Cycling to the Chinese New Year!

Police escort in Vientiane

In Vientiane we delivered our second friendship letter and were received with great hospitality. The streets were cleared and we were escorted by motorcycle police everywhere we went! It was pretty incredible, as everybody was waving and honking, even though they had no idea what we were doing. Still every time we stopped, people would come up and ask about our trip, and even if they only spoke Lao, we could still get the message across with basic words and the maps of each country posted on our jerseys. It's the best feeling when you really connect with people and see the expression on their faces.

Fei Bao and Li Yuan cycling next to some young fans!

Nevertheless it was nice to get back out into the open country the next day where our real popularity is. I can't even count the amount of times a day people shout out "Sabaidi!" When the adults see us coming they quickly alert the children who stop whatever they are doing and run towards the street waving and shouting. The adults are just as fascinated, just maybe not as motivated. Seeing there smiles and laughs (sometimes maybe in jest but nevertheless lightening their daily life), is plenty of motivation to keep our spirits up throughout our long days.

So in the last four days we have covered some serious ground, totaling almost 500km. We arrived in Savannakhet yesterday, beat from the scorching sun and long days, but happy to have arrived in the beautiful, yet still quite remote city to spend the most important Chinese holiday, Spring Festival. Even though Laos celebrates their own new year in April, there were still some minor celebrations around, as Vietnamese and Chinese influences are quite prevalent, and we finally broke out the bottle of rice wine I had been carrying since Yunnan! So from the banks of the Mekong River: Happy Chinese New Year!

Again, I've posted some more photos in the same album, so check them out here.