There was a parting shot from the city waiting for us. Having spent months watching people across Asia ride without helmets, on the ‘phone, eating , 5-up on a scooter, ignoring the speed limits and red lights, I duly rode around a barrier that was in the way. Mr. Plod was waiting and escorted us to the plod shop to pay the £8.50p fine. I follwed him on his scooter while he ran a red light and stopped on a zebra crossing, all the time wearing his crash helmet with the strap tucked up inside it, and holding his charge book in one hand. He was happy to have shown the foreigner who was boss though, and it made us laugh, so we all went away happy.
Anyhow, we left Chiang Mai, and headed across to Laos via the city of Nan near the border. It was a long day’s ride so stopping for the night a short hop from the border seemed sensible, given that the border paperwork could take hours.
Stopping for a break, there was a geyser spouting in the middle of a shopping area and a bunch of enterprising ladies were selling quail eggs in bamboo baskets for punters to boil. They seemed to enjoy having their photos taken. One cheeky one was saying something to me in Thai, making the others laugh and hit her round the head in embarrassment. I’d love to know what she said!
The border was fairly painless on the Laos side as it turned out. We had to wait for half an hour for a couple of customs guys to come back from lunch, but all was well.
The Laos officials were friendly and helpful having had a good lunch. The real problems were before that at the Thai side. According to Mr Customs man, we’d failed to file a form on entry to Thailand, and we’d have to pay a fine of 10,000 Baht (about £220). He softened after a bit and said that maybe he could reduce it to 4,000. At this we smelt a rat and called a friend (thanks Phillip) who’d crossed many times. He assured us that it was a scam and that we should get angry, photograph the official, and write down his name. Ok, so we did, and the bloke was seriously unhappy. Now I’ve always been of the opinion that you don’t upset customs officials in foreign countries as you could end up staying there for a lot longer than planned. It worked though, and after keeping us waiting on ‘a phone call from his boss’, we were let through. It was a tense couple of hours.
So - into Laos, and we had a hard time believing what we were seeing. It was like being back in East Timor, with bad roads, bamboo huts and people scratching around to get by. What a huge contrast to Thailand within just a few miles. We seemed to have ridden into another world. We’d ridden to a fairly remote crossing point near the top of Laos to avoid the trucks, and sure enough, it was completely deserted. The Thai road had deteriorated 5km from the border, and should have warned us what was coming.
We were in the mountainous north of the country, and were to find out later that this is the poorest area of Laos.
Seeing a white couple with a well loaded bike by the side of the road, we stopped to see if they were ok. They were just taking pics, and after a chat we rode off together. It’s lucky that we did, because our assumption that we could get local currency from an ATM at the border was ridiculous. The nearest ATM was a long day’s ride away.
Josu and Edi are a sweet young couple from the Basque who’d hired a bike during an 18 month world trip. They lent us cash to pay for petrol (bottles at the side of the road), food and water, bless them, and we followed behind their tiny and very overladen VanVan bike through the mountains.
There are very few tarmac roads in Laos, and dirt roads are very slow going on a heavy bike two-up, so we were forced to head north-ish for 200km before we could head south. This also meant crossing the Mekong river. It’s muddy and fast-flowing, and the ‘ferry’ was a challenge to get onto with a sandy slope either side.
We made it without incident and stopped for a breather in the first town - Pak Beng - which was little more than a collection of bamboo huts. Pressing on we made it to Muong Houn and stopped at a guest house that had the hardest beds we’ve ever seen. In fact they were just divan bases plonked onto wooden frames, so we spent the night sleeping on wooden boards.
The evening had its merits though, because while sitting in a restaurant (shack) up the road, we saw a succession of lad’s heads peep round the door at us. We beckoned them in, and the six lads (all 16yrs old) sat and chatted with us, all desparate to practice their English. We found out later that the guest house owner had called the English teacher who had rounded up the boys.
The boys were instantly likeable and wanted nothing but to learn. The lad that I spoke to the most broke my heart with tales of an overcrowded house, father in hospital, no money, and he thought that he might not be able to continue studying through lack of money in the family. That evening will stay with all of us for a long time, and it’s a sad thought that the same story is repeated across most of Laos.
We saw some interesting sights going through the many small villages, and it was lovely to have kids and adults smiling and waving to us again, as they did in Indonesia.
Look carefully at what one of these women is holding in her left hand (click to zoom in). Yes, it’s a rat, and yes, she was eating it, and giving some to her daughter. Maybe they breed them, as we saw them for sale, as well as strange hamster-mole creatures (that were still alive). When we stopped to photgraph them we were stared at as if to say ‘aren’t you going to buy any?'
The trip up to OuDomxai then cutting south was one of beauty, despite the rats. The roads were quite challenging at times with loads of mountainous twists with tarmac replaced by mud and gravel a fair part of the way, but the views were great.
We also bumped into another long-distance motorcyclist or two. Thomas and his girlfriend from Poland had bought 2 Belarussian Minsk motorcycles in Vietnam and were travelling around Laos, and Ernie the crazy german was touring around on his ex-army KTM. Joe stopped to chat and had ridden up from Singapore, and talked about a charity ride that he’d just organised.
It was the 23rd December, and we stayed in LuangPrabang. We’d met up with Pat and Sheonagh in OuDomxai and both they and Josu and Edi had decided to head east to Nong Kiew while we had gone south. We wanted to stay in VangVieng in some bungalows that Ernie had told us about.
The Banana Bungalows were best reached via a really rickety bamboo bridge that’s rebuilt evey year after the monsoon. I don’t mind admitting that my legs were wobbly when I got off the bike the other end. The thing was making some seious creaking noises under the weight, as it’s only really meant for mopeds. Sheonagh and Pat were on the river underneath it a couple of days later and noticed that a whole section of supports was missing.
It was a fun Christmas eve though we were sleeping in a really basic (as in just a bed) bamboo hut under a mozzie net. Turning off the light, the light from outside came through the holes in the walls and lit up the mozzie net with a thousand spots of light.
On Christmas day, even though we didn’t feel Christmassy being in a Buddhist country (it’s the year 2553 here) in sweltering heat, we’d arranged with Josu ad Edi to meet at a posh lakeside bungalow (£22/night!!) near the capital Vientiane. It was as lovely as we’d hoped, and we spent an evening chatting and even had a bottle of wine - the first in months due to the price in Asia.
We’re now in Vientiane, and have decided not to continue south down the length of Laos and into Cambodia as we’d planned. The region is flat farmlands and poverty all the way, with only Angkor as a bit of interest at the other end. Unfortunately to see any of Angkor Wat without a thousand tourists in the way means heading out to remote areas at 4 in the morning.
Vientiane, like the rest of Laos has an interesting history and some quirky bits.
We spent a couple of hours near Vientiane at a bizarre ‘Buddha Park’ that a local created, with dozens of statues representing different parts of Buddhism and Hinduism. As usual, health and safety concerns were, well, completely unconcerned. The big globe at the beginning had three floors inside with very steep stairs and tiny holes to crawl through, then almost nothing to stop you from falling off the top. The different floors were full of dusty statues with the lowest showing torture, murder and death.
Anyhow, we’re staying here for the 2011 celebrations as the Tiger beer company are having a big sales drive and have set up live music quite near the guesthouse for non-Buddhists, and it’ll be much better than spending the last evening of 2010 in a small town in central Thailand.
We’ll be headed next to see the ruins of Sukhothai in Thailand, the capital of Siam over 800 years ago, then just maybe up to ChiangMai again. There’s an annual meeting for global motorcyclists there and it’d be a shame to miss it. After that though, we promise that we’re going down to Bangkok , the city of ladyboys and dubious pursuits to organise a flight to Bangladesh.
It’s the 31st December and the sun’s just going down here in Vientiane. We both wish anyone reading this the very best of new years, and we thank you for taking time to keep an eye on us during the last 7 months.
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