Took the local bus to Luang Prabang, pleasant enough but did leave over two hours late and not get in until after 1am. And also at the road runs along the the edge of the special zone we had an armed soldier with us, wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t spotted the machine gun wrapped in his coat. Had a few days in Luang Prabang and then got the slow boat to Thailand.
I had read that it was possible to hire 250cc trail bikes in Vang Vieng and after the failed loop I really wanted to get out and see real Laos by proper bike. I had also read that you could now ride up to Long Cheng (Long Tieng) the old CIA town used during the secret war. But first some background, around the time the USA got involved in the Vietnam war the CIA started recruiting Hmong men to wage a griller war from the Lao side aimed at disrupting the main supply line to the NVA, when the war ended and the CIA town fell and some of the Hmong fled to the surrounding mountains in fear of retribution, there they have lived since some groups hiding some still causing problems for the Lao government, this has resulted in an area of over 4000 square km being closed off until up to very recently. Looking at some maps and based on a trip the author of the lonely planet Lao had taken I worked out it should be possible to make a 4 day trip into the special zone, up to the base and back round the top. After a bit of investigation I discovered it was in-fact not possible to get a dirt bike in Vang Vieng and I had to head back to Vientiane by bus to pick one up there and arranged to drop the bike in Vang Vieng for an extra cost and headed out early the following day. Heading north the roads were empty and the bike was great. About 3 hours in I turned east on to the road that would lead into the restricted zone, about an hour in I saw the check point that signed the entrance to the zone, but that is as far as I got. As I approached the check point I got waved down and stopped by the army, as I don’t speak more than 2 words of Lao and there English was enough to say “closed” and “go now” I wasn’t able to work out why I wasn’t allowed to pass, without much choice I turned around and made my way up to Vang Vieng. With the bike booked for another 3 days the only option without back tracking was to drive up to Luang Prabang and back in 2 days which was meant to be a great drive through the mountains. As the crow flies it’s only 170km but the drive was a enjoyable 6 hours of bendy mountains roads and breath taking views. Randomly bumped into Jasper in the mountains when I stopped for lunch and then again in Luang Prabang at dinner, he was traveling by bus from the plain of jars. Back in Vang Vieng again with the bike for one more day I did a easy 45km on dirt tracks through the hills around Vang Vieng and in the afternoon went tubing one last time.
Vang Vieng’s attraction was always the stunning scenery but a fair few years back some one invented tubing, which has become so popular that it is now the number one reason people visit Vang Vieng, in fact it is the only reason some people visit Lao. Of course there are lots of other actives available like climbing, rafting and canoeing but like most, all me and Jasper did was tube and on our days off recover while watching friends at one of the many bars on the main strip which show episode after episode of friends, in fact there are so many bars playing friends that walking down the main street you can always hear the opening credits from atlases one bar. So what is tubing? Well basically you pay $5 and receive your inflated tracker tier inner tube and get taken 4km up the river by tuk tuk, from the starting point you sit in your tube and float down stream back to Vang Vieng which takes 2 hours, or used to…
Now due to the fact that there are 14 big bars along the route it takes up to eight hours to compete, assuming you stop at at leased 5 of them. So this is how it goes you float for a minute or two and when you see a bar you like the look of and a good rope swing you wave at the staff and they throw a bit of bamboo attached to a rope at you, grab it and they pull you in.
You stay for a few drinks have a play on the swing and then tube to the next bar, simple. After a few days tubing you will really want to leave the amazing yet hellish place. The motto of the guest house we were stating was “You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!” from the Eagles ‘ Hotel California’ it fitted the place perfectly.
Vientiane
We arrived in Vientiane a little after 23:00 and as we had heard that you could get a tuk tuk into town for 5000 kip each we shunned all the drivers trying to charge 20,000 each. We tried the classic walk away and wait for them to follow bit they never did. After few km down the road with our heavy packs we flagged down another 5 tuktuk drivers and after a while got one to take us the 8k into town. We arrived a little before midnight after the guest house curfew of 11:30 and promptly went around waking up the guest house staff to discover all the reasonably priced ones were full. Not having much luck traveling with this lot, luckily our luck changed and at one guest house attached to a cafe Karen asked jokingly if we could sleep on the sofa for free, they said yes. In the morning we woke up just before the cafe opened at 6 and ordered breakfast.
We had a couple of nights in Vientiane found a triple room and spent far to much cash on some very good western food.
The Trek
Jasper and Karen were planing on doing a trek and even though it wasn’t something I was that interested in I thought it was something I should give a try while out here. We headed out early to catch a local bus which would take us 2 hours east to a village called …, and on arrival arrange a local guide to take us on a 3 day 2 night trek through the bush with the possibility of seeing wild elephants. The first night we stayed up a watch tower in the bush near an area that the elephants come but no luck. On the seconds day we pushed on to a cave with water fall, we bathed in the water fall and slept in the cave quite a night!
Overall the trek was good but with the humidity and the number of times I walked into spider webs and got attacked by hundreds of ants I think I will stick to the mountains.
The Loop is a 4 day motor bike road trip based out of Thakek, or at least it should be. I arrived in Thakek at the guest house which was meant to have the most travellers. Joined up with 4 other people heading out the following day so all going to plan. We set off at 9:00 the following morning on the only bikes available; 110cc Chinese step through semi automatics, with which according to the LP would most likely suffer a blow out or need the shocks replacing while on route. Before I go any further I just want everyone to know I am 100% ok. So we headed out slowly as most of the group had very little or no previous experience riding. A couple of hours in and every ones confidence was up as we drove in tight formation riding down the empty roads, all was going well until a pice of the bike two in front of me fell of and one of the girls (Karen) in front of me put on her breaks to pick it up with out checking her mirrors, traveling a little two close behind I slammed on the breaks and managed to slow down a fair bit before I rear ended her (all happened within 3 seconds). As I said I am fine, Karen came off with a couple of cuts on her legs, I came off with a graze on my shoulder and one on my ankle, my bike came off worse and had to be taken to the next village for an oil change and a bit of straightening up. Two hours later after we had patched our selves up with our first aid kits and had some lunch we were back on the road.
We headed north and then east until we came to a 40km dirt road which lead to a the village we were heading for, with our slow progress on the very rocky road and the 2 hour delay from the crash it soon became dark two people dropped there bikes but no injuries just a few busted wing mirrors. We arrived at the village at 20:00 and managed to find two home stays, had our dinner an joined the locals at what appeared to be mobile disco off the back of a cart. The following morning we walked down to a cave that stretched 7km through a mountain to the other side (the reason we visited the village in first place) we spent 3-hours going through the cave and back by boat and returned to our home stays for lunch. After which the plan being to head back up the hard road and then on east to the next stop, unfortunately Karen had lost her key! It was decided that we would give her a lift to the top of the dirt road where we herd she could arrange a pick up truck to take he and the bike back to Thakek for only 15$, on arriving back at the main road we found it would cost a lot more than that. Getting late we found a guest house and me Jasper and Jason (all three of us had had to share a bed due to cost) set out early the following morning on two bikes to collect Karen’s bike. We managed to get down to the village and back with me hot wiring the bike in under three hours, not bad!!
Back at the main road we had a new lock fitted for only 3.50$. As we were all including our bikes a little broken (I failed to mention the front break just fell off Jason’s bike) we decided to head for home, saving a couple days bike hire to pay for the repairs. Had a nearly ok ride home with some amazing view, with the only problems being running out of gas.
We arrived home safe a little after dark. The following day we went to see some cave south of Thakek we would have seen at the end of the loop, by tuck tuck (much safer).
After lunch we split with 2 going south and me Karen and Jasper heading north to Vientiane. Second photo byJasper Wolleswinkel, Third photo by unknown Dutch girl.
Ok yet again it has been quite a while since I updated this, I am now in Laos but we will get to that later on. First where we left off… after leaving Mt Emei I made my way back to Chengdu where I stayed for a couple of nights to chill out and eat the good veggie food at the Buddhist monastery. While in Chengdu I heard that the Chinese were going to re open tibet on the first of May, which was a bit of a shock as I had accepted that I wouldn’t be going, just incase it did open I decided to leave the country so I could reenter in May (just incase). So I headed down on the night train to Kunming to meet up with Beth and Nick (who I had perversely spent time with in Beijing) who were heading to Vietnam. Spent a couple of days in Kunming sorting out visas and headed for the border by sleeper bus, nowhere near as nice as the sleeper trains but it got us there and only broke down twice. Got into a town in the north (Sapa) which is meant to be a travelers haven but was a little disappointed as it all seemed a little fake and staged, maybe if we had gone trekking we might have found something a little more real. Spent two nights there but after me boasting all day about how I have never had food poisoning I spent the night throwing up and the following day in bed. After Sapa we headed south to Hanoi a lovely old city which we immediately got lost on arrival at 5am and walked for an hour in the wrong direction. Spent a few days sitting around Nick’s pool (as he was stating at a posh hotel) and then me and Nick set of on a 3 day tour to Halong bay.
Moving on south by bus (cheaper and quicker than the train) with Beth to the sea side town of Hoi An and my first beach of the trip. First night we hitched a ride with some Germans on mopeds down to the beach for the sunset and had a great swim. Spent 4 nights there swimming, partying and hanging by the pool.
At this point I discovered that Tibet would not be opening and aranged to meet my mum and dad in Cambodia in June so insted of heading south to Ho Chi Minh city, I travle west into Laos. Beth wanted to make it to Thailand asap so accompanied me as far as Savannakhet
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