Hi ho, hi ho, its off to Lao we go... another wet season ride

[bsacbob]

Nice stuff Ian, maybe i will try the BBQ next time in Hongsa, i love a nice spit roast

By the way do you have the co-ords of the wat i am sure i've been before.

 

[The Bigfella]

Sorry Bob, I don't have the co-ords, but it wasn't far from the markets... a block or two west, I think. Monica will know.... and you'll need a chaperone to go to that BBQ anyhow

So, after a shower and cleanup in town... and after breakfast, it was another walk around town. This time to the north. A typical wooden house.

Another painted temple

... and more evidence of how rapidly things are changing.

Its those sort of places that make me keen to get back and keep exploring the remote parts of Laos... where there's none of this

We stopped in at a place where Monica knew the people, and they run a small cafe, but had building work going on. There was Rosewood everywhere... he was a middleman in the timber trade to China. This is some of the stuff he makes up himself

... and a US$10,000 pile of Rosewood slabs and logs destined for China

Some eel traps at one of the houses

Next time your missus asks for a kitchen remodel....

Speaking of kitchens... some more industrial scale catering at the temple, for a funeral ceremony

My Hongsa massage lady was there too... so I wasn't getting one today...



Monica grabbed my camera and went beserk for a while.... I've got about 100 photos of this temple... but I'll spare you



Monica also made sure we swung by the local bottle shop... and my wallet got lightened by $25

It took three of us to do that damage... another of the Austrian engineers dropped by after dinner and helped.

 

[The Bigfella]

I'd been told by several people that Route 4B would be impassable on the bike... especially after three days of rain... so, I decided to do it again. Monica's housekeeper made me an omelette baguette for lunch... and off I went.

The funny thing was, Route 4A wasn't looking too good either...

The vertical lip on that pothole in the centre was about 300 mm high. Wouldn't want to hit that patch at night. The turnoff from 4A to 4B isn't far out of town... about 15 minutes or so and I stopped to get my third comparison photo there. Here's a shot that Phil Gibbins took of me using the old bridge, from August '12

That was our ill-fated attempt at Route 4B on the big bikes (me on the KTM Super Enduro, Phil on the KTM990 and Adrian on a rented Versys). We made it 30 km in, before sliding backwards down the steep stuff on the big climb.

A couple of weeks later, I went back on the 525 and that bridge had been swept away by the floods.

Both shots were taken from the brand new, concrete bridge...

... which is really indicative of why I want to ride as much of Laos as I can now. Its going to be very different in a few years time.

... and here we are again, from the same spot, in May '14

No flood, but three days of rain ensured I had a fun ride. I wasn't surprised by the road conditions... it was as slippery as hell. The road was good and relatively flat surfaced, not rutted like last time (although some later sections were rutted). These guys were laughing their heads off... making very slow progress up the hill, which is steeper than it looks, with one guy pushing... and they were all over the place.

I have to admit, I love it up in these hills

As mentioned on page 1, I struck problems though. I lost my rear brake on the descent to the first river crossing. The brake fluid boiled and I had to do the descent on compression braking and the front brake. Not exactly ideal, given the big drops off the edge of the road but fortunately, the road was starting to dry out a bit and I managed it without dropping it.

You could pick the slippery bits from trails made by bikes that had come through earlier that day. These two prior riders had "chains" or wires on their rear wheels to give them some traction.

Here's why the road was in such good condition.

Here's the river and village at the bottom, quite low compared to last time. I probably should have checked out the bridge first eh, given the missing planks?

Now, back to comparison photos... I recalled this spot from last time

Here it is, this time - albeit in a crappy panorama compilation.

First time around, I was at 90 degrees to the road... I simply snapped a shot over my shoulder after "spinning out"...

 

[The Bigfella]

Here's another short clip from along the trail... a cattle herder with an interesting rifle. I don't know what he thought about the dickhead talking to him in English, but we both got the messages across

I was impressed with the swing style corn mill in one of the villages. Much better than the mortar and pestle approach I've seen elsewhere. I saw a few of these, this trip

The road was a dream, once it'd dried out. I struck some ruts, nothing over half a metre deep and pretty rare. Gary was heading into Laos a week or so after me, on his V-Strom, and I was debating with myself as to whether I'd recommend him doing Route 4B. In the end, I decided I wouldn't... due to some areas being a bit nasty.... but in the whole, it was a good ride with knobbies on.

This was the village of Ban Phousam Phanh

There's kids wandering around by themselves everywhere. I saw one young tacker standing on a log with about a 50' drop straight below him. I wasn't going to stop, wave or do anything that might make him fall. It took a little while to get a shot of this group that would pass the censors

Not a lot of mechanical assistance for the workers

There were bikes around though - this one getting a new piston on the side of the track. The old piston is near the hammer.

I came across a couple of farm chuggers pulling teak (so they said) slabs out of the jungle

I took this shot to try and illustrate the drop-offs. Go over and you are unlikely to be found for a while (one of the reasons I like carrying a SPOT transponder).

That's here, btw

There's another village I'd stopped at before, not sure of its name, and it has delightful views.

Left side (if you were facing back down the road to Hongsa)

Right

All - showing how the road follows the ridgeline

While I was having lunch there, the timber guys caught up.

That village pretty much marks the end of the rough stuff and its much more open from there into Luang Prabang

Nice hat eh?

There's three or four crossings, but nothing onerous

.. and then the ferry across the Mekong into Luang Prabang

I checked into a guesthouse opposite the one I wanted to stay at (again), as my favourite was full. They let me leave the bike there, as the place I stayed at didn't have any secure parking, despite being dearer - $14 a night - I beat them down to that too, which is unusual for me, but I wasn't over-keen on the reception guy's attitude. In the end he turned out OK, but not a patch on the nice folks across the road.

 

[Lone Rider]

Nice stuff Ian, maybe i will try the BBQ next time in Hongsa, i love a nice spit roast

By the way do you have the co-ords of the wat i am sure i've been before.

View attachment 31598

That is (if I am not mistaken) Wat Borom Rathananiveth in Ban Simoungkhoun at N19.70962 E101.33235

There is another wat a bit further north which has a sacred hole (well?) which might go all the way to the other side of the earth at least that is the story I was told.

 

[brake034]

Ian, great work!

Just noticed this:

Didn't this solution come up on another thread here?!

 

[Gnasher328]

Thanks Ian, that's quite an epic, especially with the bike trouble as well. Didn't like the look of that narrow bit with the big drop!

 

[The Bigfella]

Ian, great work!

Just noticed this:

Didn't this solution come up on another thread here?!

That guy has a decent solution there... I ran across a law student down south in 2012, who was having some trouble with wire rope wrapped around his back wheel.


This guy....



- - - Updated - - -

Thanks Ian, that's quite an epic, especially with the bike trouble as well. Didn't like the look of that narrow bit with the big drop!

My sphincter didn't like it either...

 

[The Bigfella]

Oops... I said on page 1 that the Menu du Chasseur at L'Elephant was 210,000 kip. My mistake...



This restaurant really is a MUST DO when in Luang Prabang. It isn't cheap, by Asian standards, but the food is sublime. Here's a shot of it, pinched from their website

...with tip and three Beer Laos Dark to wash it down, I was out of there for under $35. Onion soup, duck tits and fruit. Here's the fruit

Just lovely.

I'd checked in for two nights (my price bargaining point) because I was worried about the bike. The hard starting can be a symptom of valve adjustment issues and the engine noise was a worry. It sounded like there was a rattle when I was on the bike... but not when I got down beside the engine. I could see it was pumping a bit of exhaust gas out around the header/pipe joints and I was wondering if that was causing the noise. I wasn't picking the noises as a main bearing.... and even later on, just as it seized, I was thinking it was a camchain issue. Anyhow... I did some work across the road at my non-residential parking spot

Seat, tank and radiators off

... and all I found was one valve that was off by just a poofteenth. I adjusted it anyhow and put it all back together. I also put in my spare battery, but I knew it'd be fun starting it the first time, as it wasn't charged up.... and yep, when I set off, after some futile kicking efforts even, I got some local to push me down the road to start it.

Here's something entirely different. I was noticing a lot more Chinese vehicles, especially in the bigger towns..... and here's a Lifan. Looks very much like a Mini copy. Interesting, given BMW own Mini and I'd heard Lifan were making some bike stuff for BMW

... and there's bucketloads of China-honda's around

I wandered up the road and finally found what I was looking for. My elder boy had a birthday coming up and I thought he might like this. I emailed him a photo, having agreed a price with the shop, but never heard back before leaving town... so, once again, this went back on the shelf.

It looks better in the flesh, so to speak. Carved amber... hollow too. I'd have it on my desk - with a couple of LED's inside. No accounting for taste with youngsters these days though. Maybe next time through, I'll grab it?

I had a foot massage, opposite the spot where I watched the sunset over the Mekong

I'm not quite sure how she ended up here, for a foot massage... but she did...

So, while that was going on, I chatted to a couple of German backpacker girls who were getting their nails done! They said they were headed 3 hours up the road to Nong Khiaw - and that sounded interesting. I checked the map - decided, given the bike was sounding dodgy, to not head to Phonsavan and my semi-planned run up the Vietnam border. Nong Khiaw is on a river and made a good staging point for a run to the west - back to Thailand if things got worse with the bike.

Dinner that night was definitely a step down



But nice



Heading out, I ended up going the same way as a Phonsavan departure.... across the weird bikes only bridge

Not far out of town, I turned off the main road to Nong Khiaw, in search of dirt roads.... but found the first 20km or so of it had just been sealed. This clown had come the whole way along that and then spun out on the gravel on the very last corner.... despite the fact the whole road he'd just drivedn was covered in the same slippery gravel

I took the hint and didn't go silly on the corners. The road followed a river, the Nam Xuang, and as usual, there was action going on in the river. Presumably fishing

Kids in the villages are always keen to check out the stranger



The views were Laos stunning

and with my super dooper, $5, Thai-made sidestand brilliantly outperforming the Promoto Billet and Trailtech failures.... I could get off and take photos

Even with the power lines, I was enjoying the views

Ahh, that's better

I bumped into a group of multi-country (Kiwi, Swedish, etc) backpackers in a small village. Their Lao guide/driver told me the road was going to be too rough and steep for me past Pak Xeng. He was wrong

This guy was just wandering down the road in a village... carrying an SKS military rifle

Definitely hard water coming down this hill.... lots of limestone around, I guess

Coming into Pak Xeng

Another step or two down from L'Elephant... but good and filling. Dunno what it was. I'd stopped at a couple of likely looking places and they didn't have food. This place in Pak Xeng responded to my hand signs and tummy rubbing and got the business

It isn't exactly a thriving metropolis, but something was going on in town. A General came walking up the road and got into a car outside the restaurant I was in. I'd seen what looked like a wedding party setup, but I guess it was the lunch venue for what this guy told me was a meeting in town.

I was too slow with the camera for the General, who had a chest full of medals... and this guy, after asking me, in English, where I was from, was off up the road to the meeting. I guess, with three helpers, to carry his brolly, bag, etc, he was some important sort of dude.

The road from Pak Xeng up to the bitumen was brilliant. Sure, it was steep and it had a few muddy bits

but in the main it was great riding and I flew along.... certainly enjoying myself. This next one wasn't shot as a panorama, but I've trimmed it down and fiddled with it a bit to try and show something that doesn't show very well in most of the shots. The rows of hills that seem to stretch away to eternity. It makes for fabulous riding, as views like this are on both sides of the ridgetop roads

This was after I hit the bitumen, but I turned off near a comms tower to have a breather

I had missed the petrol on the way out of Luang Prabang and was starting to worry a bit, but, of course, there was fuel in this village. I was interested to see how much soil had eroded away

 

[The Bigfella]

Grannie and grandpa... taking a breather. I think outside looked better than inside

That ride, along the ridgetop was just fabulous - and I got into it a bit. There's another village coming up... just left of centre in the photo

How's this for an over-the-shoulder shot, at speed? I'm told that these are the privacy huts built for young lovers. Can anyone confirm that?

They are tiny, just a couple of metres along each side. They don't have windows facing the road, which you'd expect if they were for shops.... and there are plenty of market stalls at the edges of villages, which are very different... all open. A week or so later, heading towards Vientiane late at night, the only people out and about in the villages seemed to be the teenagers.

Here's a better shot of the road conditions. Hard-packed and no dust. A few things to avoid here though

Plenty of slash and burn agriculture in evidence here

Same place, wider view. Sorry about the sun glare... I smashed the shade cover for that lens, way back in Indonesia

One of the joys of afternoon rides is the bathing belles

Speaking of whom, later on, riding along the bitumen, I saw a short lady in traditional hill tribe clothing, walking along the road in a village. I rode just past her and stopped to turn around and take her photo. Oops... she had on an open jacket and there was this massive pair of boobs, swinging in the breeze. She was no spring chicken either... so I gave her a nod and rode off without taking the photo

Don't you just hate power lines?

Right in the middle of a corner.... and still there 3 days later

These limestone karst formations dominate the scenery around Nong Khiaw

There's a cave at the base of that one, but I didn't go take a look. I've seen plenty of caves on this trip

I probably should have looked around a bit more as I hit town, but I grabbed the first accommodation I saw after crossing the bridge into town - on the right. It was run by locals, had nice bamboo bungalows overlooking the river.... but no wifi. I wandered into town and found the backpackers, run by a Kiwi guy. He was talking tours to some backpackers, but a local guy could see I was hanging out big time for a beer. He got me one, and given he spoke English, I offered him one. He's the guy who turned out to know my mate of 30+ years standing - Henning. Yes, Henning used to live here a year or so back.... small world eh?

Anyhow... I ended up drinking with Mueng and then dining with him and some friends... and then, off to the Karaoke. My shout, all around, all the time, of course

- but with beer at a buck or so a big bottle, it wasn't an expensive night.

Hmmm - how come I've got the girls sitting either side of me? Hadn't noticed that before. Keep yer minds above yer navels... it wasn't that kind of night

 

[The Bigfella]

That is (if I am not mistaken) Wat Borom Rathananiveth in Ban Simoungkhoun at N19.70962 E101.33235

There is another wat a bit further north which has a sacred hole (well?) which might go all the way to the other side of the earth at least that is the story I was told.

I seem to remember that story about the other side of the earth too....

OK, in the face of overwhelming pressure... I'll bow to the wat fans.

Here's some more shots of the first temple complex we visited in Hongsa











It looks as if they have a lifetime supply of roof tiles...



... and if it helps position it... this was just down the road. Monica decided that me removing a stone from my shoe was worthy of a photo



As I recall it, the market was just up ahead after that.

Then, a day or so later... the funeral ceremony (one of the subsequent ceremonies, not the cremation part).... at the other temple











Now, where was I? Laid back in LP? Nah, done that... Oh, Nong Khiaw... with a hangover.

 

[The Bigfella]

I'm not as resilient as I used to be, with my current state of fitness. At least I've recovered enough strength in my leg to be able to stand on the pegs easily... which was a bit of a problem last Christmas... Anyhow, I had an R&R day, after the heavy night out, in Nong Khiaw.

I was up at 5:45am to head down to the marketplace for a look. I seem to recall that I had to kick start the KTM... which, with its 570 kit at 12.5:1 and the amount of titanium in my leg, was starting to wear thin. After the market visit, it was even thinner... it did the now-usual not wanting to start for the second start of the day thing and I convinced some locals to push start me in the end.

Anyhow... here's some market shots. Funnily enough, there wasn't a backpacker in sight. This was just about how I felt

Lovely location for a market, eh?

Some new fruit/vegie for me. Not sure what it is, but that's crickets and grasshoppers - still alive - in the bags

More bugs of some sort - they had wings and looked like an over-sized termite.

I liked the recycling effort in the back of that photo above... old tin cans to hold these brooms together

Not a lot of bushmeat at this market. The usual dried rat / squirrels though. If you ask, they'll pretty much always deny that its rat... although I'm willing to bet that most of it is. I've eaten both fresh, not dried (that I know of). Both are rodents... and I couldn't tell the difference once the hair is burnt off.

.... the good old dirt-floor, open sided butcher's shop

Dried - or fresh, if you want - fish

Mmmm - buffalo (or is it pork) fat

It was interesting watching the range of reactions from people at the markets to me, as the only westerner there. This first one is from the day before, when I'd stopped to take some photos near the comms tower. Mum.... doing the "I am not going to look" act... but the daughter couldn't resist

The "do I run?" look

The "hide and don't even think about it - and mum will save me" look

"What is it?"

... and the "wow" look

I'm tempted, if I end up coming home with a light bag some time, to pick up the bits for a rat-tailed boat setup. I'd love to stick one on one of my boats for a run up the Hawkesbury, or around Sydney Harbour.

 

[The Bigfella]

A few of the locals

I even spotted one of the ladies from dinner the night before. She was still on the Spy (horrible red winey stuff) when I left the karaoke the night before, but she'd scrubbed up OK

Here's a failed panorama. I'm blaming it on the hangover. Shot with the point and shoot (Nikon AW100)... and a victim of the sunrise... but I still like it for its view of the town

Another crappy one... but it shows the scenery that attracts the backpackers. My guesthouse is on the left, same side as the bike

A better view, upriver. I'd heard there was a boat at either 11:30 or 2:00 that'd take you up to Muang Ngoi, about 25 kilometres, but when I asked, it didn't do it as a same-day return.

The view downriver

That's the entrance to my guesthouse on the left in the shot above. The truck is Chinese... and it was there for a few hours with the guys struggling to get the rear wheels off. I don't know why, as they seemed to be just slightly flat... in need of some air, rather than punctured - but maybe that's the other tyres supporting it. The bars they were using were about 10' long and with one guy jumping on it as well as the guy on the end. There was a lot of head scratching and looking at it going on

The same spot, later on.... a group of riders from Vietnam, which is only 50 km or so away, as the crow flies. They checked into my guesthouse, but there was no common language, so we didn't get far in discussions - but we did try.

My guesthouse had caged parrots, pheasants, Hill Mynah, squirrels, etc

The Kiwi guy running the backpackers had a nice old 60's Honda scoot parked out front. I'm not sure its a runner... but it wouldn't take much to get going

Bombie casings for seats.

A couple of doors along, they were setting up for a funeral ceremony. Again, not the one just after the death... but a follow-up ceremony some time (months) later on

It was all aboard trucks at one stage and presumably a visit to the cemetery?

But things continued into the night and then again the next day

Another bombie casing, at the Coco Cafe... which, incidentally, was for sale at the time for US$30,000 (didn't include the land or building). I'd eaten there the night before.

I checked out my three maps (paper and digital) and got different info from each about the chances of making it to Muang Ngoi by bike.

The guy at the backpackers' said it was a go, that there was a new road, so that's where I headed the next morning.... back across the bridge, back-tracked up the 1C for about 25 kilometres... turned left. Let's suck it and see.

... back past the karst formations on the 1C

With the start of the wet season, the rivers and streams are starting to gain some oomph

I fueled up at the dirt turnoff

Had to love his cute child labourers... the kids had been out gathering firewood

There was a UXO Laos crew in the village, getting some food.

I went looking for a slab of beer for them... then thought the better of it and bought them a slab of Sprite... better a sugar hit than an alcohol hit whilst defusing bombs, eh?

Like my new arnour? Its a bit hotter than the old one, which I'd had to repair a few times and it was on its last legs... although I'd left it at Riders Corner for anyone who wanted it... and its out there on someone else now, I believe. No Fat Bastard comments please... that pudge is gone now

... get out, get moving and it happens - the weight falls off. Its interesting, as the new armour has an American flag on the kidney belt and a few folks asked me if I was American. When I said no, it led to some interesting discussions about America.

The road, as is often the case, followed the ridgeline. I turned off into some farmer's lane to get a shot of the right hand side

The view to the left was just stunning, but its damn hard to capture it. I was wishing I'd packed my polarising filter.

Another one to the right... looking south. Vietnam is about 50 km away... to the left of this photo

 

[The Bigfella]

There's lots of little villages along the way

This old lady looked like she'd lived a hard life... and was walking with a stick

I missed a shot or two in this one... it keeps on with more stunning mountains to the right. Dammit

Lots of agriculture along the way, but they were just preparing the hills, waiting for the full-on rains

Same place, coloured up a bit to (hopefully) show the incredible texture of the hills in the distance

I got to the spot where my GPS had shown a turnoff... and confirmed with a guy at a waterpoint that I could get through to Muang Ngoi... and after that, the track was showing on screen... but it had obviously been moved a fair bit. I had my video cam running while I was talking to the guy at the waterpoint... and some old lady was showering away merrily beside him with her top off. You don't want to see it.

There was plenty of evidence of landslides as I got closer to the river and it was quite steep in places, but nothing to cause concern

Well, except for this....

I shot that whilst moving.... and got the front wheel into that rut - which is deeper than it looks - and damn near dropped it when the rut twisted the wheel. That's three of those this trip... and I normally don't get any. However, a miss is as good as a mile...

I was in Muang Ngoi in time for an early lunch. A bit of sussing around and I'd organised a river view guesthouse and a boat back to Nong Khiaw the next morning... for about ten times what it would have cost me in fuel. It was $35 for the bike and me, or $40 for a 7:30 am start. I'm the last of the big spenders and don't mind an early start... so went for that.

After lunch, I went for a bit of an exploratory trip. Someone mentioned the "tobacco village"... and I went for a look. There was tourism infrastructure around the place....

and yet another cave... with steps for the poor backpackers. I didn't bother

They were happy to see tourists at the tobacco village... although most walk in, rather than ride

Plenty of tobacco out drying, on the way into the village... which is only about 40 huts

I pulled up at a place that had a guesthouse sign and a bit of a restaurant / bar. I had a beer and a chat to the owner... and he hit me with some home brew spirits as well. The beer was horrible. It'd been kept in water to stop it getting too hot (pity about that... but it was better than ambient temp, I guess).... and the label stank. Really stank.

Sartorial elegance doesn't feature highly here

Still, the discussion was interesting. He was 50 years old and had a bit of English. After asking me if I was American (that flag on my armour), he told my what he thought of America. "America bad, buy planes, sky go black". He'd been bombed as a kid. That was really the first time I'd encountered something like that, but I guess its understandable.

He offered me a room, which looked OK... for $1 a night. I was paying a lot more than that in town, and I'm guessing the big difference might have been in the bathroom - and the size of the room - and probably the mattress... and....

I've slept in worse and paid more... I'd have liked to stay, but I was already set.

The bike was attracting a crowd. These boys were interesting... they walked up wrapped in each other's arms, but jumped when they saw me

Everyone wanted a look... and a go

Even the older ladies were interested

I took a ride around the village

More child labour, oops, I mean family involvement in making money. This young girl is packing tobacco for drying

Her brothers, slicing the leaves

They bunch them together, stick them through a hole in a board and slice away

There were a few waterpoints here. I won't post the naked photos

- not that they are nasty

This lady was having trouble keeping it all in... and scurried off with a grin when I asked if I could take a photo

I pulled up at one place where there were plenty of people and asked if anyone wanted a ride. One teenager jumped on... didn't hang on, so I gave it a little squirt... and he figured out he'd better. A couple of quick wheelies and he was squealing his head off in delight.

Heading back to Muang Ngoi, I saw some young lovers out for a walk

... and it was back onto the main road and into town again

 

[The Bigfella]

Muang Ngoi is an interesting little town. There's a bit of war scrap around.

I'd heard from a backpacker that it was the most heavily bombed town on the planet, but I can't see that being right... it isn't in the hot spot of the bombing map that I've got... but sure, it still got pasted.

The main street is rather quaint... and here's proof that the road in isn't too bad.

Those damn ugly Hyundai trucks dominate in Laos... most with some sort of un-repaired dings in the front. There's a new generation out now... much nicer looking, if you can say that of a truck

There was a little furniture making shop in the street... and this is typical of what you see over here. A home-made saw bench, no guard, no fence... no adjustable height blade.... and going on how fine the sawdust is, a damn blunt blade

This looked somewhat too cannibalistic for my liking. It's a dog eat dog world

I wandered in to a riverside restaurant / bar at about 6 pm and found some backpackers I'd talked to in Nong Khiaw. They were now in the next room along at our river-view guest house and I'd seen them leave in the afternoon.

Looking at the state of them now, they'd been there since the start of the 3 - 4 pm "happy hour"... and it wasn't long before one of the girls was chucking her guts up over the balcony - with about a 40' drop onto the walkway below. Charming.

Ignoring that, I took in the view. I could see over 50 boats from where I was sitting... all wooden and ranging from small paddle jobs to 50' river boats. It was relaxing just watching the locals bathe and do their laundry in the river

This is the view downstream, towards Nong Khiaw, where I'd be heading in the morning.

Definitely a nice spot to sit back and take it easy with a few Beer Laos Darks

I grabbed a garlic-encrusted fish dish for dinner and shared it with my insistent companion. I'm not big on cats, but this skinny bugger needed a hand with life, so we shared. There must've been two dozen cloves of garlic, all up

I was up at sparrow-fart, packed and off down the river. The bike was reluctant to start for the ride down, but I got it going eventually... then it was fun time

One slight problem there... we knocked the fuel hose off at the tank when it scraped on the gunwale of the boat.

We spilled maybe a half to one litre of petrol into the bilge before we figured out what was happening. It sure made me cringe as he hit the starter button for the boat engine. There was no explosion.... and away we went, leaving a trail of petrol fumes. Four of us on board, and I reckon I was the only one paying. The lady had a serious roll of notes in her hand - presumably the banking run, plus provisions for the village. Big notes, a couple of inches in diameter.

I love the rivers in Laos. I reckon there's a tourist business begging for some innovative thinking there. Not the big river cruise horrors... but something stringing together villages like this one.

The boat had some lovely bits of teak in it. Oh, to be able to source this to take home

Looking back at the GPS log, we ran down the River Ou for about an hour... at speeds generally between 20 kph and 30 kph. The boat had an inboard four cylinder diesel in it. Plenty of grunt for a light boat, but it'd need it for the return journey.

We must have passed 500 boats during that hour. Plenty, like this, without engines... mostly used along the river edges or for straight crossings.

Plenty of rapids along the way... with standing waves that got up to around 2' high in a few places. We scudded past a lot of just submerged rocks too. The driver knew his stuff though.

The bike was tied in and not a problem

It was well worth the $40 to sit back and take it all in

We hit Nong Khiaw soon enough and the driver kept going for a couple of kilometres, looking for a spot for me to get out

I thought the steps would be fine, but he kept going. Maybe it was too deep to unload?

He ended up at a large open sand/rock area.... and I promptly bogged the bike trying to get up the bank. It was super soft and it took four of us to get it sorted.

I wouldn't like to try it with a heavier bike. I'd had trouble starting the bike... and kicking it with my tibia-load of titanium wasn't thrilling me, so I left it running while I loaded it and it was running a tad hot by the time I'd loaded up. Back into town for brekkie and to change some dollars for kip, and when I went to get back on, I noticed a flat front tyre. I'd been running about 16 psi as a compromise for the occasional mud and the rocks and potholes... and paid the price for a hit on the front rimlock - it had a double impact puncture. It cost a whole $1 to get patched. Local price... no ripping off the tourist here.

I didn't have a definite plan for where I was heading.

I was seriously worried about the way the engine was sounding some of the time... and the hard starting.

I'd pulled the map out over brekkie at the backpacker's... and decided on Oudomxay first and, if the weather and time was OK, a blat up to Boten to check out how the ghost town might have changed. I love that road between Oudomxay and Boten.

If I didn't do the Boten jaunt, I was going to head for the Green Triangle (China, Laos Burma border intersection), then down the Mekong to the Golden Triangle (the meeting of Burma, Laos and Thailand), and do the border crossing at Huay Xay / Chiang Khong and back to Chiang Mai to see what was going on with the bike.

So, it was up route 1C, onto Route 13 at Pak Mong.... and I promptly ran into roadworks.... and sat on my haunches for an hour while three large excavators threw rocks and dirt off a hillside. At one stage, one of the workers wandered through the falling rocks... with 2' diameter rocks rolling past him.

I shared the tiny bit of shade that a lady had for a drinks stall... and shouted the locals a few orange juices. It was stinking hot and I didn't enjoy the wait

After that, I belted up route 13 fairly quickly, without taking many photos. The scenery is the usual for Laos

The road wasn't brilliant... in fact, it was quite broken and IIRC it took me about 90 minutes to do 75 km.

There were large patches where the bitumen was gone entirely and it was rocky and when the bitumen was there, it was badly potholed. I hit it pretty hard though, as I'd upped the tyre pressures to mid 20's. The road came good just before Oudomxay and I absolutely belted up towards Boten. It's hilly but the bitumen is good.

It has a lot of truck traffic, coming from and going to China - and I did a lot of overtaking. Yeah, I worked the little KTM hard. I passed a western couple on pushbikes along the way too... but I was really enjoying the curves with the big drop-offs on the sides, so I didn't stop to chat.

Here's the shanty town, 7km from the border (sorry about the finger)

Then, spot on 4 kilometres from the China border, the bike seized solid (yeah, I know I'm on the wrong side of the road... I rolled it back here for the photo... seeing how it was uphill to Boten... and I wasn't going to push it uphill). I'd been worried about the noise from the engine. I thought it might have been the camchain, so I was riding with a finger resting on the clutch... and had it in quickly... so no worries from a falling off perspective.

I was really, really thankful it hadn't seized whilst I was cranked over in the mountains. If it'd seized during that 100 km or so of bendy mountain roads from Oudomxay, I'd have been spit off the side of the mountain.

I had oil, I hadn't noticed it running too hot.... it just bloody well seized. I'd passed that shanty town near the Customs clearance area, so I pushed it back to there. First up, this place was weird

The guy on the scooter is Chinese. I'd pushed the bike into this unfinished petrol station, hoping to find someone to truck me south, or to store the bike while I went looking for someone. Remember, its hot and humid... and I'd just pushed the bike two kilometres.

His whole outfit was styled to look paramilitary... including the bike, but I'm guessing he's simply the security guard. He was no help, so off I went again, pushing the bike until I met this mob of workers having a beer. I didn't work it all out until the next day, but they were all shipping agent staff. There were empty beer bottles everywhere... and they sat me down and the drinking games started. I was lucky, I scored some dirty, cracked glass... much better than the cut-off water bottles some were drinking out of.

..... and the day started to get seriously weird.

The guys were as pissed as newts.... and my glass was never empty. The expectation seemed to be to scull the glass every time it was filled. One guy had a bit of English and kept saying he'd sort everything out. Come near on dark, I eventually got some action out of them. I guess we must've run low on beer. We - well, I, unpacked the bike.... in the middle of a thunderstorm, threw my gear in his Navarra and rolled the bike under the awning we'd been under and set off down the road.

It turned out two of the girls were the children of a guy running this guesthouse, about a kilometre down the road.

The drive there, although only about a kilometre was "interesting". My driver must've been about five times over what would be the western drunk driving limit... and I was trying to convince him that he didn't need to show me how fast a Navarra could go.

I ended up being at the guesthouse for two nights. $10 a night, which I thought expensive, but it was new and had aircon and hot water. What more could you ask for? How about a very late lunch and some girl on girl action?

One of the daughters was an item with another of those we were drinking with. I ended up that pissed, I can't remember how many were there... 4 to 6 is about right... and us three guys.

There was heaps more beer and some 2 minute noodles (too spicy for my allergies)... some fruit and, I seem to have a dim memory of these chicken's feet

I was still starving... and my new best mate, whose name I've forgotten

said we were going down the road for dinner.

I shouldn't have gotten into his Navarra. It was dark... he was even more drunk by now, after we'd nailed another dozen or more beers... not that I was sober... and off we went on the worst damn 10 kilometres I've ever been in a vehicle.

I saved our lives. I saved the lives of other riders / drivers.... and I saved the lives of several pedestrians.

Now I know why I try and avoid riding at night. These bastards (and I was complicit) are on the roads.

I should point out that I'd seen two painted body outlines on that road earlier in the day, along with a couple of vehicle accident paint outlines (they paint the tyre locations)... and I'm fairly sure they only do it for fatal accidents. I spotted one more body outline and one more truck accident being painted up (with the trucks still there), when I went back down that road. These paint jobs don't last long... and we are talking about 100 - 120 kilometres of road here. It is a deadly stretch of road.

Anyhow... Old Mate was into it... flat out, wrong side of the road, just missing posts, cars, pedestrians etc.... and in all cases, he was only missing them because I was yelling warnings "Look out, truck coming and you are on the wrong side"

There was a fallen tree across the road that I'd passed earlier in the day... "they" had cut one lane away, the other lane was blocked by the 4' diameter trunk. He didn't see it and it was me screaming at him that saved us from hitting it at high speed.

By the time we got to the restaurant... which, as it turned out was a karaoke bar, I'd braced for impact maybe a dozen times, whilst screaming warnings.

We ended up with several servings of unknown food items. I haven't got a clue what we ate. One dish was ribs from some indeterminate animal... where the meat on the end was about little fingernail size. I ended up hungry.

Old Mate decided we needed "a girl" at the table for me. Fortunately she couldn't keep up with the pace and went off to spew, not to reappear. Then the talk moved to freedom, with desperate pleas to "help us get rid of...." and we don't need to finish that because he was probably going to disappear if the wrong guys heard him or what he was suggesting.

Come time to leave, Old Mate was legless. I'd already decided I wasn't getting into his car and was going to walk the 10 km in the rain (wearing flipflops) if I had to. I told the other guy and asked him if he was going to drive slow? Yep. Could I come with him? Yep.... so off we went at a rather respectable 45 kph and we made it without incident.

Oh yeah, Old Mate paid the bill. Wouldn't take a cent from me.

Oh, did I mention the place opposite my guesthouse?

The local truckstop brothel. Flashing LEDs, blaring music from about 10 different establishments, lots of activity. It looked like it was the local happening place... but in the morning, it was much quieter. Several of the ladies were out washing the brekkie dishes and doing some laundry

 

[bsacbob]

Nice shot's Ian i recall passing Muang Ngoi several years ago in a boat from Khua with some other guy's on our bikes, if i recall its not accessible by road which makes even more interesting.

 

[The Bigfella]

Nice shot's Ian i recall passing Muang Ngoi several years ago in a boat from Khua with some other guy's on our bikes, if i recall its not accessible by road which makes even more interesting.

Yes, that was the impression I had... that it wasn't accessible by road, but like many places in Laos, that has changed now.

 

[The Bigfella]

Back to Boten (or thereabouts... 7km short of Boten).

I was hoping for brekkie across the road, but there was nothing doing... just hawkers and hookers

Occupational hazard... or perhaps the reason for the occupational choice?

The girls were friendly enough, but with no food in sight, I headed back towards the border... I toyed with flashing some kip in the air for a lift on a scoot, back to my bike - which I was secretly hoping had been stolen.... but I decided to walk. Here's some more shots of the shanty town near the truck depots

Those open shutters are shopfronts... and I scored some bottled Chinese water because I was sweating profusely with the walk. IIRC it was 20 cents a bottle

There's some big rocks on the ground that have come down that hill during wet season. I wouldn't like to be sleeping at the bottom of that hill

I spotted and said G'day to one of the girls that'd been drinking with us the night before.

Getting back near the bike, I saw these guys loading Rosewood slabs. More illegal timber at a guess. All nicely shrink-wrapped and rather incongruous, coming out of a restaurant

Bugger. It's still there

Old Mate and all the other girls were inside.... and at a guess, the one guy I didn't know was his boss. Old Mate was as sheepish as hell. "Can't talk now, very busy, much forms to fill in". I walked around his Navarra. No dings. Amazing.

I figured that I needed some help from someone who could spare 30 seconds, and Old Mate couldn't, so I walked over to the Customs house. The big boss was good and wrote me out the sign I asked for in Laotian underneath my English.

I headed back to the main truck depot, hoping to flash my sign in front of a driver or two and be on a truck to Hongsa, Luang Prabang or Huay Xai. I figured if I could get the bike there, I could slip the engine out and jump a bus or even a plane back to Chiang Mai

I eventually ended up at the head Customs guy there too. He said he could get me on a truck. "You wait outside".

...8 hours later it was... "You come back tomorrow, maybe truck then. Come back after lunch tomorrow"

In the meantime, I'd ended up getting invited to join all the gubbie workers at their lunch table in the restaurant next door. I'd already gone in to the nearest restaurant and ordered... but they came in and called me over. They sure eat well... and I wasn't asked to contribute any money either.



I'd pushed the bike up to their offices... and left it there overnight. This Yamaha maxi scoot beside me had an interesting couple of mufflers... and an "interesting" exhaust note

.... and yeah... I spent the whole bloody day on those blue seats... when I wasn't wandering around. No internet. No book... just sit there and perve at the customs chicks or smile at anyone else...

Speaking of perving at the customs chicks... I eventually got a smile from this one

Like all Lao women who work in or enter government buildings, she was wearing the required traditional sinh, or tube skirt

Wandering around the yard, I spotted yet another truckload of Rosewood heading north

The two bike riders I'd seen in the mountains the day before came through, heading into China. She's Canadian, he's Kiwi. We had a beer and a good chat.

... and yes, his pushbike is a KTM.

Heading "home" at the end of the day, there was still a queue of girls at the shower / washing up point.

Another couple, this time with a kiddie trailer and a maybe 3 year old girl turned up.

Gawd, I wouldn't like to have done that mountain road from Oudomxay with that setup and kid in the trailer - and 20 ton trucks or semi-trailers belting past every few seconds. They were reluctant to pay the $10 for a room, so I told them about the deserted buildings up in Boten, another 7 km up the road, and away they went.

Old Mate didn't show up that night... nor did the owner's daughters. I ended up getting some chicken kebabs from one of the madams across the road and had a much needed early night.

The night produced its own entertainment though.... something bit me on the arse.... and it wasn't one of the girls.

I remember waking during the night and feeling a strong itchy bite. By morning, it was an open sore, about 20 mm in size. I have a photo... but I'll spare you.

I'm guessing it was a spider? I've got experience with spider bites on the arse. 20 years ago, I had a funnel-web spider bite me there - it'd crawled out of the firewood, into a pair of overalls my wife had hung beside the fireplace to dry.... luckily, it was a female, as the males are deadly, although there's an anti-venene available now. That one hurt, like a green ant bite, this one, in Laos, itched.

I hit the open sore with Betadine (iodine) and some Daktarin cream (a broad spectrum antifungal product). That combo killed the flesh-eating nasties dead although it took a good fortnight to heal right up. It pays to carry that little bit extra in the medical kit at times.

It'd be nice if someone made a decent small ADV medical kit.... full of a range of tiny sized tubes, etc.... Mine is self-assembled and includes Endone and Targin in case of big time pain, Clarihexal (pneumonia / skin / laryngitis antibiotic) - none of which I've used so far and the broader use things such as antihistamines, Panadol, 5 x Epipens (I have allergies that have resulted in Anaphylaxis in the past)....and the like. I, of course, carry a doctor's letter for the stronger drugs, so that I don't get strung up by the neck when transiting through Malaysia or Singapore.

 

[bsacbob]

"It'd be nice if someone made a decent small ADV medical kit...." Contact Marco he's a RA member by PM or http://www.beecarerx.com/ he put together a great travelling first aid kit for me targeted at bikers for a reasonable price

 

[The Bigfella]

Thanks Bob. That's worth following up on.

So, with my arse's future secured (ie, it didn't fall off), I had a decent sleep in, until the owner came around all grumpy at 11 am because I hadn't checked out and he wanted to clean the room.

I left my gear with him and wandered back to my duty post, sitting in the blue chairs outside the Customs office... after calling in to the truckie's cafe for brunch. The truckies were all ensconced in a card game, with money changing hands

There were plenty of drivers travelling with their family... living in the trucks and I got to interact with a few of them too



The news from the Customs guy was good. I'd been trying for a truck to Hongsa, where I knew that Monica from Jumbo Guesthouse would be able to find somewhere for me to store the bike and I could get the engine back into Thailand via buses.... or even Luang Prabang.

Nope. "I have you on a truck to Vientiane.... leave 3pm. How much can you pay?"

We eventually settled on $150. It seems the Customs guy knew the importer of these brand new trucks, coming in from the factory in China.... and the money would have been split three ways. I saw the smile on the driver's face, but I've got no idea who got what.

Loading was easy, except we forgot to turn the damn petrol off... and we ended up with it dumping a load of fuel over my bags with the bumpy roads - via the carby breather tubes.

We loaded around 1pm... then stood around in the bloody mid-day sun for two hours... eventually leaving at 3pm. We had a convoy. 10 pantechs, one flatbed (with my bike), 20 WuLing - a smaller, petrol-engined truck and later, we met up with 20 SKAT tippers.

WTF? Scud Forever?

There were a couple of other "foreign orders" being carried too

It was typical Asian organisation. Stand around for hours.... drive 10 km and stop to fuel up - which was interesting in its own right (they weren't filled - just enough to get them the 673 km to Vientiane.... except we had trucks running out of fuel left, right and centre, approaching Vientiane).... drive 2km to get some food.... drive 5km and stop - on a curve - to form up a convoy.... then all head off at varying speeds anyhow.

I grabbed a couple of shots at the fuel stop of some kids out collecting greens for dinner than night.

Why pay for it when its growing everywhere for free?

I'd like to have seen this guy driving. Presumably he minimises gear changes.

I asked him "Bombie"? .... Yep

What was that about Asian organisation again? The drivers couldn't care less about this

I couldn't stand it... and ended up doing traffic control... stopping the traffic coming uphill if there was any coming the other way.

Old Mate here was the boss. He'd paid for the fuel... and it was his job to marshall the drivers down the road to Vientiane

If he'd had some English, I wouldn't have been able to resist giving him some management coaching. It was really hard to watching his stuffups without being able to help...

He conveyed (we managed to communicate reasonably well - and he was teaching me some Laos words) that we were to stop and sleep in Luang Prabang before going on to Vientiane. Yeah, didn't quite work out like that.

It was a slow old haul to Oudomxay

We passed a group of half dozen Asian ADVers, most on big BM's, heading up to and possibly into China

Then the fatal truck accident

You have to love a country that tells you to sound the horn

Lots of corners on that road. The first time I did it, with Phillip and Adrian, back in August '12... we'd come flying around one of those corners to find an old woman sitting down in the middle of our lane, having a rest.

From Oudomxay back to Pak Mong, where we were to turn south was 75 km - roughly 45 miles. We did that in just under 5 hours. 10 mph average speed. Ughh. We did stop, briefly, for dinner... and I upped the cuisine from the 2 minute noodles that the guys were having to a selection from the cabinet. It was actually quite nice. I was the only one to touch a beer....

That broken road was a bit of a problem on a bike... would have been horrible on a road bike, but on the EXC, I'd just barreled over the bumps. Not so in the truck. It was murder. Where the bumps could be missed or absorbed on the bike, we were hammered by them.

Here's a little set of road-side stalls we stopped at quite late at night. Still all open, hoping to earn a kip or two. I don't recall there being any lights... they were all sitting there in the dark

Speaking of dark. We had to overtake this guy, a full sized semi-trailer crawling along with a load of steel.... which was no easy task, with blind corners, big dropoffs and badly broken road, which is amazingly absent in this shot.

We got to Pak Mong around midnight. We spotted a lot of the trucks parked off the road, a couple more at a karaoke bar... and my driver dropped me at a guesthouse. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the rate got upped while he was talking to the girl checking me into the room. Another $10 room. Not the best I've ever slept in... but a long way better than the worst.

"3am" he indicated... and took off.

As soon as he took off I realised my passport, most of my money... and nearly all of my gear were in the truck. Hmmm. Too late now.

Up at 2:45am... after an hours sleep... partly due to the fact that I hadn't spotted the exhaust fan running as well as the aircon... and it was as noisy as all hell.... so, I showered... and headed outside for our 3am departure.

No-one in sight. No-one.

Hmm. As you can imagine, I was a tad concerned. Come 4:20am, I'd convinced myself that the passport, money, gear and bike were gone... and I may as well go and get some sleep rather than stay outside with the mosquitoes. He rocked up 10 minutes later... and off we went, with me somewhat relieved.

Breakfast was out the southern side of Luang Prabang a few hours later... where we'd been supposed to sleep.



Interesting little place, pleasant staff that the truckies obviously knew. Some more of that illegally logged Rosewood there too

and a few caged monkeys

The food was good, but the kitchen could use a scrub. I shouted the few guys who stopped here some decent food... as they tended to be trying to not spend much money.



Of course, we also stopped somewhere else with some of the other guys within half an hour...

 

[The Bigfella]

We had lots of hills to traverse between there and Vientiane. You see some strange things on the roads... like these guys, heading down one hill at breakneck speed.... the whole thing bouncing along on its soft tyres

Lots of broken trucks along the way. The grades were posted in a lot of places... 12%, 12.5% etc.

At one place we were heading down a hill and all of a sudden an SUV going the other way was spearing off at 45 degrees towards us. He'd hit a diesel spill. Unmarked and hard to see. Wouldn't like to hit that on a bike... and it was smeared all over the place. You can see it in this next photo.

Nice scenery though

I was really taken with the amazing hills and scenery... so, sorry if scenery bores you, but I had to do something during the 28 hours it took us to get the 673 km from Boten to Vientiane. Amazingly, we arrived there with 16 km on the truck's odometer

They've certainly raped the forests that used to be here

Hey, here's that same view in a photomerge. It seems that I'm not too good at lining up the shots whilst bouncing along in an unloaded truck.

We stopped for a pee break up on top of some mountains, with clouds scudding past. So much for organising this convoy, eh? Eventually, a couple of others turned up but we weren't seeing a lot of our 51 trucks

That stop was up on top of this ridge, among those clouds

Their road construction could benefit from some advice. That's hundreds of feet down there... and it just erodes away and they get landslides galore

The brakes had a real stink to them by the time we dropped off this mountain to the village in the centre of the photo

Ridge after ridge, stretching away. I love it....

I'd love to take my old (1990) BMW M5 for a blast up this road (but not the broken bit between Pak Mong and Oudomxay). Lovely sweepers, great views, no police. Hmmm...

Always something to look at

School's out

Our lunch stop was again a rather nondescript truckie's stop. I shot a few people shots. My driver

and some of the other drivers

(no - I don't know what caused that)

and a lovely lady who was there picking up some take-aways

I was suffering by this stage.... some of which got worse as we went on. I was cramped into that snub-nosed truck and it was giving me real aching problems and cramped muscles. I was in it, stops aside for far too much of that 28 hours. It turned out, when I got back to Oz to be bloody gout.... which wasn't too hard to sort out, but at the time I thought it was because my foot was bent around in the truck cabin.

I asked at lunch if anyone did massage. "Over there"... in Laos / sign language. I'm a bit slow on the uptake at times, but it didn't take me long to figure out it was actually a knock shop when the lady suggested we go downstairs. I stayed upstairs and she got $3 to give me a sitting back massage, rather than $10 for whatever it was she had in mind

Yet another stop

Old Mate had a gut ache and bolted for the creek. I gave him one of my last Imodiums. Too much information?

There were a lot of those signs... and they had either Charp and Sharp... at various times

Yet another hillside that'd collapsed onto the road at some stage

An over-the-shoulder whilst driving along shot that actually worked (most didn't)

Oh to be on or in something decent - the Super Enduro would be fine....

 

[The Bigfella]

You'd have to have a trials bike in the inventory if you lived around here, eh?

Old Mate told me, sort of, that we'd be stopping for a swim at Vang Vieng...and I could float down the river, but we didn't end up stopping - mainly due to running late I think. He told me that he had a 2 am flight back to China to collect a new petrol tanker. We actually saw a few of the other drivers swimming... but he wouldn't stop and he was starting to stress out

Its absolutely lovely around there

Nearly there and we started having lots of phone calls... trucks out of diesel.

Money was flying out the window to various drivers and there was lots of anger floating around with some of them. All to save a couple of bucks. We did a couple of petrol station runs back to trucks with old water bottles full of diesel. Sheesh. Then... we turned off and....

Well, a truck with only 16 km on it has to look good, doesn't it?

I don't know what he planned to do with the stain on the rubber mat from the KTM's fuel spill...

I helped him for a while and had a float around in this river. Some schoolgirls had a similar idea

There was no way in the world my head was going under water, given that it had a bit of an agricultural smell to it.

Didn't stop the locals

We got back on the road and came into Vientiane as it was getting dark, around 7pm IIRC. There were still cows wandering onto the road within a dozen miles of the city centre.

I wanted to get the bike to Fuark Motorcycles. I tried talking Old Mate into it but he obviously wasn't interested. He had to marshal his convoy and he was furiously phoning people as he drove. He'd lost 3 trucks out of his 10 panteks. He wasn't happy - he was almost panicking with the stress of it all.

He indicated he had to turn off soon and he stopped and told me to get out. Whoa up there a second mate.... I've got the bike and all this loose gear.

To cut a long story short, I convinced him to drop me at the next guesthouse. He wouldn't drive the 100 metres off his path into it... but I got him to stay with my gear while I grabbed some guesthouse staff to help with the loose gear.... and he was off.

It'd taken three days, including 28 hours in the truck to get 673 kilometres.... not exactly world-beating pace. I was having serious problems with my leg and foot from the way it'd been cramped in the truck, plus what later turned into gout, so didn't bother heading out for dinner. I scored some beers from the guys at the guesthouse and called it quits with a liquid dinner... two beers.

 

[The Bigfella]

I rang Fuark again in the morning and he came out in his ute to collect the bike and me.

Time to get serious.

It didn't take long to rip things down and drop the engine out.

We had to split the new camchain, as the engine was still seized. The oil and coolant were fine... and the head came off OK

A slight issue there, with the way the o-rings had been put in, I think.. but nothing that's causing any problem. The guy who did the top end overhaul had used new camshaft bearings from Taiwan... and I'll get rid of them with the rebuild.

Not what you want to see when you pull a piston with only 10 - 15 or so hours on it out

I decided to send the barrel back to Thumper Racing for Travis to decide whether it was OK or not?

First bearing issue... the bearing behind the clutch basket... dead centre of this pic. That black bit of crud on it used to be a support washer. It isn't now

Plenty of crud in the bottom of the cases when we split them.... which I found a bit surprising, as this bike has had a lot of oil changes. Oh... and what are those balls doing there?

The only other thing we found was the starter sprags were a bit worn. Not sure if that's the technical term... but I know what I have to get.

That was it for the day.... and I headed off to get a room, with a damn tuktuk driver who wasn't too good. Fuark had pointed me towards the river area and after a few false starts, I ended up in a decent hotel. $30 a night.... and took a walk down to the river

I seem to have been a bit early for most of the restaurants but ended up in a western-run place that had wifi, beer and food. A lot of the others only had 2 of the 3. There was a bunch of American aid workers there, all guys.... pissed as newts and out of control. Very loud, but it was somewhat humorous.

Before heading back to Fuarks, I negotiated a deal with a tuktuk driver. Grabbed him for a border run, with a few stops thrown in - as detailed back on page 2, in post #27. Shouted him coffee back at the hotel while we waited for a home supplies store to open... and I grabbed some plastic cases and it was back to the bike.

Had a chuckle over this article too

Packed... and just waiting for the bits to come back from having the crank removed....

There's a reason for the plastic boxes. It'll be a while until I get back there... and I want all the bits still findable when I get there... including my riding gear. I have no concerns about people, but if things get shifted around, its best if its in something that doesn't fall apart as its moved. Sorry about the crappy photo... but the bike's in there....

I took the cases, crankshaft and barrel with me. Left the rest behind.

I hadn't got around to exploring all the details of the border crossing process. I knew from the banter with forumites here that there were buses, but with all the crap I was carrying - Giant Loop, tank bag, boxes of bike bits, and with no pre-arranged visa, etc... I figured I was better off doing it this way..

I was no sooner out of the tuk tuk at the Laos side of the border than this guy pounced. Want a taxi, Thailand?

I exercised the normal cautions. Struck a price - 1000 baht to Udon Thani airport ($30)... about 70 km away. Another couple of dollars had a guy with a trolley taking my gear through to the other side too. The taxi guy wanted to head off with my passport, but I'm not quite that trusting. All he wanted to do was give it to a visa facilitator... which we did, saving me a wait in the queues... for under a dollar. Too easy. Off to Udon Thani airport. The photo was just a bit of a precaution btw... anyone I don't know, wanting to go out of sight with my gear, is getting his photo taken.... nicely, of course. This guy was great.

I'd been warned off Nok Air by an expat in Vientiane... because of old planes, etc, but I didn't have any concerns and the plane was new

..... and the flight back to Chiang Mai was good. Cheap too.

I mailed the parts to Thumper from the airport, but, as mentioned, the parcel with the crankshaft had been re-taped. Whether it was opened by customs, burst open... or whatever, we don't know. All we know is that the crankshaft never got there. I sent another one over when I got back to Oz. Everyone has a spare EXC crank in their garage, don't they? I don't make a habit of watching fleabay... but fortuitously, the last time I'd been on, before this trip, I scored a crank and gearbox. The crank cost me $22.

I arrived back at Riders Corner in time to wish Som a happy 40th

Current state of play with the bike is that I've got everything back from Thumper Racing. The barrel with new piston, the "new" crank has a new rod and bearing and is welded up. The main bearings are done and the sump plug repaired. I've accumulated, after a few tries at getting them all right... all the bearings for the cases, gearbox and cam. New camchain, sliders, etc.

I'll have a session with the pizza oven and crankcases some time soon. I've got the workshop manual on disk... will probably take a printout back, along with parts diagrams too for the rebuild. Then I've got to figure out where to next?

Oh.... the cause? Probably a carry-over from when I drowned it down in southern Laos in 2012. Doesn't much matter. I like it... its a perfect bike for SE Asia. I'd prefer it to live longer in deep water, but that's the only negative I've got in relation to it.