Remember back in January? When I rode 50 miles? And it was such a big freakin’ deal? Today, I got home from the Team Dai training ride, checked my bike computer’s odometer and felt a wee bit disappointed that we only rode 93 kilometers (almost 58 miles). How crazy is that?

This was my best weekend ride ever. I usually hit the wall toward the end of our long rides and then suffer the last 20 km silently (and not so silently) cursing the headwind, the smoke-belching truck traffic, my low blood sugar, my clunky Chinese bike, the motorbike drivers who zip out of alleys and on to the roadway without noticing the approaching pack of cyclists, my deteriorating knees, my bunched-up underwear, the single hair stuck on the back of my arm that I can’t find but continues to annoy the hell out of me, the potholes, the stop-and-go-and-speed-up-and-slow-down tuk tuks, the sun, whoever is in the lead riding faster than I want to go but I have to keep up or risk losing the “drag,” the dust, and just life in general.

Today there was no cursing! I seriously loved every minute of it. Why? Potential reasons for such a great ride:
* I fueled up with a big breakfast and then did a re-do when we got to Rivertime Lodge.
* Another rider, Lieven, bought ground coffee at a roadside stand and had the lodge brew up a vat of Lao coffee.
* We crowded our bikes on to a little wooden boat to cross the river, which kind of felt like a mini-adventure.
* We rode at a manageable pace and took a route home that we’d never done before.
* Our return ride took us through traffic-free countryside with rubbish-free waterways and rice paddies, which never stop surprising me with their shocking shade of green.
* The cycling chatter was particularly distracting.

This week, we took a different route to Rivertime Lodge, stopped for breakfast, and then crossed the river to a bumpy dirt road, which eventually met up with the paved highway back to Vientiane. This was my third trip to the lodge, so the photos may look familiar!

Cooling off, as per usual.

The patient waiter at Rivertime Lodge.

Tina (from Sweden) and me. I’m happily sipping sludge-like Lao coffee.

Some of the riders headed back to town, but we opted to cross the river and follow a different route back. Too bad we couldn’t find an easier way down to the boat.

Adam and Christine on the boat.

Some Lao dude, Paul, Tina and Mark on the boat.

Nanny and me on the boat.

Arriving at the other side.

Boat ‘o’ Bicycles (and one motorbike)

Off the boat and up a steep hill to the “road.”

Looking back at the lodge.

Just a reminder: I’m not doing all this cycling for my health, ya know! We’re trying to raise $20,000 for three Lao organizations. Please consider making a donation via PayPal at the Team Dai website. Thank you so much to those of you who have already done so!

This is how far I rode my bike yesterday.

In case you can’t see the decimal point on the dirty bike computer, that’s 151.84 kilometers, or 94 miles!

Sunday’s Team Dai training ride took us back to Dansavanh (see the Jan. 24 post). This time, however, we pedaled all the way there before tackling the dreaded hills. And then we pedaled all the way home.

The ride got off to a shaky start for me. As we were cycling out of Vientiane, we approached a red light. I waited till the last minute to put my foot down, forgetting that I had recently added cages to my pedals to strap in my shoes. By the time I un-stuck my feet, I had keeled over like a drunk sorority girl. The fall banged up my knee a bit and delivered a mild ego blow, but nothing serious.

The ride out to the hills was perfect. Spirits were high. The temperature was low. The team stuck together, taking turns in the lead. When we reached the turn-off to the hills, we all cheered and then quickly recharged with snacks and water. I had brought my iPod Shuffle with my carefully crafted Biking Playlist (heavy on Beyoncé, Madonna, and old dancefloor favorites), so I plugged in and set off.

I had hoped to conquer the hills with less effort than the first time we went there. The music definitely helped, but I still had to get off and walk a few times (although it was no easier to walk than to ride; it just used different muscles). The road climbs and climbs with few breaks until it ultimately plummets down to the Nam Ngum Reservoir. That last stretch is a wild doozy. The first time we rode here, I braked almost the whole way, but this time I just threw caution to the wind and whipped down the hill. More than once, my bike went airborne, and I popped off my seat several times. Another rider, Christine, clocked her max speed at 58 kmh. “Faster than I feel comfortable riding,” she said. Me, too.

The hilly road ends at a casino. We bought refreshments from the roadside vendors and took a little break before doubling back.
Julie enjoys a refreshing coconut drink.

Team Dai Challenge 2010 Project Manager Wil, his wife Bridget, and their kids, Nina and Toby.

Christine and me.

Refueling before the ride back to Vientiane.

One of the riders, Mark, won the Liar Liar Pants on Fire Award as we were huffing and puffing up a steep incline on the return ride. “This is the last hill,” he said. So when I crested the peak, I yelled, “Woo hoo!” and flew down, braking only to take a sharp turn, at which point I noticed yet another looming hill. I vowed to do something mean to Mark if I survived. Almost at the top of the real last hill, I jumped off and took a photo of Christine cruising up.

Riding back to town, the team broke off in to three groups with our little pack taking up the rear. Our motivational leader, Wil, and his wife, Bridget, had each ridden one leg of the journey while the other drove a car with their two kids. Bridget was driving back to town, so Wil caught up with us and pushed us to ride a bit harder. Miraculously, we caught up with the next group and rode together in a big pack until we reached the Tha Ngon river.

One family pulled off for lunch at the floating restaurants – little boats that cruise on the river while you nosh. The rest of us bought water and treats at the side of the road. Our pack split up at this point, and I ended up in the back again with Christine, Wil and Jeremy for the last 30km back to Vientiane.

And that’s when I hit the wall. Despite tricking out my bike with a second water bottle and a fabulous new snack bag attached to my handlebars and full of raisins, nuts and granola bars, I felt absolutely depleted. We had a head wind and not enough riders to create much drag, but Wil and Christine kept us going.

When we reached town, the boys headed home and the girls headed to lunch. We got to Joma and joined some other Team Dai riders. I thought I would want one of everything, but it turned out I could barely choke down a sandwich. I guess my digestive system was taking a break as all my muscles cried out for blood.

Although I felt on the brink of death, I had to give myself a pat on the back. That was my longest bike ride ever. And I did it! Now, can I do it three days in a row? That remains to be seen…

Check out my Team Dai posts for more info.
And visit www.teamdai.org to make a donation – we’re trying to raise $20,000! All money benefits three local organizations that are doing wonderful work for the people of Laos.

When my friend, Kara, asked if her family could visit us in Vientiane during the Chinese New Year holiday, the first thing I thought was, “Woo hoo!” The second thing I thought was, “Oh crap, how will I entertain her two little kids?”

Kara and her husband, Dave, are friends from Shanghai American School, where we worked from 2005-09. They have two gorgeous daughters: Isabel, grade 2, and Abigail, grade 1.

Turns out I didn’t need to stress about keeping the girls occupied. They stay very busy in the yard! They pick up leaves and sticks. They pull weeds. They sweep the driveway. They play in the sprinkler (until the water ran out … that’s another story). They swing in the hammock. And they make furniture for their botanical fairy houses.

I took this photo only seconds before the knots unraveled and the hammock ‘o’ girls crashed to the ground. No major injuries reported.

The munchkins also enjoyed the Wii Fit. Isabel even mastered the top level of the Table Tilt balance game. Monday night, we played Cranium, and Abigail – who is SIX – actually helped our team win! They are both such great kids, and I love seeing how much they’ve changed since we saw them in June.

Dave joined the Team Dai training ride on Sunday. We pedaled out to Rivertime Lodge (the same place we rode on Saturday, but it was a much harder ride on the second day!).

Dave jumped in the river to cool off.

Dave’s contribution to the Hunks in Laos Calendar competition.

I was amazed at Isabel’s mature contributions to some of our conversations. When we went to a restaurant for lunch, I commented that Tony and I will probably always compare every city to Istanbul and every school to SAS. Isabel thought about that and said, “Maybe if you had worked in Laos first, then this would be your favorite place and you would always compare everything else to Laos.” How smart is SHE?!

The girls in Mr. Kek’s tuk tuk.

On the way to lunch at Sticky Fingers in downtown Vientiane.

I chalked up another 50+ kilometers on my bike this morning with Team Dai. We rode out of the city center and then turned on to the smoothest paved road I’ve seen in Laos. It was built for the Southeast Asian Games (which took place in Vientiane in December) and led to one of the stadiums. Now that the games are over, big concrete blocks prevent cars from accessing the road, and work is under way to extend the road all the way to the Friendship Bridge that links Laos and Thailand across the Mekong River.

We wriggled our bikes through the barrier and enjoyed a comfy, flat, scenic, traffic-free ride for a few kilometers. Once we passed the turn-off to the stadium, though, the road turned to dirt. Still, it was relatively smooth dirt. Soon we encountered the road workers and their heavy equipment, which kicked up lots of dust, but the riding was easy and the views were spectacular. In this photo, I’m posing in front of an expansive rice paddy where a farmer was “herding” hundreds of ducks.

Eventually, the dirt road intersected with the main artery leading past the Friendship Bridge and back into town. Although one rider argued for staying on asphalt, she was outvoted by others who wanted to pedal along the canal. I had never done the canal ride, so I just kept my mouth shut. I quickly realized why she had lobbied for the paved road. The canals were lined with farms, trees and friendly locals, but the path was a series of packed-earth craters. At one point, I shouted out, “Are we riding on the moon?”

These rides have brought so much bliss to my weekends.
Exhaustion, a sore bum, ears full of dirt, and bugs in my teeth, as well, … but mostly bliss!
Why am I doing it? See my other posts about Team Dai.

Now that I’m back in Vientiane, it’s time to get back in the cycling groove. Team Dai is training for a 3-day, 400-kilometer ride to Phonsavan in March. I’m excited that they changed the destination from Luang Prabang (only because now I’ve BEEN to Luang Prabang – see my posts from last week, but I haven’t been to Phonsavan).

My sister Megan is visiting, so I proposed that we join Team Dai’s Saturday training ride. She agreed – with the disclaimer that she’s a runner not a cyclist, and I would have to promise to turn back whenever she got tired. “Sure,” I said. “No problem!”

We lowered the seat on Tony’s bike, and I generously gave up my gel seat cover for Megan’s tender bottom. And off we went. We met the team at the Patuxai Monument at 7 a.m. The route started on a paved road, but really “paved” is such a relative word. In many parts of the world, “paved” means smooth flat asphalt, which is a very nice surface for riding a bike. On this particular road, “paved” meant a hilly path with pockets of tar, pockets of rocks, and pockets of dirt. I can’t believe we didn’t (a) get a flat, or (b) lose any teeth.

About 30 minutes into the ride, Megan said, “I think I’m gonna want to turn back soon.” I ignored her the first few times. Then the team stopped for a pee break, and she said it more forcefully, “I think it’s time to TURN BACK.” So I had to ‘fess up. “Meg, I have no idea how to get home from here,” I said. She was not pleased. My sisterly vibe was sensing a major undercurrent of hate. But she put on a happy face and soldiered on. She’s such a trooper.

Our next rest stop was at a little waterfall. We ate bananas and chatted with the team. The ride organizer, Paul, explained that the hilly part of the ride was over. Then we rode out of the park, turned left and saw a small mountain. Later, Paul said, “Sorry, I forgot about that one!”

Eventually, we reached the Mekong River and followed it back to town. That’s when the pretense of pavement ended. No more pockets of tar; just pockets of rocks and dirt. When we dared to pull our eyes away from the obstacle course of a path, the scenery was gorgeous – rice fields, forests, villages, and all the usual goings on you see in river communities. Every time we rode through a village, children stopped playing to yell out “Sabaidee!” or just stare at the wacky group of “falang” with their fancy bikes and silly helmets.

Eventually, after 3 ½ hours and about 37 miles, we emerged in the middle of Vientiane and headed straight to a café for breakfast. I can’t even describe how much dirt coated our bodies. Meg had a little mud mustache from the sweat mixed with reddish dust, and I looked like I’d just spent a lot of money on bronzing powder. Later, we dragged our battered bodies to Manee Spa (across the street from my house) for a massage, but they were fully booked. We almost cried. Instead, we bought iced coffees from my favorite streetside coffee lady, Saeng, and watched Kung Fu Panda on TV.

For more on this fascinating topic, check out my earlier post on Team Dai and/or the team’s own website.

Megan rarin’ to go at the Patuxai Monument in Vientiane.

Megan feeling a little less enthusiastic at the waterfall break stop.