11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vietnam

clemo

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11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vietnam

HI guys any input and pointers much appreciated on this route .
It's probably made up of stuff i looked at in awe on here and by filling in the gaps with my GTRiders Laos map 2012 .

OVERVIEW .10 of us are attempting to do this on crappy tourist bikes , wins dreams stuff to make it quite difficult for ourselves .
(have got very lost , travelled on dust , dirt , sand , almost quicksand , roads under construction , on various other trips so like a challenge ) The sort of places you think this is totally wrong haven't seen anyone for hours , up to your boots in sand and then a local comes past with his entire family pointing forwards an smiling !

but if you think it totally ridiculous please say .

Apologies I'm a bit of a div on computer so i hope the other link works

https://goo.gl/maps/9p3nZXQRgas

This is the actual ride leaving Sunday 10th April
10th Luang Prabang > Phou Khoun 80 miles ROAD 13
11th Phonsavan > 83 miles ROAD 7
12th Long Tien > 90 miles stay @ Mr saysamone GH **GOOGLE MAP AND GT MAP HAVE THIS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT **
13th Vang Vien > 100 miles ROAD 13
14th Vientiane >100 miles New years eve ROAD 13
15th Rest day New years day
16th Paksan > 90 miles ROAD 13
17th Thasi down in Nam Ka National park RED ROAD > ORANGE ROAD > PURPLE DOTS (dust track on GTMap)
18th Viengthong > 55 miles ( 2 river crossings / bomb boats ? @ The bak) RED ROAD
19th Lak Sao > 85miles ( visit Dam 2 and stay @ Phosy Thalang guest house ) ROAD 8S > E1
20th Nakai > Border @ Na Phao / Chalo > 80 miles ROAD E1 > 12
21st pick up section of National park / HCM trail i travelled last year > Da Nang

ERRORS ON MAPS

LONG TIEN TO VANG VIEN .= google map says it joins Long Tien to Sana Somboun to Houay Xay to Tha Heua BUT GT MAPS puts lake Nam Nagum much higher and in the way ? is it possible to do this ?

IS 100 miles a day to much or to little ? OR will it give us plenty of time to look at things ( get bikes fixed daily)
We like to stop on the hour every hour for a drink ( if poss) or at least stretch our legs and give our backsides a rest.

The GTRider map is good so assume thats like the paper bible of travelling or should i by a Midnight mapper or someone GPS ?
( i don't actually have a a gps at the mo but could invest )

Will we be stuffed for accommodation on these route ? Any guest house info gladly received .

Any points of interest , tanks , helicopters , water crossings , good pubs , etc most grateful noted .
What is Bomb Boats marked on the GTmap at Lak Ha ?

Mank thanks for taking the time to look at this route

Cheers
Dave in England .
 

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Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

Clemo

You might not be able to head south from Phonsavan to Long Tieng. There has been some shooting in the area south of Long Tieng in November and December and the army shut down access to the road. You'll be able to check this in Phonsavan, I expect, or keep checking back here at RideAsia forum for someone posting an update.

The western section of the Sana Somboun to Houay Xay to Tha Heua road is, indeed, under water as a result of the Nam Ngum 2 dam. There are boats that make this run but you have to meet their schedule.

Alternatively, from Phonsavan, you could head south on Rt 1D to Thasi, then kind of reverse your course if you want to go to Vientiane.

Alternatively II, just continue on south on Rt 1D from Thasi to Lak Sao, the road is NEW, all nicely paved all the way.

A good map for Laos is put out by https://www.reise-know-how.de/produkte/landkarten/laos-for-compegps-min-v68-rmap-4399

Re maps, if you can't get one in the UK, you'll probably be able to get one in Luang Prabang at Monument Books. Check their www site or look it up on www.hobomaps.com I just got an updated copy in Vientiane at the Monument Books outlet there.

Mac
a 4-wheeler
 
Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

OK, considering that the 2012 GTR map is a bit outdated, here is a more recent map showing your planned route.

LPB to Na Phao.jpg

All roads are paved with the exception of the part from Phaxay (a bit southwest of Phonsavan) to Long Chaeng and from there to the junction on Rd 13N where you head north-west to Vang Vieng and the part from Lak Xao (Khamkheut) to the Nam Theun 2 dam.

However, like Mac indicated, Long Chaeng may be offlimit at the moment due to some shooting and bombings in November/December 2015

DSC_9028.jpg


DSC_90211.jpg
 
Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

Just a thought... can you plug in a couple of lay days to stop and "smell the roses"? I'm never keen on riding every day. I stayed four nights at Long Cheng, for example.... and that still wasn't enough to see and do everything I wanted in the area.
 
Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

Wow ,
Thanks for your quick replies on this Lonerider / Bigfella .
Nods head over breakfast thinking how great the internet is and how like minded people on websites can really make your day .

Gonna take a moment to digest the above and then come back with a few more questions ( if you don't mind)
Slightly disappointed to hear my map had me all excited for dusty trails and now its mostly paved .

Is even the section 17th Thasi down in Nam Ka National park RED ROAD > ORANGE ROAD > PURPLE DOTS (dust track on GTMap)

I was living for the purple dot routes !
Any suggestions of slightly off piste riding ?
I will try to order one of those maps in the next few days .

Loe rider Nice on for the re write on the map ,
IS that pulled from a gps mapping or one of your own ?

Thanks once again

Gotta finish breakfast then off to work .
Something to fill my days thoughts with .

0700 am , dark , raining , Dave in England. 3 egg omelette .
cheers
 
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Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

Is even the section 17th Thasi down in Nam Ka National park RED ROAD > ORANGE ROAD > PURPLE DOTS (dust track on GTMap)


Loe rider Nice on for the re write on the map ,
IS that pulled from a gps mapping or one of your own ?

Yes, the 17th is now also app paved

and yes, the screenshot of the routes is pulled from my GPS map for Laos
 
Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

macktbkk ,

I will keep an eye on the status of the Long Tieng area . Whist we wish to see things we don't wish to put ourselves in any real danger . I hear the area is known for being quite volatile . A throw back from a bygone era ( so it allude to on one of the great write ups of the last battles for this area , i guess that is also what makes it the more so mysterious too) but yeah i hear what you are saying .

As for your map and the books store one of our 10 has a friend going to Luang Prabang in 3 weeks . I will see if they could pop in and get a stack of maps for us .

could you pop a photo of it on here ? would be great if you could ( no worries if you can't) but ultimately that sounds like what we should be going for .
Thou i think i might invest in a GPS so i can have routes to hand like Loneriders .... something to look into .

cheers all.

Dark morning again ,
no rain ,
3 egg salmon & beans .

Dave
 
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Re: 11 day Long tien > Thasi > Nam Kading river crossing ? & Nakai Dam > HCMT in Vie

Hi, just got back from Laos, two trips now I have used OSM - Openstreetmap. First time I used 'Osmand' the Android app, on a small 'tab', this time I used a downloaded Garmin compatible version on a cheap 2nd hand 'Nuvi', @ £15 on Ebay. Constantly updated by travelers actually there and much better than Googlemaps - don't even mention Microsoft maps which are complete fiction in Laos.
Take dustmasks and try to avoid the '13'.
 
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