So we have now landed in Luang Probang - quiet little place but plenty to see and do. Vicky thought it was a geat idea that we do some get fit kinda thing - and suggested that we hire bikes - as in the ones you pedal!! so off we went in search off a good deal for two bikes - well after lots of haggling we didn't get any discount and i only got in a bad mood!! Anyways- whats changed?? :) we headed off on two mountain bikes after being tild that the town bikes would not be good for the places we intended to visit - the water falls outsie town.............outside town about 36KM - well you might as well have told us it was 360KM cos it felt like it!!

Imagine it...............its 1000 degrees, sun is shinning and there is no shelter - me and vic are in flip flops and we have got shorts and vests on - about the oly postive thing i can think of at this stage!! :) o yeah and the fact we have mountain bikes. Whats that old saying - once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget????? Well vicky is the exception to the rule!! haha and in her defense she said she had a crap bike - the gears didn't work!

So off we went took some photos of us - you'll see the, in due course and we followed our map out of town - not many people were going in our direction - i was in front off the group (me and vic) and every so often i'd look behind me to make sure vic was ok and most of the time she was. Albeit every few meters i could hear her try change gears and all i could hear was click click click - or crack bang crack click!! ha ha Anyway she kept going and we were happy to see the old fashioned bollards on the side of the road telling us how long we had left. about 45mins into the journey and after a few tough hills we realised that we were pretty hot and had only covered 10Km - vic was getting frustrated at this point so i offered to tchange bikes cos i swas on a roll and thought it was unfair vic had the crap bike!

vic took off like a bat outta hell adn i def didn't see her look over her shoulder too see if i was ok............hard luck if i wasn't!! HUH!!! thanks vic :) a few moments later i was getting to grips with vic bike and realised that her gears were actually working - and now i def beleive in the saying a bad workman always blames her tools!! hahah vic bike was eveb better than mine - any way - vic wasn't in the mood to carry on so when i fancy tuk tuk drove past we flagged him down and with battered with the current passengers to take vic AND her bike back to town!! so we proceeded to pack them both on to the tuk tuk and 15 dollars later (totaly rip off) vic was on her way back to the bike shop!!

If anyone knows me - you'll know how stubborn i am - so i kept going i took the water and vic rucsack and headed off..............O M G well if i had of known it was 36KM (noone told me or rather told me loud enough) i prob would have piled into the tuk tuk too. There were a coupe of hairy points when i thought i was gonna land in a heap - it was sooooooooo hot - i cam upon a wee shop on the side of the road - no one spoke english!! and two little girls sat on a table just laughed at me whe ni tried to buy water.

While having a pit stop there was a cute wee baby toddling around and i soon noticed that he had went to the toliet - well basically mum lifted him over to the grass and took off his trousers washed his bum with water and 'hey presto' put new bottoms on and all sorted - who said you only needed cow manure to grow grass!! haha

on my way again.............i cycled and cycled and cycled and cycled numerous tuk tuk went past with lots of tourists in them and they all smiled at me with encouraging smiles (or maybe they were - your stupid smiles!)

I had one other pit stop along the way - for a bunch of bananas - energy and then a hot and sweaty and very long 4 hrs later i made it to the water falls! The last two KM was definately the hardest.............they cyle was worth it though - the scenry was lovely - but at this point i knew i was NOT gonna cycle back!!

I spent a coupe of hours at the falls - there were swimming areas where we got jump off the smaller cascades and cool off, something i def needed. I got chatting to a couple who had seen me on the way up and they offered me a lift back in their tuk tuk - which i gladly accepted. the tuk tuk driver tried to charge me - but after a bit of a confrontationhe took we free of charge - i tipped him though cos he was a life saver!!!

I think that there will be little or no more cycling on this trip!! :) but i did feel good for it when i got back to the hostel - vic in the mean time had a very relaxing day and caught up with writing some post cards :)

The next morning we headed off to Vang Vieng in a mini bus................

michelle x