Here's another good example of how planning goes when tour biking (not the picture below though).
 |
| Here's what you do in a peaceful place like Muang La: making yourself comfortable and read in the pleasant afternoon sun |
 |
| A beautiful village, a short walk from Muang La |
 |
| View in that same village |
- We arrive in Oudomxay (earlier than planned, see previous post), knowing that the next day we want to go to Muang La for a day (or so)
- Next day, we cycle to Muang La indeed
- We check in for 1 night
- After a few hours it's clear we like the place, and decide to stay 2 nights
- A bit later we even consider to stay 3 nights
- We then decide we would stay 2 nights, and continue from Muang La to Na Mor afterwards
- And finally, we stay 2 nights indeed, but decide to take it easy the last morning in peaceful Muang La, and ride back to Oudomxay in the afternoon
 |
| Time for a sunset picture again! This time with the Lao laundry in the foreground; it's amazing, in Laos there always seems to be laundry drying outside each house |
So, we're back in Oudomxay now. We did a little bit of grocery shopping this afternoon (some food supplies), visited the nice wat in town on a hill, and went for another sumptuous dinner at - of course - Kanya's...
 |
| The wat on the hill in Oudomxay |
 |
| Yes, every day a beautiful sunset, I know... no, it's not getting boring. |
The changing plans thing is not over yet. We thought we would be heading to Luang Namtha from here, and perhaps do a side trip to Muang Sing, and with that spend another 5-6 days in Laos before crossing into china. Well, we're not going to do it, we'll head straight to China from here. It's because we are excited to go to china now, and also because it seems this would be a side trip with "more of the same". Not that it's not nice, it's just that we would be doing an extra 100km go and back, to see this "more of the same". We also read that these places are best for hiking, but that it's all not that pure anymore. Well, we have probably seen more genuine, authentic Laos by cycling through it, than we would by going to the Luang Namtha region. Even the last few days, we saw some hill tribe women in (partially) traditional dress - certainly not for tourists, because (apart from us) there were no tourists around.
 |
| Wooooohooooo, scary!!! |
Tomorrow we'll be cycling to Na Mor, a good 50km, with some hills but nothing too bad. Then we have another 50km the day after that, to arrive at the border town of Boten. And then, it's exit Laos, enter China! It means we have another 2 relatively easy cycling days, and we have had easy weeks already in Laos. Yes, some (very) tough days as well, but overall much less kms than before. Somehow that really works in Laos... Its nice, we enjoy it too, although doing more mileage would also be fine. We'll see what the next weeks will bring!
