Pu Luong to Na Meo

We rode to Na Meo, a very small town on the Vietnamese side of the Laos border. It was extremely hot and even when moving on the motorbike I felt baked by the sun. Fortunately the road was really good and there was hardly any traffic. Maybe because it was Sunday.

The ride took us through more great scenery, including crossing the Red River with people who live on boats there.

We also passed people harvesting rice. And everywhere in front of houses there were large nats with rice spread on them to dry.

In the middle of the day Luc had mechanical trouble with the motorbike, so we rolled downhill to a small garage on the side of the road. Turned out it just needed a new spark plug. Afterwards the family who run the garage invited us to have lunch with them. Every meal is accompanied by shots of a local rice wine.

We reached Na Meo in the late afternoon. It is a really small place, with two hotels. There was only one restaurant open at that time and it was under renovation. So we ate dinner in the middle of a construction zone, but the food was actually quite good.

During the day we had passed a couple travelling by bicycle, and we met up with them in Na Meo. Theu were from Brazil and they were taking one year to cycle from Portugal to Southeast Asia.

Pu Luong

We ended up spending 3 nights, 2 whole days, at the Pu Luong Retreat. The first day Luc and I spent the morning walking on paths around the retreat, which took us through the rice fields and neighbouring villages. The rice was ready for harvest in a couple of weeks, and the harvesting is done manually with scythes.

It was very hot in the morning and we were soaked in sweat by the time we got back. We went straight to the swimming pool. In the afternoon there was a strong rain storm which gave me the chance to just hang out, read, and draw.

The second day, Denis, Claude and I took the motorbikes on a trail that went off the main road.

The purpose was to find a cave that is a local attraction.  The road was quite remote, and on the way we passed through some very quaint enthic minority villages. The villages of the Thai ethnic minority, and are inside the Pu Luong Nature Preserve. The people seem to live the idylic village life, working in the rice fields, and keeping livestock like chickens and water buffalo.

Finally we reached the cave. We parked our motorbikes on the side of the road and did the short walk on the path to the large, limestone cave entrance.

Afterward we headed back to the retreat and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the pool.