Day 1100 – Vang Vieng to dandin.

Day 1100                                       25th July 2019

25 miles (Vang Vieng to dandin. ) Average speed 9.9 mph Top speed 24 mph

What a tough day with lots of technical issues.
I got up at 8 for another good breakfast but as it was raining, I was in no rush to get on the road so I rested and left at 11.45. I only got 2.5 miles before realising that I had left my passport in the locker so had to go back to retrieve it. I’d already bought baguettes for lunch so ate one at the hostel while the rain came  again.

I left at 12.45 in light drizzle and picked up the water I’d left behind at a shop earlier, things were not going well to say the least! After an hour or so I arrived at the elephant cave but chose not to go the 2km to visit. I was glad later that I hadn’t been as it turned into a very long day and I would have been riding into the dark to the next guesthouse.

My next stop was at a garage to get out of the rain, as I pulled up my front brake spring broke. I spent a long time there with the family owners watching on. I managed to get the spring back in place but it had rusted, hopefully my temporary fix will last long enough for my descent into Luang Prabang but I’m not too confident!! Then as I started climbing the heavens opened and I took refuge under a roadside shelter but as I did so my pannier hit a bench and broke. I spent a long time trying to fix it and after the deluge tried to continue but the next pothole I hit saw it break again. Then I spent a long time in a shop trying many different ways to fix it but ended up tying it to the rack with string. The children in the shop and the owner were quite amused by my antics.

I ended up leaving one of my shirts  there to reduce weight and packed stuff into a waterproof bag to carry on top of the rack. I then climbed for 10 or 11 miles, on the way finding some string to tie the pannier tight. It was still raining and quite tough climbing but the scenery was amazing, no pictures as my phone was dry in the tied up pannier. I climbed up to the truck stop which has a guesthouse and was happy to pay 70000 kip just to get out of the rain and regroup.

The owner said there was a restaurant opposite but it turned out they only had pot noodle.

I just needed calories of any kind. I went to another shop for beer and crisps to add calories. The place is quite clean and reasonable considering it’s in the middle of nowhere. I spent the next few hours fixing the pannier and brake cover and am happy with my makeshift repairs. I’m glad that I have spares and all sorts of stuff that I have picked up along the way. It’s amazing though that only yesterday Stuart was enquiring about panniers and kit.

Guesthouse with no name. 70000.