11 and 12 December 2010
Sadly it was finally time to leave Luang Prabang as I'm afraid if I don't make a move soon I may never will. Earlier it had been a toss between going down to Vientine and cross from there of to go to Houay Xai and get into Thailand there as Chiang Khong is nearer to Chiang Rai. Decided with the latter as the former would mean doubling back.
As with any journey a healthy breakfast is a must and I actually had this rule going on while in Luang Prabang, and that is to never eat at the same place twice. The beauty of this rule of course is that I get to break it as Saffron has some of the best breakfast sets ever. It helps that the place overlooks the river.
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| Carbo loading in the morn |
230 kliks on the odo and I'm still on gravel, and it's gonna get dark soon. It's too late to turn back, neither do I have enough fuel to do so. My backup plan was to actually stop in a village and ask if anyone would put me up if I'm still on the road in an hours time. Of course in my so very limited Lao, I could very well be telling them I'm here to plunder their village instead, so I'm really keeping this as last resort.
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| Met some riders who were otw to Luang Prabang - they crossed at a diff border |
Good thing the last 20km, there is some semblance of a normal road which means I made it to town just as the sun sets. Quickly found myself a guesthouse cause it was just a loooonggg day. I even congratulated myself for making it there in one piece. Little did I know it's premature as Laos still has something up its sleeve for me.
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| Superstar parking - and at US7 a nite, it was cheap and good |
Anyways, back to Luang Namtha, there isnt much there. People actually come here for the jungle trekking activities, which is not exactly my cup of tea. So I see this place as more of a halfway point as I make my way to the border the next day. You can see from my pics below how busy this place is. I'm standing in the middle of the road at 8am.....bit of a gridlock going on there.
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| look one way |
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| look the other way |
So on Sunday, after breakfast(of course), I made my way to the border via Houay Xay 180km away. I'm feeling jubilant as the road is just fantastic. It's wide, it's new, long sweeping curves, so much so I thought I was being rewarded for my troubles yesterday. Well, spoke too soon. It only lasted 100km exactly. From then on it was shit for the next 60kms. Untarred, covered with red earth, that of course turned into mud as inexplicably it rained. You see, it doesnt during this period, but just my luck I suppose.
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| The border |
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| Only 100km |
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| Next 60 |
If I thought the gravel was bad, mud is definitely worse. I was treading on thin ice and after a couple of earlier slips it just finally gave way. Wham! it goes down on the left side. I tried to lift the bike on my own, but standing in mud it was virtually impossible. There was a lot of huffing and puffing and turning blue in the process...."congratulations sir, you've given birth to a healthy baby boy". Good thing a samaritan came along and helped to lift the bike up. Once we got it back on the side stand he said goodbye and off on his way while I just took 5 to recover. Then it hit me, damn it I forgot to snap some photos of the bike on its side.
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| Post slide and drop |
They say be careful of what you wish for. Do I ever listen? Nooooo of course not. Not even 10 meters after the first fall, blam! the bike is flat again. This time take photo la.....haha
This time around I had to wait a while for help to arrive. A van comes into sight and I flag him down, in the act of stopping he just slid and hit the embankment denting his bumper. Boy was he not too pleased when he came out to assist. Pretty sure he was swearing at me in Lao, but along with some passengers he lifted the bike up. Only later that I realised the man is definitely not happy trudging mud back into his van as well. I can only thank him and wish them a safe journey as I wish the same for myself. It took me 1 hour to move the next 1...yes I'll spell it...one kilometre. I had to pretty much tip toe the bike on the mud until I managed to find a bit of gravel.Amazing, at this point I'm actually thankful for gravel....haha.
I reached Houay Xai at 3 and after being shuttled around at all the wrong places I reached the jetty where the barge will take me across. The guy tells me it's 700baht, weekend rate he says. I know it's a scam but I'm just too tired to argue, and I want to cross. The customs even better, they were playing lawn bowl when I came, and on my form it says departure date 31 Dec and starts to give me shit about it. I looked at him not saying anything and after a pause he barks, 500baht let you go! So what to doooo.....pay la.
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| The barge to go across |
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| Shitty day at the ofc, don't know what I'm smiling about...haha |
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| left Thailand: right Laos |
The same as I reached Thailand, the customs ask for 100baht. Overtime he says. Well at least he asks me nicely, plus it's cheaper.....haha
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| helpful dude at border |
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| The day had veins in my forehead popping out |
My original plan was to ride to Chiang Rai, but it was getting dark as I made it across, so I'm going to overnight in Chiang Khong. All in all, I'm just happy to have made my first solo border crossing, as the rest of the crossings had been with the group. Also chuffed with the fact I'm in Thailand now. Salivating at the prospect of better roads.
Fuel Consumption
1. Luang Prabang 106.5km 50,000kip 5.28liters
2. Luang Namtha 301.8km 90,000kip 9.61liters
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