Back on the Farm

Trip Start Dec 01, 2004
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25
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Trip End Apr 08, 2005


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Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep  ,
Friday, February 18, 2005

The ride back to Vang Vieng went smoothly except we didn't make it out of the mountains before sundown, as we were hoping we would. Our helmets had tinted visors and of course we couldn't see through them in the dark. Consequently, Gino ate a lot of bugs until we got smart! We stopped and fixed our Khmer scarves around our heads so that we looked like bandits, jumped back on the bike and finished the ride. We pulled into the farm around 8:30 to find everyone around a big fire, cooking food. Perfect timing. We joined them and enjoyed a relaxing evening eating, drinking and chatting about our trip.

We spent the next morning sleeping. Got up long enough to eat some lunch and say hello to a few people before heading back to our room for a nap. Riding a bike for that long is quite a work out, but definitely worth it.
01 - Laundry day
01 - Laundry day
The following day we had intended to help out on the farm, but got caught up in a conversation with a fascinating couple from Switzerland instead. We had lunch together and then talked the afternoon away. Roger, a brick layer and his wife Jaqualine, a social worker, have been travelling most of their adult lives. They met in their 20's in South Africa as volunteers, went home and got married, had a son and then moved to South Africa to work. They stayed for 5 years, had two more children and then moved home so their kids could go to school in Europe. Even with 3 kids, they found the time to travel and enjoy adventures...cool people. Now their children are grown and enjoy travelling just as much. When they aren't travelling, Roger and Jaqualine run a guest house in Southern Switzerland, not too far from Italy. We've been invited to visit anytime we are in the area...awesome.

We had hoped to rent the bike again for our trip to Luang Prabang but the owner wasn't available to make the deal with, due to an illness in the family. That meant we had to take the bus. It was going to be a really long, confining bus ride - between 8 to 10 hours heading north through the winding mountains - but it was the only way.
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