People who know about muscles and
stuff will tell you not to work out streneously two days in a row. The first
workout pushes some sort of acid out of your unused muscles while tearing them.
If you don't give your body a chance to rest then all kinds of damage can
occur. So after yestday's gruelling 65 km I got up and did another 25. This was
against my body's better judgment and it protested.
The sun, even shortened by the clouds,
was extravegant in its pain and I was perspiring so profusely I thought that
every vital fluid was leaving my body. After a horrid lunch of fried garbage
balls I went to siesta in a Vat in Ban Nahin (see photos).
I thought I was nice and refreshed
after a doze and a coffee, but I was just wrong! A few minutes back in the
saddle were enough to prove that I simply wasn't going anywhere.
But this silly country! There is no
shade anywhere! On the cut-off from the N4 to the dirt road leading to Paklai I
fell into a heap of unconciousness on the outdoor wooden bed of a service
station and there I lay and could move no more.
I was simply shattered. The view was
an ugly road and some petrol pumps. I would have wished for a more romantic
view of rolling hills, but that is what I got stuck with. After a tiny rain I
got back on Charlene and half way up yet another gruelling climb I was stopped
by the police.
The police in this country are in a
league of their own. After a bit of friendly banter they asked to see my
passport and even took a photo of it with a smartphone. Luckily I speak Lao
well enough now to present well, as a teacher in Vientiane. They gave me a
bottle of ice-cold water and offered to take me to the next village.
They finally dropped me 10 km up the
road and introduced me to the nai ban. They wouldn’t let me take their
photos, but now we’re friends on Facebook!
I washed up and walked to the temple.
A rain and violent wind started up and all the earth smelt of goodness from the
sky; I was tired, so tired.
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