof that lowered for a bed and even a wood burning stove on the back. It was amazing. They had already travelled all over South East Asia.

 The morning was mostly uphill and I quickly decided that although our guidebook suggested girls should wear at least 3/4 length shorts, these were not suitable for cycling in the tropics. They stick to your knees and are way too hot. I zipped them down to shorts and perceived no signs of offence from the villages we passed. After our massive climb we descended into the town of Oudomxay where Chris found a lady selling baguettes and bought her entire stock (which admittedly was meagre).

 We decided the next day would be too long if we stayed in town so headed up into the hills once more. Chris found a camp spot in an old rubber plantation guarded by an enormous red and black spider. Unfortunately despite sweltering in full length trousers and a kagool, mosquitos bit my hands and every bit of trouser that touched my skin while I cooked dinner. We ate in the tent while ants invaded our bags and the Mosquitos hummed outside. 

Day 71, 58km: by Chris

This morning Amy stocked up on steamed buns (the closest thing china does to bread) and fried dough balls. However, I had food anxiety about the prospect of what we might find to eat in Laos so went back and bought double the insufficient quantities Amy had returned with. It didn't take long to reach the border where we changed thousands of Chinese yen to millions of Laos kip via street traders who tried their best to confuse us with the decimal place.

 Leaving China  

                           

Entering Laos:

The borders were time consuming but posed no problems and we set off down slippy wet Laos roads dotted with homes of woven bamboo and straw roofs. Children came running out of the villages towards us, shouting, excited and curious. Amy was swamped outside a school.  

 Unfortunately during lunch we enjoyed our egg and tomato steamed bun sandwiches too much and ate most of our supplies. This concerned me greatly. Amy seems more worried about the prospect of camping on top of unexploded ordinance dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war. Further worries about camping in the jungle developed with the sight of insect road kill, which in Laos can legitimately be described as carcasses. I think I will be checking my shoes before putting them on in the future.

70, 91km: by Amy

We set off in the rain. The hotel owner was asleep on a bed in reception so we just left the key on the desk. It rained and rained all morning as we cycled through a protected area of jungle. We tried to find a short cut to avoid a section on the main road but the roads didn't correspond to our maps which confused the locals and after being pointed back and fore for a while we resigned ourselves to an extra 10km. We had lunch under a pagoda in a park in Mengla town which was pretty but strewn with rubbish. For the afternoon the sun came out and after a short section on busy duel carriageway we branched off onto the old road which was deserted because the faster duel carriageway was toll free. We arrived at the last town before the border and treated ourselves to an posh hotel for £8 and so much egg tomato and rice we could barely walk back to said hotel.

Day 69, 58km: by Chris

More rain today - it was cold and wet cycling through thick, dripping jungle full of leaves the size of people, vines and mist. We rolled through cloud sliding up the folds of the land and rumbled over orange mud and stones from landslides.

 

Lunch was eaten sat by the road while, in turn, biting flies ate us. In the afternoon we were given some jungle fruits from a pair of girls we saw who were scrumping from the forest and continued in the rain to the next town to find a hotel for an early finish. When the weather is this bad, even I can't begrudge staying in these places when a double en-suite room costs just £5, but it still involuntarily goes against the grain for me, being someone who has never liked to pay to spend time being predominantly unconscious.

Day 68, 88km: by Amy

There was a bit of confusion at the outset with locals pointing us to all 4 exits of the town roundabout but once this was sorted and we found the right road it was plain sailing (navigationally speaking). Terrain wise it was steep uphill for the whole morning past wooden houses on stilts then up into jungle covered hills. One young lady on a moped stopped to talk to us (she spoke a little English). I showed her our Chinese explanation sheet and she took a photo of us. Later in the morning she flagged me down outside what turned out to be her house by a banana grove and gave me a massive bunch of mini bananas! 

 Amy tries the locally grown fruit:

 

We ate lunch near the top of the pass looking out over the misty hills. After eating it started to rain on and off. I had a town in mind for the night and after the big pass we were making good time following a river downstream so I was confident we could make it. Unfortunately the town turn out to be at the top of another 15km climb ascending another 1500ft. To make matters worse it started to rain. I had a sense of humour failure and had to sit and eat cookies. We finally made it into town at 18:40 just before it got dark. The town hotel was being refurbished but a room was ready so we moved in and had brand new comfy duvets and pillows for the night.

Day 67, 73km: by Chris

         Amy struggles out of the trees where we camped:

We continued down the 'off piste' track which Amy considered dubious, but I enjoyed. We entered a valley dominated by banana and tea plantations, clucking poultry, wooden shacks and people in wide-brimmed hats. The road was steep, short ups and downs.

 In the afternoon I was behind Amy and came upon a man and his dog. The dog was walking around with a puppy hanging out if its rear bits by its neck and the man was waddling around after it waiting to catch the puppy in a cardboard box should it drop out. I stopped to observe, but the pup was not dropping out anytime soon. I frantically tried to remember all my obstetrics training and then wondered if it was applicable to dogs. Deciding I couldn't stand around and do nothing, I got stuck in: We got the dog on its side and tried to manipulate the puppies head. A minute later it popped out. daddy must have been a large animal - the puppy was big for the little yellow dog and looked like a friesian cow. After several tense minutes and lots of stimulation it started to breathe and squeak. This was my first delivery as first paramedic on scene.

My first delivery in the field:
 

 We reached a main road and stopped at the next town where we found a cheap truckers motel and ate at an empty Chinese, Chinese takeaway. The veggie options were limited to bean sprouts or spinach, but we managed to persuade them to cook us lots of eggs. Although this didn't seem to be the done thing, we deserved our eggs because the novelty of some funny looking foreigners had drawn in dozens of locals to eat as an excuse to watch the queer folk.