Can Bad Beer Ever Be.... Good?

I was out having dinner with my wife a few nights ago. We'd chosen one of those trendy Asian fusion restaurants that all the young people go to so that they can take photos of their food to post on Instacrap and Facepalm.

And while I poke fun at the people who were sitting around us, the food actually was great, and I suppose if you're that way inclined, worth photographing. What surprised me though, was that there was a beer on the menu at this restaurant that I haven't seen outside of a country that I visited a few years ago. This country is a little place called Laos and the beer is called Beer Lao.

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The reason why this is surprising is because Beer Lao is quite literally the only beer made in Laos, and it is made at the Government's own brewery. Laos is a communist nation, and while they accept imports of various types of wine and other products, while we were there, the only beer that we ever encountered was Beer Lao.

At the time, we didn't care. We were simply thankful to have a cold beer in our hands at the end of the day. It didn't matter if the beer was crap. It was cold, bubbly, tasted like some form of beer, and in Laos you could buy 1 litre of the stuff for around 80 cents.

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Why were we so eager to drink bad beer, you ask?

My wife and I were travelling with friends through Laos over a 9 day period. Laos isn't a big country, in fact it is quite small, and surrounded on all sides by other countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. There are no beaches, just a crap tonne of mountains.

Because Laos is small, we'd decided to do our touring by bike. This sounded like an amazing idea while sitting on our comfortable couches, sipping moderately expensive wine and thinking about how we can make travelling to an amazing country like this even more amazing...er.

The thing that we hadn't really contemplated was that Laos has a very tropical climate, and it is mostly comprised of very large and steep hills. The one other factor that we hadn't contemplated, probably due to the copious amounts of moderately expensive wine being consumed during our planning session, was that we were travelling to Laos during the monsoon season.

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Travelling Laos by Bike - Mountains, Monsoonal Rain, and BEER

Laos is my favourite destination by a mile. The country is incredibly beautiful and the landscape is almost solely rainforest. I love this country so much that I would be more than happy to move there permanently.

We arrived in a small town called Luang Prabang. This town is world heritage listed and its residents, to this day, closely follow Buddhist traditions. If you wake up at dawn, you'll see Monks walking the street collecting their offerings from the locals. Interestingly, the town is also full of the most amazing restaurants serving international cuisine.

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We spent a few days exploring this town, which was well worth it. I could have easily spent a week in this place. It was simply beautiful and full of the most warm and generous people. Our French resort manager was also the most hilarious of characters. While I'm sure he was a perfectly innocent and charming chap, he came across as a serial killer who was hiding from the French authorities.

It was here that we started our journey by bike. We did a few test rides, including a ride up to the local waterfalls, which turned out to be one constant and incredibly steep hill which travelled through small villages and agricultural areas. Once we arrived we were met with the most amazing waterfalls and pools that we'd ever seen.

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After that ride we knew that we were in for a real challenge. The only thing we weren't prepared for was the rain. That didn't start for a couple of days. The hill climbs were never ending though but were incredibly rewarding when you reached the top. I took the picture below at the top of the biggest hill climb that we did.

And what's the best part about a hill climb? The drop after you reach the peak of course! After this hill climb we had a downward run that lasted for a full 7 kilometres. Hitting speeds as high as 70 kilometres per hour on a mountain bike with a questionable service history was one hell of a rush. And when you find yourself dodging trucks and busses coming in the opposite direction, you get an even bigger rush. I'm amazed that we all walked away from that downward run unscathed. Needless to say, the safety considerations of this ride were minimal. If you were scared of the risks involved, you may as well have jumped on a plane to Bangkok.

We stayed in any accommodation that was available in the small towns that we passed through along the way. This meant some very questionable places, right through to some very nice establishments. It didn't matter where we slept at the end of the day though, as long as there was food (which was consistently amazing) and beer, we were happy. The food in Laos was always incredibly fresh and fantastic. The vast majority of the meals we ate included fresh herbs that had just been picked from the nearby gardens. We ate incredibly well. On most days we cycled in excess of 50 kilometres, so we'd built up an appetite.

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Of course it wasn't all cycling. Our ride included stops for tours of interesting places, a cooking workshop and relaxing time in the towns that we passed through. On the final run to the capital of Laos (Vientiane), we cycled without many stops for 4 days straight. And this was when the monsoon hit. We literally cycled for 4 days in monsoonal rains.

_{It didn't quite get this bad}

It's not as bad as it sounds. Once you're saturated you can't really get any more wet. So after a day or so it feels normal to be utterly saturated with virtually no visibility. At least you don't need to drink much water to stay hydrated. The only downside is that there aren't any photographic opportunities when you have no visibility.

Weirdly, the rain didn't dampen our spirits (sorry.. had to include at least one bad pun) and we finished our tour as happy as the day we left. It was an incredible experience and the perfect way to see the real Laos. We didn't need flashy accommodation, high end restaurants and amazing cocktails. We just needed amazing scenery, fantastic company and fresh food. The crappy local beer helped a lot as well. And for 80 cents who could say no to 1 litre of beer?

And that's why this beer was such a pleasant surprise as we ate our over priced Asian fusion meal this week. It brought back such happy memories of a fantastic adventure that we'd had all those years ago. At the end of a long ride, this beer seemed like the most finely crafted brew we'd ever encountered. Even though we all knew it was one of the most average beers you could encounter. But it didn't matter, it was beer, we were tired, and that's all we needed.

I love the memories that this beer brings back and I'm so pleased to know that it can be found here in Melbourne, Australia. And even though I know that this is quite a crap beer, I'll be drinking it again. Even though this 330ml stubby cost me $9.

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