Category Archives: Motorcycle

Day 219 – Grinding to a halt

One could take up a boat ride to remote villages but we are on a bike ...

One could take up a boat ride to remote villages but we are on a bike …

Three weeks in Laos felt like a decent amount of time. So from beautiful Nong Khiew, we had two more days to go: To Luang Namtha today and then on to the border town of Houei Xai tomorrow.

From here on, the road seemed to be new. Perfect tarmac in a stunning setting. We made very good progress while cruising along, enjoying the ride rather than pushing it. 230km for today was nowhere near yesterday’s push so we really took it easy.

Nice turns!

Nice turns!

Arriving in Oudom Xai at 11.30am, it seemed a little early for lunch so we continued on, starting on the last 100km for today. Not too bad to arrive early and have some time to catch up on blogging. Nothing really changed: The tarmac was perfect, we cruised through the corners. One of the corners was in shade with the surface seeming wet there. When we rode it though, it turned out to be something entirely different than water. Something slippery as hell. In milliseconds, the tyres slipped, the bike dropped from the tyres onto the pannier but continued riding the corner until it fully tilted onto the broadside of the pannier which resulted in a spin and then dropped us on the ground where we and the bike stopped.

... looks like road, rides like an ice rink

… looks like road, rides like an ice rink

Quickly checking that I was okay, I turned to Flo who said he needed a minute to sort through the different pains. To be safe, I turned off the engine. Not knowing what to do next with Flo still on the ground, I took a photo of the scene. Because pumped with adrenaline, you don’t exactly have the best ideas about what to do. It was then that a horn sounded: A truck announcing its presence from around the corner so nobody would overtake. We sounded the bike’s horn because it was lying in the middle of the road. Luckily, the truck driver understood and slowed down to a crawl being able to stop and help us get the bike up and to the side of the road without any further issues.

Got the stuff off to get it out of the way

Got the stuff off to get it out of the way

Well, the bike had no further issues. Nothing was broken, just the plastic from the front indicator fell off. It is still in one piece so can be glued back on. The pannier has new scratches but not many considering our slide and the military haversacks we use as front panniers were completely unscathed.

However, Flo’s right arm was not okay. He could tell pretty early on and you can see it on the picture that I took after the accident. Pumped with adrenaline, he thought it would be okay in an hour or so while I thought it might be broken. I fell onto my hip and didn’t feel much pain yet because of the adrenaline so if Flo was in pain…it must be something.

So I started to stop cars. Surprisingly few would actually stop with me waving like a madwoman in a corner of the road. The second car that stopped was from a NGO or something like it. At least, the people inside spoke English. They offered to drive us to a nearby hospital but we didn’t feel like leaving the bike here was a good idea. We settled on them driving off, asking a truck in town to come pick us up. Slightly relieved, we sat down, calculating that it might take up to 1 1/2 hours for this to happen. In the end, it didn’t take nearly as long.

Setting a point of interest in the GPS so we would be able to find the bike again

Setting a point of interest in the GPS so we would be able to find the bike again

An ambulance showed up. Obviously called for us. The driver then realized that he couldn’t also transport the bike. With a heavy heart, we shoved our luggage into the ambulance, parked the bike out of the way as best as we could and left for the hospital.

The “hospital” was not exactly that. Yes, they had doctors and nurses but almost no equipment. They touched and bent Flo’s arm while he was obviously in pain before letting us know that we had to get to Luang Namtha’s hospital. By this point, Luang Namtha was 70km away. A world away without the bike. No one here really spoke English and while I discussed with the ambulance driver and a doctor that I will NOT hand over the keys to the bike so a local can drive it here, one of the nurses wanted to give Flo an injection of something we didn’t know. Overwhelmed by the situation, we decided that we will all stick together and nothing except for a cooling cream will be done until we are in the bigger hospital.

Strapping down on greedy doc's truck

Strapping down on greedy doc’s truck

Once everyone understood that we were adamant of finding a pick-up truck to pick up Rocinante and then drop the three of us at Luang Namtha’s hospital, plans were made. The doctor himself offered his pick-up for the ride…for the steep price of 1.000.000 kip. That’s a fortune in local currency. About NZ$200 for a car ride of 70km. Well, we were desperate and under time pressure (and in pain) so the doctor got himself a deal. Repacking our luggage from the ambulance into the pick-up, we went back for Rocinante. It wasn’t easy to get her up, another local passing on a scooter was volunteered to help as well and then everything had to be tied down. Flo didn’t look too well but he had to help to make sure the bike was secure.

Leaving at 3pm, it took 1 1/2 hours to reach Luang Namtha. Our drivers were in high spirits (no wonder for that price) and even agreed to stop at a hostel first so that we could securely park the bike and store our luggage before hitting the hospital. Luang Namtha is bigger and more touristy so the hostel owner spoke English which made us hopeful for the hospital.

Worse for wear

Worse for wear

The hospital still was a provincial hospital in Northern Laos though. Mimicking an accident on a motorcycle and pointing at the arm, we were brought into an examination room were more people bent Flo’s arm. We asked for an x-ray and the hospital actually had one. Flo was wheel-chaired off to radiology while I paid what google translate said was “service/examination fee”.

A short wait later, we got the x-ray and nothing is broken. Much relief for both of us. Flo was still in pain though so we got Ibuprofen as pain killers and a sling for his arm to keep it still.

Nothing more could be done today so we had food and then collapsed for 12 hours of sleep.

Day 218 – Distances

Pretty landscape on the first stretch

Pretty landscape on the first stretch

The only downside of wanting to see the caves of Vieng Xai was that we now were in the far eastern regions of Laos, nearly in Vietnam, while our preferred border crossing back into Thailand is on the far western edge. A lot of distance needs to be covered so we thought we should start on it today. With a 320km chunk. On the bad Laotian roads.

Flo and I actually thought we wouldn’t be able to make it as we left Sam Neua too late. Our communication played up again and we had to figure out what’s wrong, find a place that sells cables and buy a replacement before leaving. However, the cable was crucial to being able to listen to an audio book so the time was well spent.

Picture I snatched when the ladies weren't looking

Picture I snatched when the ladies weren’t looking

Going back through the weaver’s village, we, of course, didn’t see nearly as many women weaving as on the way in. I still tried to snatch a picture but the ladies weren’t that keen to be photographed.

While the scenery was stunning, the road was a disaster. Big patches were missing, reminding us again of Timor-Leste. Riding was hard work rather than a pleasant activity. So really, we just kept going the whole morning. At some point, the road got better again. As we stopped for lunch, the GPS told us that Nong Khiaw is 160km away. Somehow, despite our late start, we had managed to ride half of the distance before lunch. Thus, we might actually reach Nong Khiew…though probably late in the day.

These looked fascinating

These looked fascinating

Just keep riding, just keep riding…at 4.30pm we arrived in the tiny town of Nong Khiew which, to our eyes, was filled to burst with white tourists. The town’s setting on a river with steep cliffs to either side is spectacular but we were just through with this day.

Amazing Indian food saved us from an empty stomach, even if we had to wait for it for a long time, before we snobed the views again to go back into our room to collapse.

Day 215 – UXO

Mountains, Gandalf, mountains!

Mountains, Gandalf, mountains!

Things were not half as spooky waking up this morning. We, nonetheless, hurried to get everything packed up and on the road again. The main reason was that we were not expecting to get any breakfast in this village  – or better say, the promise of baguette in the next town was much more alluring than the likely rice soup here.  So 20km later, we were at the crossroad town Phou Khoun. No baguette was to be seen, though. Instead, we settled on fried battered banana (cold and eww) from the market plus coffee and cookies in one of the guesthouses.

Although we had “only” 160 km to go today, it soon was clear that this is a whole different kettle of fish from zipping up the Mekong lowlands. I will not complain, though. Thousands of turns on a scenic mountain road made the whole thing quite enjoyable. Once the morning fog lifted, the views only got better. Before lunch, we hit our destination, the provincial capital Phonsavan. This is a good place to find a bed and use it as the base to explore the Plain of Jars. Continue reading →

Day 210 – On top of things

A joy to ride

A joy to ride

If the map was any indicator, we were about to embark into the real mountainous North today. We heard from other travelers that there was a new road going over a mountain pass instead of following the Mekong and that it would not be used by buses for the steep incline. Obviously we were quite excited about this.

Before we could find out however, there were a bunch of minor annoyances in our way. First, the drive chain was covered in a thick sandy layer of grit and had to be cleaned. Before packing, I fixed up our luggage racks a bit and when we finally were ready to leave, Nina’s headset finally gave out after playing up for a while. This is the forth or fifth one to break on the trip – and the final spare. As much as we love the cheaper wired intercom, it is getting a bit ridiculous. Later that night I went over all the old (and broken ones) again – and at least found one where only one of the earpieces is dead. That will have to do until we can get our hands on replacements later on, probably Oman. Continue reading →

Day 208 – Vang Vieng

Croissants with butter and jam

Croissants with butter and jam

Again, having only a 150km stretch to ride today, we decided to have breakfast at the fancy French bakery. Pain of chocolate (pain au chocolate) is just my favourite way to start the day. Again, it was delicious. We were happy now to leave Vientiane behind which did turn out to be a sleepy little town.

150km north of the capital is the small town of Vang Vieng. In earlier days, it was a party-haven for young travellers wanting to tube down the river while being high, but three years ago the party scene was shut down. Nowadays, outdoor activities such as kayaking, tubing and rock climbing are the center of tourism here.

An example of the red dirt colouring everything

An example of the red dirt colouring everything

The road to Vang Vieng turned out to be the worst in quite a while. Giant potholes interchanged with missing stretches of road. It reminded us of Timor-Leste, to be honest. Thus, it took us longer than expected. Unfortunately, there was also no nice space to stop and take a break from the taxing ride as we were pretty much walled in by trees and bushes that had taken on the colour of the dirt. Riding in the clouds of cars and trucks was also not that much fun.

Nice and refreshing

Nice and refreshing

We finally stopped on a bridge for a rehydration break as the view from up here was refreshing after all the red. Nothing to linger on too long though which meant that we arrived at our destination before lunch time. This early, we even got a room at Pan’s Place, one of the popular hostels in town. Since the cafe and our room looked nice, we decided to book two night from the get go.

The prices at our hostel’s café looked reasonable so we had lunch right here and then in form of Western food. While waiting on the burger and cheese-garlic-baguette, two other Germans sat down at our table. They had seen us arrive on the Transalp and were keen to talk, one motorcyclist to another.

Rather worrying wooden bridge

Rather worrying wooden bridge

Being in a slight food coma after lunch, it took decisive action to get out of our room once more and actually DO something with our time in Vang Vieng. The Lonely Planet recommends a tiny loop of about 26km which is short enough that many attempted it on a bicycle. We, however, took Rocinante out for a spin enjoying the dirt roads through mountainous scenery rather than the many waterfall and cave stops. And what beautiful scenery it was! We took 1 ½ hours for the 26km to take it all in, take many photos including Flo riding on the dirt roads and wave to all the locals we met.

Last bit of motorbike epicness for the day

Last bit of motorbike epicness for the day

At one moment, a lady working in a rice field actually smiled at us and waved and I wish I could have taken a picture of this moment but some things are too fleeting to grab on camera.

Very happy that we actually went on this loop, we arrived back at the hostel to plan tomorrow.

 

 

Day 204 – The loop

We were expecting hills, but cliffy limestone is a positive surprise

We were expecting hills, but cliffy limestone is a positive surprise

Staying at the Traveller’s Lodge in Thakhek, you can be pretty sure that everyone had been on the loop or is going to go on the loop. “The loop” is an actual loop from Thakhek back to Thakhek through the mountains which is recommended by the Lonely Planet. However, it seems to be a generally popular route as we have seen a few people with hand-drawn maps from their guest houses. 

The Lonely Planet suggests to take 4-5 days for the loop on a real motorcycle, not a scooter. Luckily, we brought our own real motorcycle so we don’t need to go through the trouble of hiring one but somehow, we didn’t see the point of taking 4-5 days for a 350km loop. Maybe the length of our journey starts to show. Continue reading →

Day 203 – Plains

The guest house's dog took a liking to Flo...but well enough behaved to not follow into the room :)

The guest house’s dog took a liking to Flo…but well enough behaved to not follow into the room 🙂

We got annoyed with ourselves this morning for failing at breakfast. Or maybe it was just that yesterday’s one was so good that it was impossible to live up to it. The cute little community run cafe we wanted to go to had moved out of town a while back and we were a bit headless in finding another place to go. It was pre-coffee time, after all. So we ended up in the cafe of the resident fancy hotel, paying almost NZ prices while getting airport quality food, 🙁

Nonetheless, the day came into its own from here. The main goal was to cross the empty wasteland that is the central Mekong lowland. 300 km of the main highway following the path of the Mekong until Thakhek, where we would stay for the night to leave on another loop off the main road to explore the central east.

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

The ride was pleasantly uneventful, we found nice lunch and once again arrived at our guesthouse in the early afternoon. We went with the nr. 1 recommendation from the lonely planet a bit out of town. They had a room, albeit a rustic and simple affair with bare concrete floor and a bed which’s springs were covered by not much more than a layer of rice paper (or that is how it felt like). The whole place was packed with high energy, mostly culturally insensitive 20something backpackers. Then again, they have a bonfire every night. 🙂

Dinner in town was a bit of a disaster – but we used that opportunity to have a good talk about changing our food strategy. I am pretty sure we got it back on track with that.

We thought to finish a quick blog post before hitting the bed that night. I had a beer and we popped down in the common area. By chance I had overheard a young German couple talking about going to Cambodia some time later and used my chance to get rid of our last remaining Cambodian Riel. We got talking over that and soon it was clear that we would once again not manage to catch up on the blog. Tabea and Nils were great company and we spend the rest of the night talking about life, travel and the world.

Day 201 – Southern swing

The light is starting to file through

The light is starting to file through

We paid for a room with sunrise view, so we should better gotten out of bed to see the sunrise – right? Well, we did, actually. Getting out of bed, that is. Concerning the sunrise though, we were mildly out of luck. The cloud cover made it only nice instead of spectacular, but on the other hand we got to observe the Lao people go about their insistently early morning routines.

The fishermen, almost ghost-like and silent on the calm Mekong. The towns people getting up and preparing the little shrines. The monks doing their rounds and collecting alms, giving a blessing in return. The culturally insensitive tourists following the monks way too closely with cameras shoved in their faces … a normal calm morning in this sleepy tourist town.

Laos differs greatly from Cambodia: Much greener, many more rivers and most importantly, mountains

Laos differs greatly from Cambodia: Much greener, many more rivers and most importantly, mountains

A side benefit of getting up so early was that we also got on the road nice and early, while it was still relatively cool. The plan was to do the Southern Swing loop, a motorcycle tour through the Bolaven plateau recommended by the Lonely Planet. Since we found both a SIM card and new shampoo along the way, we skipped going to the regional capital of Pakse and turned off straight for the mountains.

We wavered only briefly whether to follow the advised loop back to Pakse or try to modify the route to come along a different way north. In the end we decided to stick to the suggestion. There will be plenty of opportunity to go off the beaten track further north.

A place to chill and sip organic coffee

A place to chill and sip organic coffee

Not willing to fork over yet another $5 for a waterfall, we skipped the first stop to go and pay Mr. Vieng’s Coffee and Homestay a visit. It was lunch time now and we had the small hope that we might find lunch there as well. Our hope for food was disappointed, but for once we were still quite happy with that. Mr. Vieng’s place was amazing – hitting that super narrow space of feeling authentic while still being spic-and-span in our spoiled western eyes. It was all wood and dirt floor, very calm and super cozy. The coffee was great, only topped by the complimentary home roasted peanuts. We even considered calling it a day right there and stay in the homestay, but food called.

Rocinante gets to see the waterfall as well from this wooden bridge

Rocinante gets to see the waterfall as well from this wooden bridge

The next stop was the natural stopping point for the day, and there were some lovely guesthouses to look out for, according to the Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, all the nice ones already had the signs out telling us that there were no rooms available. The cute restaurants were closed as well. Slightly defeated, we took a meal at the touristy place with a view of the Tat Hang waterfall to consider what to do next. The waterfall was nice, but nothing special. Although it was late for lunch, it was actually still relatively early in the day.

Lunch took forever to arrive – not for the first time in Cambodia and Laos, which gave us ample of time to come up with a plan. We decided to go on for a bit more and go to Sekong, the next town on the southern swing, where very reasonably priced guesthouses were available via Agoda.

Rocinante parked at our guest house where we stayed despite the Agoda scam

Rocinante parked at our guest house where we stayed despite the Agoda scam

Just an hour later, we were in for our final surprise for the day. The guest house we booked was nowhere to be found at the given coordinates. Some probing led us about 2km further, where the guest house from the photos could be found. There, they denied any association with Agoda and asked to be payed in cash. The place was nice enough, so we did it and started to sort out a refund for the weird scam from Agoda. The room was massive and the night was calm – everything else could be sorted out … tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Day 199 – The far East

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

There was only a brief debate, but the rustic charms of our “shack” had worn off and I did not feel like needing another full day to recuperate. Thus, we hit the road again. Baring due north. Until very recently, there was no road, let alone a sealed one, connecting the eastern regional capitals of Sen Monorom and Ban Lung directly. Travelers would genuinely get lost trying to navigate a vast maze of cart and oxen tracks and some payed a handsome “thank you”-fee to a local guide getting them out again.

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

None of this anymore – a fully sealed road winds gently down the plateau and through the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary connecting the provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. But other than this one black strip of tarmac and some trappings that come with such infrastructure, there was still not much else out here. Especially now in the dry, it all is one long savanna / light forest as far as the eye can see. During the whole 150 km journey, we encountered maybe 30 other vehicles. It reminded us at times of the Australian outback. Only the 110cc bikes and rice tractors underscored that is was not that.

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

We enjoyed the ride, the solitude and the encounters with the hardy Cambodians living out here. We also made immensely good pace – so good that we hit the turn off to Ban Lung a good time before lunch time. With only 100 km to go and such easy riding, we decided to skip Ban Lung and go directly to Strung Treng. Another provincial capital of the province baring the same name, the Mekong town of Strung Treng is the launch pad for early border crossings into Laos.

One of many fires we've seen in Cambodia

One of many fires we’ve seen in Cambodia

We booked into a brand new Chinese (as in ethnicity, not nationality) owned guest house a kilometer out of the town center. It was cheap and we could book via Agoda. The room was lovely, clean and, best of all, motel-style on the ground floor with direct motorcycle access! The only downside really was the lack of a restaurant, but the ride to town was short enough.

We went to town that night to a forgettable Chinese restaurant and headed home early to get everything in order for the border crossing tomorrow. We even found a post office to drop off Nina’s next batch of post cards.