Not sure Marilyn would shop here!
I liked the colours of this wooden building in a temple at Thabok.
We wandered and explored Thabok after arriving there mid afternoon on the first day of the ride. We decided there must be some well connected officials living in the town as there was concrete everywhere, every small lane was concreted, as was the square in front of the temple and the riverside walk.
There were lots of hills to ride up on the Team Dai Challenge. The road was often undulating and there were many small sharp inclines like this. Matthias and Andreas are both very strong riders and unlike me had no problem on this hill. Matthias lives in Vientiane and has a fancy bike with electric gears. Andreas is a friend of his from Germany who visited Laos to do the ride with us.
Scene from a lakeside village with Team Dai members searching for the boat departure ramp.
Gabor from Hungary, Mark from Australia and Lorenz from Germany; looking for a boat.
Lunch on the Team Dai ride was usually noodle soup (Pho) or Fried Rice (Khoa Pad) at a local restaurant scouted out by Pani and Kham. At the village Lak 251 on the Nam Ngum reservoir the soup was particularly tasty. These were two of the cooks and waiters I spotted through the window as a was parking my bike underneath it.
The first day of the Team Dai Challenge took us north out of Vientiane, to cross the Nam Ngum river via local ferry. Even though it was only about 8 am, it was warm and I was sweaty after two hours of riding.
The third day of the Team Dai ride ended with a two hour cruise across the Nam Ngum reservoir. A very relaxing, and after a swim, refreshing way to end the day.
Besides having great smiles, Pani and Kham are caring and generous people. They have been drivers for Team Dai Challenges for many years. They also prepare food for our rest stops, go to the market, order food from local restaurants and generally take care of us all. They are wonderful. How good is it to have a fruit platter with ice ready when you stop in the heat at the 80 km mark on a long ride.
A loaded cart with driver heading into the misty hills of Phou Khau Khouay as we rode by.
The majority of my riding in the Team Dai Challenge was at the rear of the peloton or drafting behind others.
On one hill on the last day Maarten rode with me and had his hand on my back pushing me up the steepest inclines. They were a very kind and generous group to ride with.
The Team Dai Ride was through relatively remote areas. We were on dirt tracks with both mud and dust. On Day 2 we rode through a gorge and steep valley behind the mountain range of Phou Khao Khouay. We climbed on to a plateau with a gentle incline and passed through several ethnic minority group villages such as Hmong,
Lisu and Khmu.
Back in Vientiane after 400km of cycling through rural Laos. Dusty, sweaty, but happy to have arrived at Patuxi monument and proud of our achievement.
A great adventure with a great group of people. As we started on International Women's Day I thought I would start this group of posts about the ride with a post about the women in the group.
As a group of women we were supportive and encouraging of one another and reflect the diversity of the team and the expat community of Vientiane.
Dominique - South Africa, mountain bike queen and triathlete, works in communications. 1st Team Dai Ride, lived in Vientiane for 41/2 years
Brieke - The Netherlands, long distance cycle tourer, works with Helvatas on a project training Laos forestry workers. Was only able to ride with us today, but did a ride 5 years ago and trained for this year. Lived in Vientiane 5 years ago, back here for the last 8 months.
Lena - German ( only 22 !!!), fit and very young, working on a water and sanitation project. 1st Team Dai Ride. Arrived in Vientiane 6 months ago.
Megan - Australian, living in Manila now, but came back to Laos for the Challenge, fit and focused, development consultant, was Chairperson of the VIS Board, her husband is now Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines. 3rd Team Dai Ride. Lived in Vientiane for 4 years, moved back to Belgium, and moved to the Philippines 6 months ago.
Hannah - Australian, fit and young, works at the Australian Embassy, but leaving next week after a 3 year posteing. 3rd Team Dai Ride
Thu - Vietnam, fit and strong, has her own business and is doing an MBA at the Laos University. 3rd Team Dai Ride, lived here for more than 6 years.
Mary - Australia (not 22 !!) - 2nd Team Dai Ride
Loved these monks getting in a taxi with their bunches of flowers and the man behind with the trolley loading produce in to the boot (trunk) of the taxi.
The Mother (or Grandmother) busy working - threading jasmine flowers onto strings - while the younger daughter is engrossed on her device.
Loved the green of the springs onions with the green of the tuk tuk. The tuk tuk was being loaded up to take the vegetables from the main market off to smaller street stalls around Bangkok.
The effort the stall holders put into displaying their produce always amazes me. These lettuce leaves, spiraled in layers, formed a neat nest.
I was in Bangkok last weekend, for a conference, and visited a local market - I love a market..
The chrysanthemums were wrapped in newspaper and ready for sale.
More elephants. This detailed relief of the three headed elephant - Erawan- on a temple , Wat Phaxai, off Avocado Street caught my eye. Erawan is the Buddhist or Thai name for the Hindu God Airvarta.
Play is the theme for the City Daily Photo Community this month.
So while I am on a run of Elephant photos here is one from Sri Lanka, where elephants both young and old were playing in the mud in Uda Walawe National Park.
