Tuesday 9th Feb
Today we have 360kms to the capital Vientiane..we arrive at our hotel, again on banks of the Mekong, after lunch of noodle soup..again. That night we ate well in a nice restaurant and enjoyed a couple of bottles of Italian red wine..after the BeerLao of course. We discussed our planned route and decided to make a change to enable us to spend a couple of days riding the best roads in N Thailand.
Wed 10th Feb
After eggs for breakfast we set off for Xayboury instead of Luang Prabang, around 400kms. Soon after we left Vientiane the road turned to dirt, this time with potholes as deep as wells and ruts like trenches; traffic was heavy, it was dusty and hot with clouds of white dust covering everything..we made slow progress. We finally reached the end and we started to climb up into the mountains..fantastic scenery and twisty roads with small rural villages along the way. Coming the other way we saw convoys of Chinese tourists in large 4 wheel drives..we stopped at a small village and the Chinese there took our photos..strange. Even stranger were the market stalls along the roadside with dead animals of all sorts with long tails..they quickly covered them up when we wanted to take pics..apparently they were protected species!
Lunch was noodle soup again, this time with pieces of buffalo meat floating in it. We stopped in a little shack which the whole family slept out back of where we ate..they were so friendly and pleased to see us. Finally we arrived at Xayboury a one horse town and a very “tired” hotel..their WiFi had stopped because they had no money to pay the bill..we were cut off from the outside world. After more BeerLao and a surprisingly good meal in the main street it didn’t seem to matter…
PS: I have run out of storage on my phone so it will not let me upload new picd to the blog which is a shame as I have so many good ones..I’ll do it when I get back and post best ones as a gallery.