The Bicycle Odyssey Part 1 - Laos

After my bike and I navigated past several small islands on a fishing boat in a small boat, I first went looking for a hammock. I found it surprisingly quickly, but it gave me concerns because instead of the mosquito net that I wanted, it only consisted of a few struts, which not only let everything in, but also distributed the weight in such a way that you could... a piece of meat is slowly cut.

And now the odyssey began, 1400km, 37°C in the shade (which didn't exist) and a rickety bike that I was betting everything on to get me through here in one piece. I have never sweated and drank as much as I have in the last ten days. I'm usually like a wet bar of soap that slips out of your hand (unfortunately I just don't smell that good) and I usually drink 5-6L per day. I regulate my electrolyte balance primarily with soy sauce, which I pour onto the huge amounts of rice every day.

The first few days took me mainly over miserably long straight roads, reminiscent of Route 66, and past dry and arid landscapes. Burnt fields for kilometers were nothing unusual. The farmers burn the rice fields here seasonally at the driest times of the year to make the soil more fertile. The smoke is moving hundreds of kilometers northwest and is even clouding the sky in Chiang Mai, Thailand. At the end of the first day I got a huge sunburn on my back, which made the hammock even more uncomfortable and I preferred to just sleep on the floor without anything.

Contrary to my expectations, the landscape did not change, at least for the time being. The only water supplies were small shrunken pools with brown-gray water. However, since the water had less dirt than the dust on my skin at the end of the day, I still used the water to wash off. While I was washing myself off in the evening with the music of Ennio Morricone, a monk with his bright orange robe came cheerfully out of nowhere and offered me to sleep with him and his other believers in the temple. I followed him amused to the temple where he made me pray, blessed me and we talked laughing with the language barrier making it impossible to convey any information with certainty. I then gave him a few cookies and a picture of me with my niece Lara, holding her in my arms. This in turn caused him to look at the picture with interest for minutes and think that I was a father and wanted to see a picture of my wife.

I mostly spent my time on the bike listening to my medical audio book "Outlived", which deals with preventive medicine, learning historical and anthropological dates and facts, enjoying the landscape and of course waving a lot. I have never seen so many children running into the street to greet someone, I felt like the queen. Laughing and screaming, the children waved their little hands and got a high-five from me, while the adults looked at me surprisingly and also raised their hands with a big grin and shouted "Sabaidee" (Hello from Lao) to me. The Laotians are the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting so far. They don't seem so super polite when driving past, they are also so polite when in contact for a long time. Even when I give way too much money to pay for my meal because I didn't understand how much it cost, I've always been given money back and often given a little something, such as fruit or water. The way I travel, currently by bike, definitely has a positive influence on how I am perceived, I can feel that.

Shortly before I arrived at my first intermediate stop in six days, I was desperately looking for something to eat on the long route and suddenly found myself in front of a long table with many Laotians who were celebrating Chinese New Year and who immediately invited me. We laughed, danced, ate and I once held all the children so they could take a picture of us. Even though I still find this interaction fundamentally difficult, the food and their hospitality would have made me willing to hold all the adults if I had to.

I've noticed quite a bit that since I've been traveling by bike, I've no longer been able to express myself or develop as much in my blog posts because I was simply far too exhausted in the evening to give free rein to my creativity and desire to write. Instead, I was busy thinking about my studies in the evenings and also during the day. Or how I can best and tactically increase my chances of getting a place. So I usually spent my lunch breaks researching study abroad programs, the rural doctor quota, studying with the federal government and the data for the upcoming TMS rounds and of course with the big question: "What if it doesn't work?" In addition to plan A, I thought about plans B and C again and talked a lot with my aunt, who has been actively and lovingly supporting me in getting the place for years. Many thanks again explicitly to you Anke!!!

So there wasn't that much time to think about other things, which was completely okay and good. So I was able to concentrate on essential and important things that will influence my not-too-distant future.

After the 6th day I decided to take a break because my body really wanted it and I often got the tip to stop by a certain place where you can climb excellently, and as luck would have it, this valley was right there on my way! Admittedly, it was an interesting way to recover the body, as over the next 3 days I gave my legs a bit of a break, but brought my upper body and arms to a similar state of exhaustion.

The valley, 16km from the city of Thakhek, was home to over 550 sport climbing routes, attracting climbers from all over the world. Here I suddenly slipped from my well-known backpacker community into a passionate climbing community who, like all social groups, also have favorite topics of conversation and character traits. Now it was no longer about the questions "Where are you from?", "Where have you been?" and "where else do you want to go?", but rather "I grabbed a 7a+ in the lead this morning and let me tell you, the holds were so sharp.". In short, I felt like an outsider coming into a new world. Yes, I have a little bit of climbing experience, but mostly in bouldering, and it's been 5 years since my last rope climb. Luckily I met Marlon there, a really nice Berliner, who taught me everything step-by-step and I bought him a beer or two and dinner in the evening. I spent the next few days just sticking to the wall or helping others stick to the wall. It took a while and the process is still not over until I felt really familiar or completely confident with the various climbing equipment. It's not that I didn't have confidence in the equipment itself, it was that every time I sat back I was sure that neither my harness nor the rope nor the anchors would break. Rather, the uncertainty resulted from human error. Safety is above all else when climbing and includes numerous details that only make climbing safe in their entirety. And you can't learn this sum in three days, let alone develop it into a routine.

In the end, in the evening I met Lisa, who was also a beginner, with whom I got along really well and we talked for a long time under the stars in the evening about the influence of stress and mental health on somatic illnesses. It was really nice to get to know someone again with whom you just clicked from second one and you talked to them at eye level and with interest.

I had completed my little climbing event with Marlon, who persuaded me to just try the 6B+ on the overhang and see how far I could get. I laughed, but agreed, even though I was sure I could get to the third anchor. I've never had as much fun climbing as on this overhang route, where at the end I clamped my legs between the rock almost 26 meters high so that I could dangle down easily to give my burning arms and hands a short break give. I not only got to the third anchor, but to the last one. The only thing I was missing was the turnaround when I saw no chance of using my strength anymore and fell into the depths, where I was slowly and gently caught after about 4 meters. Incredibly happy about my personal success, I finished this little excursion and packed my things to start my next stage of the bike tour the next morning. I was really looking forward to it because I wanted to meet a backpacker that I had met shortly before that evening was able to get to know.