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Northern Laos - Part 2
The story of Pounce, Tommy, husq mike, Ash & ktm carl continues...
Day 5 – 7th Dec 2012 – Luang Probang Hanging around here today. No need for an early start so around 9 we decide to try & find Mr Nit to get the bikes done. Word is he has been told to weld up the subframe with a piece of reo bar, do a valve adjustment on all the bikes & a general service. Brakes, chains etc. We cross the road & have noodle soup for breakfast then around 40 minutes later it’s all done.   No reo bar, just welded the frame back together, no valve adjustment, no brakes checked. Just a bit of oil on the chains is all that has been done. This was all arranged by the hire company so it’s not our problem unless they fall apart or break down. Tommy & I jump on the blokes lathe & do a quick bit of homework. Notice who’s wearing the correct safety gear.   Back into town & everyone decides to do their own thing sort of. I go looking for a decent map. The GT Rider map I have is OK if you’re only driving on the main roads but no good for back road stuff. No luck though. I get a massage around lunchtime then a text message from Mike saying him, Tommy, Ash & Carl are going for a boat ride after they had a foot massage. Cool, I’ll go for a nannas nap. We don’t know where Kate is ATM so the guys head off.         The guys arrive back so we meet up down by the river for dinner & drinks. “I spotted this great place” Mike tells us. Hahaha. Warm beer, rickety balcony, food took way too long to come out, some didn’t arrive. We get the hump & pay for what we have had & leave for another just down a bit. Cold beer, Carl finally gets his spring rolls & a safer balcony. Get a call from Kate so give her directions to where we are. About $1.20 in a tuk tuk. The night carries on with a walk back to the main area, some rum, gin & bourbon as we are getting a bit too much beer then bed. We’re heading to Nong Khiew tomorrow which has a fair bit of main road, so no need for an early start. Day 6 – 8th Dec 2012 – Luang Probang – Nong Kheiw 200klm’s Maximum Elevation 1266m Moving Time – 4h 09m Stopped Time – 1h 21m Moving Average - 47kph Overall Average - 36kph On the road at 8.00am   Today was a pretty easy ride & quite unremarkable. Nearly everyone has done this route so there’s not a lot I can say about it. Readying for today.  I was going to go to the Swedish Bakery but it is not the Swedish Bakery anymore. I know that will upset a couple of people. So it’s down to the sandwich sellers for breakfast. They were all jammed in on the other side of the road as a stage had been erected for something where they normally are.   Today we hit our first truly dusty roads, with the damn bulldust. There’s not a lot of it but enough to spread us out.      We come across another bit of road construction. 10 minutes of waiting & getting blank uncomprehending stares from the guy controlling the rope, Ash heads off to see if there’s a way through. Well he’s not back 3 minutes later so we guess the was a way through. Around the rope we go & this is an easy one, you just had to dodge the odd rock fall down at your wheels.    Once we meet the main road, the gang decide to have a bit of fun. Throttles are opened & the race is on.    It’s getting warm so I open the cuffs on my jacket to let a breeze in. Bugger me, 2 minutes later I get a wasp up my left sleeve, the bastard stings me so it’s full brakes to a stop to get it out. 4 times in Asia, 4 wasp stings. My record is intact. We get into Nong Kheiw around 1.30pm. Just in time for lunch & some beers. We get rooms overlooking the Nam Ou at the Sunrise GH (I think). 60 or 80K for the night.      Never go below & look at the construction.   I go for a walk up to the Riverview Resort to get some local knowledge for tomorrows ride. Jim has informed me they should know if we can get from here to Muang Khau then onto Samphan. I’m told MK is open but getting to Samphan is not doable. Shit. Now I need to work out a new route. Tommy seems to have taken a lot of pics of me scratching my head, glasses on looking at the GPS & map during the trip.   Oh well, more drinks while the sun sets fixes everything.    Day 7 – 9th Dec 2012 – Nong Kheiw – Buon Thai 209klm’s Maximum Elevation 1335m Moving Time – 5h 32m Stopped Time – 2h 23m Moving Average - 38kph Overall Average - 26kph On the road at 7.30am   Last night having a beer, we ran into 2 Swiss guys on a DRZ400 & DR650 out from Pattaya. I had one Ride Asia sticker left over so I slapped it on his bike this morning.  The scenery in the morning is rather less fantastic because of the fog.   After the chat about the route last night, we head off to Muang Khoua as we know the road is open. I hatched a semi plan last night to get to MK, then if possible put the bikes on a boat & head north to B. Hatsa & ride the short distance back to Phongsali. As it turns out, this is a fantastic trail up over the mountains so you don’t have to take the main road via Oudomxai. I wouldn’t try it on a big bike though as I don’t think you’d make it. Head along the 1-C then turn right/north onto the 2509. Again, I’m not sure of the sequence of these pics, so just enjoy the scenery.      We come across this one small bridge. The girl doesn’t know what to do & is a bit shy to take money. The sign say 2000, so I give her enough for the 6 of us. But where’s Kate? She’s had a tumble behind us & the side stand spring fell off. As you need the stand up to start the bike, she’s had to occy strap it to catch up with us. This confuses the girl even more as we’ve walked back over the bridge to fix the spring then Mike gives her more money.       Kate has another tumble after I stopped short to get a pic of the single trail & everyone runs up the arse of everyone else.     About 12klm’s out of MK we’re at the top of a 1200m hill. Well the rest of the run is all downhill & the whole lot is the slippery red clay. Woohooooo! We have a ball. I get cross rutted at one stage, Mike hits a deep muddy patch & does a 180 in front of a local who’s just struggled getting the scooter through. Our boots are covered in thick mud & clay.   We get into MK around 12ish & decide on lunch. We have to go down to the river to wash the caked on mud off the boots so we don’t traipse it into some poor lady’s restaurant.    We stop here & wake the owner up from what appears to be her mid morning snooze.  Down at the river I couldn’t see any boats big enough to fit 1 bike on, let alone 6. We decide that Samphan will have to suffer without us. (If I’d have know about the route Lone Rider took north 4 days later, I would have taken that but there’s nowt on the GPS map & even less on the GT Rider map, so in hindsight, that’s a bit disappointing) We figure Buon Thai will be a good enough stop for tonight. We’ll come to rue that decision. So after a good feed, we hit the road again. This tarmac is brilliant & we have another road race… until we hit the 4B. I’ve been warned about this end of it. What a piece of shit 25klm section of large cobble stones, rocks & dust. Once you’re shaken to pieces & past that though, the road is being upgraded & is in some great condition, apart again from the repairs & boggy muddy bits that happen to always be on a dodgy corner where you fear going over the edge.    Now, Buon Thai. The guide book is all praise & prose for the “quaint Chinese guesthouse with traditional Chinese food”. Filthy, mouldy, smelly, no cold beer, lazy arsed owner, screaming chickens & filthy Chinese diners spitting food on the floor &chucking rubbish over the balcony into the river.      We decide to eat elsewhere but the choice is extremely limited. Where we do eat gives us the menu but when we try ordering, there’s nothing available. Bloody hell. We go & point at their dinner & tell them we want 6 of those. That makes it easier. No cold beer though so it’s icecubes to the rescue. Kate has a go at my beer pouring skills saying she worked in a bar for 3 years then she does a 50% head, 25% beer in the glass & 25% beer on the floor pour. We go back to our GH & Mike dices with danger by sitting in the lazy owners TV watching chair.  Phongsali Tomorrow. Jim texted me that it’s still a 4-5 hour ride from here, so we plan on an early start, & to get out of this place. Continue reading to Part 3 ... |
