Today's ride, I think it was around 220 Kms again. Another 6 hours in the saddle. Started off on Asia highway 13 again. Lots of traffic, trucks busses and millions of bikes. Busy.
It was Nice riding once away from the towns. There were a couple of passes I was looking forward to but as I ascended I rode into thick clouds again.
Down to 25 kmh again and zero visibility .
At the top the view was non existent.
A little after that I turned right off highway 13 and got onto quieter roads with a real assortment of surfaces all the way along. Good tarmac, bad tarmac. Single lane or double lane. Stretches of gravel and some bits were just not a road at all.
Stopped at a large possibly Buddhist monument. I say large, it was massive.
Made a chicken noodle soup with hot water from my flask and ate 2 cakes I'd bought earlier. 70p for the cakes.
Lots of large lakes up here with massive dams. Producing power I'm sure. There were also an awful lot of land slides in the areas where the dammed off lakes were, I did wonder if the flooding of the valleys could add to this. I carried on on some super twisty roads barely got out of 4th gear for hours, probably riding at 40-45 Kms an hour at the most. It was great though a lot of it through dense jungle/forest again with wonderful views.
There were so many children out and about in the villages. They love it when you wave at them. Their childhoods are not being spoilt yet like I think they are in so called civilised countries. Many if them riding scooters to school without helmets etc. it's nice to see.
The same can be said for the mums or dads with 3 kids on the back. Or walking down a road in the middle of nowhere to get to school. Round my way at home they are taken to school in a 4x4 from their house a quarter of a mile a way just to be safe.
Anyway I digress....
I aimed for a homestay which was higher up a hill and in the middle of loads of terraced rice fields and the only way there was up a very narrow path for about 5 Kms. Scary, as it was very steep too. I got there and the place looked like a wreck. Thanks Google maps.
I rode all the way down and found a lovely room on the edge of town instead. A bit expensive this one at about £18.00 but it is Saturday night
The lovely young lady says she will sort me some dinner which saves going out again.
Anyway cloudy all day again but no rain. The pics would look a lot better if it was brighter and you'd see the mountains better. But I took some that I'll post in a bit.
by midday the sun had come out and the clouds were lifting a bit so the views are now much better. I had thought about staying here yesterday but it would seem rooms appear to be unavailable. It is very quiet at this time of year. 
