Vieng Thong-Some Village In Langpraubang Prov.

Total Distance:70.25km
Total Time:5h41m11s
Average Speed:12.3km/h
Maximum Speed:46.0km/h
Total Distance So Far:6766.21km

Thanks to my guardian angels in the truck I hit Vieng Thong in one piece. There I happened upon another cyclist who, as luck would have it, had a few extra chain links. After a couple of days there Fred was all fixed up... sort of.
Vieng Thong is a strange little town. On the tourist curcuit, although barely, it consists of one restaurant, a rather unimpressive hot spring, and four guesthoses. I guess it was the guesthouses I found so odd. I can't see there ever being enough travellers there to warrent that much accomodation. To be honest, the town was a little boring. Still, like all places in Laos, it was relaxing and I didn't mind terribly having to be stuck there a day extra than I had planned. Soon enough I was back on the road.
In Vieng Thong I was warned by three British travellers on motorbikes about a lack of accomodation for the next night. However, they did tell me of a restaurant that would take in travellers, for a small fee of course. Once in the town, about 70km away, I didn't even have to find the resaurant... they found me. It was another great experience. The restaurant was run by a family (mother, father and three children) out of there home. They were extremely kind, the children were sweet and all the villagers popped in to get a good look at me.
There were a couple of things I didn't count on though. First of all was the rain. It had been raining the past four days almost non-stop. When I awoke the morning after arriving in this little town, the rain was too intense to bike. I ended up staying there an extra day. It was nice. I spent most of my time reading or playing with the little girl, Neesa. Secondly, while the price of staying there was cheap, food was not. At the end of my two days there I had just enough to cover what I owed and not a penny more. This was a major problem given the lack of banks in rural Laos.