Lone Rider
Blokes Who Can
Another Laos Trip
Last week I had a few "spare" days so made a short 5 day trip to Laos to meet friends and do some exploring of local border crossings between Laos and Thailand, try out some of the new roads and tracks and map some of the new resettlement villages. Caught this motorbike hanging from a bus on its way south and thought it was almost ready to fall of. A few hours later saw the same bus again with the bike still hanging there so I guess it was tied up more securely than I thought.
While in the area I almost always stop at the viewpoint on Rd 8 to as I really enjoy the peace and quiet as well as the views over the "Stone Forest"
The Hinboun valley
The Theun-Hinboun Hydro Power Project was stopped for repairs and there was almost no water in the surge-tank. Quite a few of the local people were happy with this as this gave them the opportunity to catch fish and frogs in the muddy bottom of the surge tank nor in the Nam Hai river which channels the water from the power station to the Hinboun river. The bean-counters of the power company were unhappy as each day stoppage would mean half a million US Dollar less in sales of electricity for the company.
On the other hand, the power company engineers repairing the bridge over the Nam Hai River (part of the Hydro Power Project) were happy with the stoppage as there had been heavy erosion of the river banks during the rainy season and the supporting pillars of the bridge in the road which leads to the Konglor cave were in danger of collapsing. This picture shows the situation one day before the power station was planned to start up again with plenty of water flowing again through the river.
Om my way to Laos I had a quick peek at the new Immigration and Customs buildings on the Thai side of the Thali - Kenethao International border crossing. The buildings have now been finished but it is still a very "sleepy" crossing
One of the local border crossings over the Nam Hueng with no officials in sight
Another of the local border crossings - this one a crossing over the Mekong
One of the new roads being constructed or rather hacked out of the mountains in Laos
Here also problems with erosion and parts of the new road being constructed had disappeared
Young Ferry Captain making sure I get safely to the other side of the river
Another river crossing
Young guys at one of the temples along the roads I traveled
They wanted to take a picture of me with some of them but they were quite disappointed with the results as the pictures they took were to dark
The children at one of the resettlement villages were quite happy with the facilities of their new school building with a "Dream Toilet" and a "Dream Library"
Road to one of the resettlement villages with the new housing units in the background
Oops, but at least a consistent oops as the other side of the sign showed the same "View"
Last week I had a few "spare" days so made a short 5 day trip to Laos to meet friends and do some exploring of local border crossings between Laos and Thailand, try out some of the new roads and tracks and map some of the new resettlement villages. Caught this motorbike hanging from a bus on its way south and thought it was almost ready to fall of. A few hours later saw the same bus again with the bike still hanging there so I guess it was tied up more securely than I thought.
While in the area I almost always stop at the viewpoint on Rd 8 to as I really enjoy the peace and quiet as well as the views over the "Stone Forest"
The Hinboun valley
The Theun-Hinboun Hydro Power Project was stopped for repairs and there was almost no water in the surge-tank. Quite a few of the local people were happy with this as this gave them the opportunity to catch fish and frogs in the muddy bottom of the surge tank nor in the Nam Hai river which channels the water from the power station to the Hinboun river. The bean-counters of the power company were unhappy as each day stoppage would mean half a million US Dollar less in sales of electricity for the company.
On the other hand, the power company engineers repairing the bridge over the Nam Hai River (part of the Hydro Power Project) were happy with the stoppage as there had been heavy erosion of the river banks during the rainy season and the supporting pillars of the bridge in the road which leads to the Konglor cave were in danger of collapsing. This picture shows the situation one day before the power station was planned to start up again with plenty of water flowing again through the river.
Om my way to Laos I had a quick peek at the new Immigration and Customs buildings on the Thai side of the Thali - Kenethao International border crossing. The buildings have now been finished but it is still a very "sleepy" crossing
One of the local border crossings over the Nam Hueng with no officials in sight
Another of the local border crossings - this one a crossing over the Mekong
One of the new roads being constructed or rather hacked out of the mountains in Laos
Here also problems with erosion and parts of the new road being constructed had disappeared
Young Ferry Captain making sure I get safely to the other side of the river
Another river crossing
Young guys at one of the temples along the roads I traveled
They wanted to take a picture of me with some of them but they were quite disappointed with the results as the pictures they took were to dark
The children at one of the resettlement villages were quite happy with the facilities of their new school building with a "Dream Toilet" and a "Dream Library"
Road to one of the resettlement villages with the new housing units in the background
Oops, but at least a consistent oops as the other side of the sign showed the same "View"
