A Cave and a Bike Ride in Nong Khiaw, Laos.

The next day we went on a mission to hire some bikes. We tried for mountain bikes but there were only a couple of crap ones which were about to fall apart or some really tall ones that were so high that I couldn't get my leg over them while standing on the ground. So we had to opt for some city bikes (not ideal in mountainous regions).

The first stop was a cave which is to the east of the village. As we rode along the gravel road we were joined by some boys who came along to guide us in the cave.

It was a pleasant ride and the scenery really is lovely there. The mountains are all just chilling amongst the greenery of jungle plants.

We arrived at the cave site and followed one of the boys over a tree bridge

and then up the seriously steep concrete steps to the opening of the cave.

He showed us around the cave where during a war locals had hidden.

There were three bomb circles outside in the fields where nothing was growing.

We tipped the boy and hopped back on our bikes.

We decided to ride down the other little road by the bridge so back tracked to the town and headed off in the heat. It was much more challenging because it was VERY hilly and the bikes had no gears so you could only get so far on pedal power before your bike was ready to keel over from lack of momentum.

We got quite far though and only turned around when we came to a hill we thought the bikes couldn't go down (as they had dodgey brakes).

It was funny because when we got to that point we caught up to a Spanish couple who were riding too and they stopped a guy walking up the hill with his bike and they were all talking English to each other but we were thinking "Isn't that guy a spanish speaker too?" and then they realised they all spoke the same language and switched to spanish but it was after about 3 minutes!

After riding back we chilled for a bit

and then went out for dinner. We decided to order the mouse deer but we had to wait ages for it and then it came out only after over an hour!!! It it was not nice. It was really salty, I think it was just preserved like that, not grilled like the menu said. Steve ate most of it but it didn't come with anything else so we had to go and get another dinner! They didn't even apologize for our dinner taking nearly an hour and a half to come.

 The second dinner was yummy though. It was some German potato dish. Mmmm.

If you want some more information about Nong Khiaw read this blog:

http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/04/nong-khiaw-laos-travel-guide/