Laid Back Luang Prabang…

I left this photo for the bride and groom, apologising for not being able to attend the festivities planned for later that day...

I bought a long bungee cord to secure the damaged pannier to the frame...

It rained for most of the night, but by mid-morning the roads were already drying out and I was ready to ride on to Luang Prabang…

I ate a meagre breakfast as the menu consisted mainly of various types of soup, which Laotians typically serve for breakfast, but I couldn’t stomach soup so early in the morning and managed to convince the chef to fry an egg for me…

I was still worried that the pannier that was damaged the day before might come adrift again, and before I left, I bought a bungee cord long enough to wrap around the frame and the pannier, which I hoped would hold up on the day’s ride…

I said goodbye to Willi who planned to leave an hour later, and headed over the nearby bridge and out of town…

The road out of Oudom Xai looked a lot better than the one leading into it...

I would have liked to ride all the way down to the capital, Vientiane, but knew that I would arrive there after dark, and riding in Laos in the dark was a nightmare I did not need to experience…

The road leading up towards the mountains and Song Cha was still a little slick, and the higher peaks of the first range on mountains we needed to climb were still covered in cloud…

Clouds and mist covered the mountain tops as we climbed up to higher altitides...

Mountain streams cut through the jungles to eventually drain into tributaries of the Mekong River...

After an hour I stopped to take a short break...

The road peaked at about 1200 m.a.s.l. and then wound down into the valley where Song Cha lay…

It took over an hour to ride the 40 km to this point, and although there was hardly any road-works taking place on this stretch, it was a difficult piece of road to ride, as it twisted and turned as it climbed steadily…

I was still tired from the hard ride the day before, and stopped on the far side of a narrow bridge to take a break…

I walked back onto the bridge and looked down to the river below… I watched a little girl carrying bundles of laundry down to where her mother was scrubbing other clothing in what must have been very cold water…

They looked up and waved to me… I grinned and waved back, shouting “Sabai di” (Hello) down to them… My voice boomed out and echoed amongst the trees, making them laugh out loud…

I watched them rinsing and scrubbing for a while longer, remembering another young girl, who scrubbed and washed our clothes by hand long before I could afford a washing machine…

I watched a young woman and her daughter doing their washing in a small stream...

The Big Fella took me quickly up the next range of mountains, skipping around some rocks that had been dislodged by the rain the night before, and had rolled down the steep slopes and onto the narrow road…

After a ride of 80 kms, we arrived at the village of Pak Mong... It was cold and grey down in the valley and most people seemed to be indoors...

An hour later we reached Pak Mong and turned south towards Nam Khan, running along the banks of the Nam Ou River… We cruised down the valley that the river runs through, and were able to make good time…

Water Buffalo line up to take a mud bath on the side of the road... The seem to be very docile creatures, and quite used to the traffic that buzzed past them...

House 202, Pak Nga, Luang Prabang Highway, Laos... Postman take note...!!

Extensive rice paddies in the valley outside Don Nguen...

Heading to market to sell some baskets...

Vegetable garden on the banks of the Nam Ou River...

Knowing that there was no rush on today, allowed me to take my time… I stopped again on a long bridge over the Ou River, drank a bottle of water and watched the water flow by… The pace of life in Laos, and especially out here in the countryside, was a lot slower than that of Thailand… I enjoyed the quiet of this country, far away from the hustle and bustle of others I had ridden in…

On stretches like this, I could sit back and give the Big Fella his head...

I had not yet refueled in Laos, and was still on the same tank that I had filled up on the Thai border… The low speeds I had to ride at the day before contributed to great fuel consumption…!! I had hoped to make Luang Prabang on the present tank, but was not too worried about running out of fuel as I had four spare litres with me…

After 431 km, my range finally read “0”, and I rode on, waiting for that little cough the Big Fella gave off when he ran out of fuel completely…

After nearly four hours on the road, we reached the outskirts of Luang Prabang...

Refueling after his record-breaking run...

The cough never came…!!

He took me all the way into the outskirts of Luang Prabang, 36 km further down the road…!! The 467 km we covered was the most that I had ever squeezed out of one tank of fuel…!!

I gave him 22,57 litres of premium as a present…!!

Finger in the stream... Arrow marks the Sayo Guest House...

The town of Luang Prabang is located on the confluence of the Mekong River, and the Khan River… It juts out like a fat finger, forming a long narrow bluff, with water on three sides of it…

Most of the World Heritage sites are located on this spit of land, and are surrounded by many small and medium sized hotels, the best being those that overlook the Mekong River itself…

This is a backpacker’s paradise, many of them hiring bicycles to tour the town with… They tend to congregate down the main road that runs down the centre of town, where many of the restaurants and shrines are located…

The Sayo Guest House which Willi had recommended was well positioned at the quieter end of the long road that ran along the banks of the Mekong… The manager was very friendly and gave me the room right next to the reception, which had the strongest internet signal…

The Sayo Guest House, directly across from the banks of the Mekong River...

No, I did not try the fish...!! I stuck to things I was fairly certain would not find me seated on the porcelain throne for a few days...!!

After a late lunch at the nearby Mekong Fish Restaurant, I settled down to work on my blog… Willi arrived a few hours later and we went for a short walk down the main street to check out the scene…

The next day he rode on to Vang Vieng, and we agreed to hook up again in the capital Vientiane in a few days time…

That afternoon, it began to drizzle, and then a cold weather front swept down from China and enveloped the area for the next three days…!!

It rained or drizzled non-stop for all that time, and I stayed in Luang Prabang, waiting for the weather to clear…

I did manage to get some constructive things done while I waited though…!!

During a lull in the rain, I washed the bike and re-checked that all the nuts and bolts were tight…

I also found the Vietnamese mechanic that Willi had used the year before when his scooter broke down on the way in here, and arranged to use his workshop to try and repair my pannier and fuel bottle holder…

The Big Fella waited nervously while I fixed the fuel bottle holder... He was not too keen to let the Vietnamese mechanics near him, and prefered to wait out in the rain...!!

These two little tykes fiddled with my tool kit while I worked...

Good as new, and I had avoided making contact with any of my fingers while I wielded the hammer...!!

There was nothing we could do for the pannier locking mechanism, but I did manage to get the fuel bottle bracket sorted by some judicious panel-beating and by adding a few washers which I had with me…

My tool kit generated a huge amount of interest when I unrolled it and began working… The mechanics gathered around and used their mobile phones to take photographs from every conceivable angle…

Two small boys waddled over from the shop next door, their hands covered in rice that they had been eating… They got their sticky fingers onto my tool kit, and no amount of growling or dark looks on my part would make them stop… They just laughed at me…!! Funny Farang…!!

The rain continued to fall as I worked, and as the workshop was filled with scooters in varies stages of disrepair, I had to keep walking out onto the pavement where the Big Fella was parked, to fit the bracket back onto the pannier…

But it was all good in the end, and because I did all the work, it did not cost me a cent…!!

Message understood... The rain ensured I stayed another two days after Willi had left...

In hindsight, I should have stayed in Louang Prabang a little longer, but after three full days of being stuck in my room while  a mini-monsoon seemed to be raging outside, I was beginning to get a bit of cabin fever…

Regardless of the weather, I was determined to move on the next day, despite not having been able to visit any of the sites that the town was famous for…

Whenever I did venture out for something to eat, the town was deserted anyway, the locals have decided that being indoors was by far the better option than being caught out in the rain…

I met an Australian couple who lived in Cairns, and they were able to add to the advice given to me by Mark Baldock in Chiang Mai… Together we pored over my map and made a few more alterations to the route that I had originally planned to ride…

I am no longer sure that I will be able to ride around this continent, which is a pity, as I had my heart set on doing the “Outer Loop”…

I now have to consider the possibility of flying into Perth and cutting straight across the bottom of Australia, or changing my plans and riding up to Alaska from South America, rather than the other way around…

I cannot see myself getting into North America before the end of July or early August… And that is going to require a MAJOR change of plan…

I spent my last evening in the Sayo Guest House, packing my gear and planning the longish ride to Vientiane, which Willi had reached the day before, having spent an evening in Vang Vieng, which he said was well worth stopping over in…

“There’s a bunch of Australian girls walking around in bikinis there…!!” he had exclaimed when I had spoken to him the evening before… “They float down the river on inner tubes, and then stroll around town as if they were on a beach…!!”

I lay awake for ages, listening to the rain dripping off the tin roof above me, hoping that it would clear up and allow me a trouble free run the next day…

I hoped in vain…!!

©GBWT 2011