{"id":171464,"date":"2018-11-22T11:16:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=171464"},"modified":"2018-11-22T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T12:17:07","slug":"for-the-joy-of-karaoke-to-laos-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/11\/22\/for-the-joy-of-karaoke-to-laos-adventures-of-a-globetrotting-cyclist\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Joy of Karaoke to Laos: Adventures of a Globetrotting Cyclist"},"content":{"rendered":"

After my old friend Will McCarthy, the global cyclist, left Prague two months ago, he did something he had never done before in all his years of cycling around the world: he fell off his bike. It happened in the German city of Regensburg, which he described as having \u201cthe most beautiful Old City I saw in Germany\u201d. He hadn\u2019t planned on stopping in the city, but it was too interesting to pass up. But, as he was pulling over to a sidewalk to look around for a hotel, he hit the kerb \u201cat just the wrong angle: not sharp enough to bounce off and too sharp to go over.\u00a0I went flying.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

He came out of the accident unhurt, more damage to his ego than to his bike or body, because his accident attracted a crowd and because he\u2019d never come off a bike unintentionally before. And it made him think. \u201cAlthough I attribute all my good fortune to luck, I evidently thought that I\u2019d never crashed because I\u2019m such a good rider,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOf course, I\u2019ve been lucky on the bike too. I can, and do, tell myself it\u2019s not a big deal \u2013 I just spaced out at the wrong moment. But I wonder if, as I get older, spacing out is less optional than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
“Akha tribe, I think and a rich girl, judging by the number of coins on her hat,” says Will.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will is 68 and, as far as I know, plans to keep cycling. Accidents happen, of course. But I wonder if \u2013 as a cyclist, or a motorist, or just a tourist on foot \u2013 an individual is less alert in places that are familiar. I think you tend to feel less at risk the more you feel at home. It\u2019s a relief of sorts because you are more relaxed, but it\u2019s also a loss because you notice less, your eyes are less sharp. That\u2019s one of the great benefits of travelling to exotic corners of the world: your senses come alive to the new sights and sounds, you look at and listen to everything. You are totally in the world \u2013 even if it\u2019s only a world of bad Laotian karaoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cDescribing weather is easy \u2013 we have a vocabulary for it,\u201d Will wrote from Laos. \u201cDescribing landscape, architecture, even smell is not so hard if you can find the right\u00a0reference point or\u00a0simile. Describing sound is the one that gives me the hardest time: the more unearthly the sound, the more unlikely the chance of a decent description.\u00a0I can tell you about the experience, the abject horror, of really bad karaoke; but if you want to know what it sounds like, you\u2019ll have to come to Laos and listen to the locals wail \u2013 drunk and tone-deaf with plenty of reverb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Describing landscape, architecture, even smell is not so hard if you can find the right reference point or simile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was in Vieng Phouka, \u201ca small town\/big village in the beautiful mountains in northeast Laos, where the three adjacent restaurants all have three bamboo walls and are open to the street.\u00a0Two of them are set up for karaoke and have enthusiastic practitioners.\u00a0And as the evening wore on, they were accompanied by howling dogs.\u00a0The dogs, who didn\u2019t have the foresight, as I did, to hoard the earplugs from an airline kit, were not singing along, but begging them to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, Will cycled to Muang Khua, which was close to the Vietnam border, and then travelled south by boat to Muang Ngoi, which had a few guesthouses and only a handful of tourists. It was December 31. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful place, nothing to do but walk or bike on dirt tracks to even more remote villages,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI thought it would be a great place to spend a quiet New Year\u2019s Eve.\u00a0Laotians celebrate Old Year\u2019s Day on the 31st and New Year\u2019s Day on January 1st. It\u2019s a two-day drunk, with the dread karaoke going nonstop.\u00a0The village had no electricity the last time I was there, but now, thanks to new Chinese-built hydroelectric plants, they can have karaoke without a generator \u2013 an improvement, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The beautiful nature of Laos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Old Year\u2019s Day, Will walked to a nearby village, Huay Bo, about an hour and a half away on foot. \u201cI got there around one in the afternoon, and the party was already on.\u00a0There was a long table set up on the dirt street with about 30 people sitting at it, men on one end, women on the other, with a lao-Lao pourer walking around the table, clockwise, as custom demands, with the communal shot glass in hand. They invited me to join, but it was too early to start refusing shots of lao-Lao, so I went into the restaurant \u2013 a floor and a roof, no walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

[According to Wkipedia, lao-Lao is a Laotian rice whiskey and its name is not the same word repeated twice, but two different words with different tones and different meanings. The first, lao, means alcohol; the second, Lao, means Laotian.]<\/p>\n

A man left the party to take Will\u2019s lunch order. This conversation ensued:<\/p>\n

Will: \u201cPho with duck.\u201d
\nMan: \u201cNo duck.\u201d
\nWill: \u201cPho with pork?\u201d
\nMan: \u201cNo pork.\u201d
\nWill: \u201cPho with chicken?\u201d
\nMan: \u201cSorry. No have meat.\u201d
\nBut then the man\u2019s face lit up. \u201cToday I kill dog for party,\u201d he said. \u201cWant fried dog and sticky rice?\u201d
\n\u201cWell,\u201d replied Will, hesitating briefly.\u00a0\u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d eaten dog once before, in Vietnam. \u201cIt was okay,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbut not so good that I wanted to eat it again. But why not try the Lao version?\u201d<\/p>\n

The owner of the restaurant, a Mr. Kee, brought his plate, put it in front of him and then grabbed the biggest piece of meat. \u201cI love dog meat,\u201d Mr. Kee said. \u201cEat like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I learned,\u201d Will concluded, \u201cthat in Laos if you want to eat something, you pick it up and put it in your mouth.\u00a0Lao fried dog was spicy and delicious.\u00a0I\u2019ll try it again if I get the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Before the party started.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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