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Northern Laos - Part 1
Crusty Quinns do Northern Laos
Arrival day. We arrive in Vientiane around 9.30pm on the 1st December. Luckily at Villa Lao, there are cold beers in your fridge when you get there. We immediately meet Richard Winter (V-Strom) so settle in for a few beers while we’re awake.  Day 0 We all get up for our fee breakfast then it’s time to chose bikes as they’ve been sitting there waiting for us for a few days. We all pick “the best one” but Tommy decides to go for the only Baja among them. The beast will be both kind & cruel to him over the next 19 days.   Jim from Remote Asia arrives around lunchtime for a chat & to get the paperwork done. The stress starts already. He’s looked over my planned route & reckons we’ll struggle on Day 1 & 2 to do the distances within time allowed. He recommends changing the routes or extending them over 3-4 days. Great! After he leaves, we have a bit of a chat about it & make a decision – stuff it, we’ll stick to the original plan. If it turns to shit on the trail then that’s all part of the trip. I modify Day 1 slightly with Richards help on his laptop just to chop an hour or 2 off it but basically it’s the same route & we’ll end up in the same place. Right, bikes are sorted, we’ve bolted on the stuff we need for GPS’s etc, added the Airhawk seats & got them ready. Time for a test ride, Mike; ride on the right, ride on the right. Guess what he does straight away! I get to the end of the laneway & the bike is out of fuel. We were told they are on reserve but we expected at least half a litre to get the 1klm down the road to the fuel station. Empty drink bottle, drain a bit from one of the others then it’s all go. Lunch down by the Mekong then a bit of shopping which includes emergency food (baked beans, tuna or Nutella are the choices) a new flash Nokia phone for Tommy with SIM cards all round. Back to Villa Lao to pack the bags then we have a few more beers & head out for dinner & an early night. We’re trying to be on the road at 8 in the morning.  Day 1 – 3rd Dec 2012 – Vientiane to Muang Huang 239klm’s Maximum Elevation 970m Moving Time – 5h 32m Stopped Time – 3h 8m Moving Average - 43kph Overall Average - 27kph   Everyone is a bit excited that it starts today. 8.20am & we leave Villa Lao for the journey. Stupid drive on the right road rules, I nearly get cleaned up leaving the driveway. :-)  We head north out f town up Route 10 until we turn east onto the 4509 then east agin onto an unpaved road heading through the Phou Khao Khouay National Park. 6000k entry fee each. For a day 1 road, this looks a hell of a lot like where we ride in Perth. Yarra Rd, Powerlines & even the Wokalup area. It goes up over a few hills that have some road construction that was started years ago and never finished. This turns out to be a standard practice in Laos road construction. It is a fantastic ride never the less with all sorts of terrain.   Kate is the first to fall over, one of many between us. (except for Carl the smart arse)  Now we’re pushing to get to a place called Longsan before 2pm. Advice was that if we’re not here by 2, we wouldn’t make it to MH by dark so we’d have to do a main road run. This was part of the stress yesterday.      We get our first bit of twisty tar road heading down the mountain & as it’s around 12.30 when we get to B. Xiengmee so we get some fuel & stop for lunch. Buffalo soup is on todays menu. Now’s also a good time to work out where we are.    Shit we’re good, it seems we passed Longsan an hour ago. No dramas then as that will give us buckets of time to go the last 80klm’s :-) We keep heading east towards B. Nong & the Nam Ngap river. We’ve been told there’s a ferry here to cross.      It has taken us 1 ½ to get here, then another 25 minutes to get across so it’s now 3pm with 36klm’s left to go. Once across, we’re on what the GPS calls a jungle track. Up until now the roads has been fairly dry with a bit of dust. Well that soon changes. This is now a sloppy, muddy, hilly winding track that yes, goes through the jungle. We’re having a ball. I get quote of the day. “I’m going to slow down a bit now in case I come off”. You guessed it, 2 minutes later the front washed out & I’m down. Kate has another off & is trapped under her bike until Mike goes& gets it off her. Mike forgets his goggles & has to head back for them then falls off himself turning around. Only one photo from here as we’re having too much fun. Mike has it all on Go Pro though.  Our speed has dropped considerably because of this & we can now see why Jim had some concerns about our arrival time. If we were here any even a week earlier, this would have taken maybe twice as long or even been impassable. Luckily there’s only about 20klm’s of this. We finally arrive in Muang Huang at 5pm (yep, that last section of 80klm’s took 4 hours) & find a bed & food at the Keomany Guest House. The rooms are a good size but only have cold showers. We don’t care as the food is great & there’s plenty of cold beer.   Day 1 over & everyone has thoroughly enjoyed their introduction into riding Laos. Day 2 – 4th Dec 2012 –Muang Huang - Phonsavan 261klm’s Maximum Elevation 2171m Moving Time – 6h 37m Stopped Time – 3h 53m Moving Average - 39kph Overall Average - 25kph On the road at 7.11am   Up early for breakfast with us then heading north on the 5101 to the junction of the 1D. The 30klm section 5101 is an OK road, standard dirt with mud & potholes  where Tommy gets the first flat tyre of the trip where there just happens to be LEECHES! This takes us half an hour to fix.    & one creek crossing…   …where we had to dismount & help give some locals a push with their truck.  We get to the 1D & have a short respite from the dirt for 5 minutes heading into B. Pankgnong where there’s a ferry crossing. Thanks to my brilliant planning, we have arrived just as the new bridge is being finished over the Nam Xan so no need to wait for the ferry. 8klm’s along the road we turn north onto a really horrible cobblestone road that heads up into the mountains. This is our first (but not last) experience on this type of road. You can’t ride it normally! The back bounces around so much there’s no traction, especially going up these steep hills. It’s a beautiful scenic ride though, up through the clouds heading to Muang Mok Mai. We’ve spread out a bit enjoying this great road     We’re 15 minutes from MMM when we discover that Mike is not with us. Well we all end up going back about 6 klm’s to find him with the second flat of the trip. While digging out another rear tube, Tommy notices that his fender bag, with our only front tube has bounced off somewhere between his flat & this one. We are pros at changing the tyres now, so Tommy, Carl, Mike & Ash hook into it while Kate & I entertain the small group of kids that are gathering.      We all have a go on the bike pump to get the tyre inflated but it doesn’t seem to work. Damn, we’ve pinched the tube? Nope. We strip it down again & find that a nail is still in the tyre. Who checked that? Sheepish replies all round so Mike gets a second flat against his name. We head through MMM & decide to carryon but we get snookered. The GPS is trying to tell us to cross this deep fast flowing river & beeps at me angrily every time I try to get a new route. It’s getting on for 2pm now & we still have around 130klm’s to go for Phonsavan so I have another small stress out as we’re not going through that river.   Back into Muang Mok Mai for a spot of lunch & a good hard talking too for the GPS. Well ain’t I the fool. If I’d have just zoomed out a bit I’d see that the main road goes around to the other side of the river. Stuff it, we’ll have lunch here much to the delight of the whole village who come out to watch us eat. MMM is like a small trading post/cross roads town with a bucket load of small markets.     After a noodle soup lunch we head for Phonsavan only to again be snookered 10klm’s up the road by construction. As we only have 3 hours of light left to go 120klm’s we start waving our arms about at the front end loader driver that’s dumping earth over the road from on high. We get a signal that it won’t be open until 5pm which doesn’t suit us so we send Carl on through. Almost a bad mistake because as he gets over the crest, there is no road or track, just a slope of fresh dirt heading down the mountainside.     Panic stations as me & Tommy race over to help Carl who’s struggling a bit not to go tumbling. We get everybody moving rather quickly as we’ve upset the bloke doing his job & he starts up dumping dirt again with us under him. It takes a huge team effort to get the other 5 bikes over as there is no traction in the deep loose earth. Yay we all made it. Some locals on this side that are waiting patiently give us a strange look & do the old “point to the head & shake it in disbelief” international sign for Crazy Fucking Falangs. We stop for a laugh at how stupid we are & a good drink of water, then the fun begins. This road is another that seems to be under constant construction & repair. There are sections of smooth wide bits interspersed with slippery narrow deep muddy bits, all while heading up & up to 2171m where at the very summit we run the construction gauntlet again… this time with the operators blessing    There’s a couple of offs by Mike & Kate along this section but there only low speed falls in the very slippery muck. Funny as hell at times though as e all have some very close calls. We take our time & finally arrive in Phonsavan around 5.30pm. A good 10.5 hour day! We have a few beers as tomorrow will be a rest day to go look at the Plain of Jars, get our flat tubes patched & try to find a couple of spare 19” front tubes. Accommodation is at the Dok Khoune Hotel & I think it was around 80,000k for a flash room with hot water & plenty of parking for the bikes    Also, half a million for dinner sounds rich, but for what we got plus 8 beers, $10 Aussie each is a steal.  Day 3 – 5th Dec 2012 – Phonsavan Today we just hang around & go have a look at the Plain of Jars Site 1, get the tubes sorted & wash the bikes. Also Tommy’s Baja lost a nut from his engine mount bolt, so we need to find one of them too.  The last photo posted on yesterdays story is a bit deceiving as it’s after the bikes were washed.  I tried to park closer but got yelled at by an angry short man.      There’s a lot of history involved here, too much for me to tell so pick up a book & learn it yourselves.    We stay here for a bit then try to find the spot to see the MIGS at the airport. Got Binoculars? Not us. We see them in the distance so that will do. Back to town to wash the bikes & get the other stuff sorted.   And play with an old gun     A wander around the markets, some food, Mike tries to find a new pocket knife as his other one made it through Perth Customs but he got detained at Bangkok when we were transferring flights & it was confiscated. Day 4 – 6th Dec 2012 – Phonsavan – Luang Probang 235klm’s Maximum Elevation 1527m Moving Time – 7h 04m Stopped Time – 3h 15m Moving Average - 33kph Overall Average - 23kph On the road at 7.30am   Today was meant to be a relatively easy ride, & it sort of was one, just longer than I thought. It ended up being another 10 ½ hour day. The roads ended up being a more of the half finished/repaired mud roads that we’ve already seen, around 10 river crossings with one real bastard, farm tracks & single tracks. Thinking back now, this was another good fun day. We start off heading north to the 3909 through country that is rather barren in parts, but you turn a corner & you’re back into the bamboo/vines but then get to the other side of the hill & you’re in pine trees. Rather a weird sensation having it change so much.    I’ve sort of lost track of the order of events here, so I’ll let the photos talk & comment on them as I go.  Tommy notices that his sub frame has sheared off & he’s lost a bolt from the rack. Carl to the rescue with 20+ cable ties. Is there nothing they can fix? Mikes throttle is a bit sticky from an off too, so we have a go at fixing that while we can.     Fuel stop in the middle of nowhere with one very happy lady. She just couldn’t or wouldn’t stop laughing.    A couple of the easy river crossings along this route.      That blue puff of smoke is a truck coming up stream, which means we have to go where it came from down stream.   Everything is going fine, lots of water, great tracks, lots of laughs until we reach the Nam Khan. Piece of piss I say, I’ve put the bike on a speed boat before so these canoes will be easy.    Well I’m shitting myself. If anything was inherently unstable, it’s a flat bottomed canoe with 250kg of bike & scared white boy in it. NOT HAPPY! I’M TERRIFIED! HELP! All while the little bloke in the front is saying OK, OK, OK, OK.   I get to the other side all dry, apart from the 5 litres of sweat, & have never felt so happy. If the bike went in, my trip was over. Money, cameras, phone, clothes, everything, gone. NEXT! Kate’s bike was loaded up next but after seeing me bitch out, she asks Tommy to take hers across. Tommy the bastard is all smiles.    And he has to come back for his. They’re getting a bit smarter now & de pack the bikes & sit down to keep the CofG lower.   Carls getting loaded up while Tommy is doing his second run. Look how close Carl comes to swimming across. I knew I was scared for a reason.   Mike & Ash make it look easy, or they just didn’t fuss as much. Plus they had 2 people on the poles.    Mike goes back to grab Kate all the gear that was left on the other bank.  Now I was all happy to give them a huge tip for their help but they ended up stinging us for 100,000 per trip, so 700K all up was enough. I’m laughing while writing this thinking back on the episode. Onward & upward as they say. We have 142klm’s to go & the time is now quarter past 12. Again, no worries as the road is a main route so this should be easy now. Red clay, red wet slippery clay, red wet slippery up & down steep hill clay. We come across some people doing carbon research. They’ld cut a sapling down & we couldn’t cross in case we hurt the tree? I asked the young asian girl doing the research if she was from a village nearby. “I’m from Canada” was snapped at me. Well sod you, we’re going over your log. We pushed the bikes over & went on our way.  We’re all so glad we weren’t here 1 or 2 weeks earlier again; this would have been a nightmare. Bigfella, props to you for doing it all in the wet season you crazy bastard. We need fuel so we stop in at B. Phone Thong. There mustn’t be many bikes call in here as every kid in the village came out to see us with the local copper type guy keeping an eye on us from behind the fence.     We have a few more rivers to cross but these have bridges. Well bridges of a sort. We probably could have gone through the water, but why miss out on paying 5000k & having a photo opportunity.        Time is creeping up on us again, so we start the run into LPB. One section here is steep, with a capital S & we’re doing it down hill. Tommy actually boils his rear brakes & has none coming in to stop at a bridge. Not been his day bike wise with the broken subframe, brakes & yesterdays bolts falling out. We’re maybe 60-70klm’s from our destination when the roadworks god strikes again. This time there’s no way around or through so we sit it out until 5 with a bunch of locals.    Come 5pm & the road opens so it’s a mad race to the front of the line. We jostled for position with some Vietnamese couples on scooters but we won.  Luckily the run into LPB now is a fairly good road as we’ll be riding at dusk. No problems at all & we arrive at 6pm just as it’s getting dark. There’s a dodgy GH I stayed in last year that I know has ample secure parking for the bikes as we’ve decided to stay an extra day here because Jim wants a service on the bikes, a valve adjustment(?) & we need to weld Tommys up.  Continue reading to Part 2 ... |
