Luang Prabang to Phonsavan and then on to Vang Vieng

Thurs 15th Feb 18

Today is a rest day; a chance to explore the town of Luang Prabang and visit local attractions such as Temples, Elephant sanctuary and the famous Kuangsi waterfall; and learn about the history of the Vietnam war when America dropped 280 million bombs on Laos, a large percentage of which did not explode and are still causing casualties to this day. Here’s some pics, including bottles of alcohol with various types of snake inside which we found in the night market!

A short Elephant video https://youtu.be/07hVpdIe3qo

Friday 16th Feb 18

8am start 260 kms ride to Phonsovan near border with Vietnam. We were immediately into windy roads high up in the mountains with spectacular views, passing through small villages with their wooden houses and the smell of wood smoke. As the eight of us thunder through the locals smile and wave. The road surface is seriously deformed in places, also gravel and craters plus trucks dropping fluid on corners. A pleasant 24c and a great morning ride.

Click for a ride past in the mountains https://youtu.be/eCb0Ctr8btU

Coffee stop then into more seriously twisty and greasy corners, we then encountered road works with lots of gravel, very tricky. A call came through that Mark, one of the Americans, was down but man and bike were ok. Had he managed to film his crash on his Go Pro we thought? 😊

We were just about to set off after a water stop when several big bikes loaded with panniers turned up; a German group apparently..should be fun when we catch them up 😊 Indeed we did catch them up and were about to overtake when we had to slow for roadworks; this time it was wet tar covering our side of the road. The lead rider crossed to the other side to avoid the tar but on coming traffic forced him to stop, the guy behind decided to ride onto the tar and immediately the bike just skidded and down he went into the hot sticky and very smelly tar. He frantically tried to pick his bike up but it was very heavy and his feet were slipping. We decided to let his friends help him and gingerly picked our way through the chaos. It’s one thing crashing in front of your friends, but another when 8 other bikers are watching 😂 Over the next 30kms we came upon many other similar stretches but were able to ride round them.

Seriously slippery tar

We enjoyed noodle soup for lunch and then a group of four of us at the front enjoyed a good blast for the next 80kms and then pulled over for a drink and let the others catch up. Interesting little cafe with several bomb cases holding up part of the building and Opium alcohol on sale in plastic bottles. We found an authentic Indian restaurant for dinner that night helped down by more beer Lao.