Vang Vieng to Nam Lik

Tues 24/12/13, 90km

Plan today was to do maybe 95km on the road to Vientiane and then stop at the Vang Sang Resort (IIRC). As well as fettling the bike I'd also unpacked, washed and repacked my panniers so I was good to go as soon as I'd had breakfast!

Naturally this meant I didn't hit the road until close to 10AM. Passed a couple of hitchhikers on my way out of town and settled down for the ride on Highway 13, the road I'd been following since Luang Prabang. I kind of assumed that it was going to be a quick drop out of the hills and onto plains but this assumption was a bit like planning on being up and away early. The road looped past the top end of Ang Nam Ngum lake and then skirted round a mountain for a good few kilometres. Not exactly comparable to the more northern stretches but not as flat as I'd expected.

I finally seem to able to stop for lunch nowadays (I used to have a tendency just to cycle on through the day), which meant I ended up with a very nice noodle soup for lunch.

With about 15km to go I spotted a pair of Western cyclists coming up the and stopped to talk to them... Bit surprised when it turned out to be Dave and Cindy again! They were going to stop at the Nam Lik eco-resort but had run out of kip and had been looking for an ATM in the next dot on the map, without any joy.

Decided it'd be nice to go along with them so ended up in an "eco village". Hmmm. Nice enough however quite pricey (200000 kip for one person in a room, 300000 for two), with only two choices on the menu, vegetarian or omnivore. It was nice as a treat on Christmas eve but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. Good to swim in a river right after cycling though!

Alas, no room on my bike! Also I'd get that in Laotian script as well...

Balcony view at Nam Like. Don't get me wrong the place was nice!