This report will take a while to get done, so I'll be doing it in installments. Please bear with me as there's 1200 odd photos to troll through & sort out into a coherent story.
After last years 7 day trip on my own 4 mates from Perth joined me this year to do some of the stuff I missed & just to have a look around.
Crusty Quinns do Northern Laos
Arrival day.
We arrive in Vientiane around 9.30pm on the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] December. Luckily at Villa Lao, there are cold beers in your fridge when you get there.
We immediately meet Richard Winter (V-Strom) so settle in for a few beers while we’re awake.
Day 0
We all get up for our fee breakfast. It’s time to chose bikes as they’ve been sitting there waiting for us for a few days. We all pick “the best one” but Tommy decides to go for the only Baja among them. The beast will be both kind & cruel to him over the next 19 days.
Jim from Remote Asia arrives around lunchtime for a chat & to get the paperwork done.
The stress starts already. He’s looked over my planned route & reckons we’ll struggle on Day 1 & 2 to do the distances within time allowed. He recommends changing the routes or extending them over 3-4 days. Great!
After he leaves, we have a bit of a chat about it & make a decision – stuff it, we’ll stick to the original plan. If it turns to shit on the trail then that’s all part of the trip. I modify Day 1 slightly with Richards help on his laptop just to chop an hour or 2 off it but basically it’s the same route & we’ll end up in the same place.
Right, bikes are sorted, we’ve bolted on the stuff we need for GPS’s etc, added the Airhawk seats & got them ready. Time for a test ride, Mike; ride on the right, ride on the right. Guess what he does straight away! I get to the end of the laneway & the bike is out of fuel. We were told they are on reserve but we expected at least half a litre to get the 1klm down the road to the fuel station. Empty drink bottle, drain a bit from one of the others then it’s all go. Lunch down by the Mekong then a bit of shopping which includes emergency food (baked beans, tuna or Nutella are the choices) a new flash Nokia phone for Tommy with SIM cards all round.
Back to Villa Lao to pack the bags then we have a few more beers & head out for dinner & an early night. We’re trying to be on the road at 8 in the morning.
Day 1 – 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Dec 2012 – Vientiane to Muang Huang
239klm’s Maximum Elevation 970m
Moving Time – 5h 32m Stopped Time – 3h 8m
Moving Average - 43kph Overall Average - 27kph
Everyone is a bit excited that it starts today.
8.20am & we leave Villa Lao for the journey. Stupid drive on the right road rules, I nearly get cleaned up leaving the driveway. :-)
We head north out f town up Route 10 until we turn east onto the 4509 then east agin onto an unpaved road heading through the Phou Khao Khouay National Park. 6000k entry fee each.
For a day 1 road, this looks a hell of a lot like where we ride in Perth. Yarra Rd, Powerlines & even the Wokalup area.
It goes up over a few hills that have some road construction that was started years ago and never finished. This turns out to be a standard practice in Laos road construction. It is a fantastic ride never the less with all sorts of terrain.
Now we’re pushing to get to a place called Longsan before 2pm. Advice was that if we’re not here by 2, we wouldn’t make it to MH by dark so we’d have to do a main road run. This was part of the stress yesterday.
We get our first bit of twisty tar road heading down the mountain & as it’s around 12.30 when we get to B. Xiengmee so we get some fuel & stop for lunch. Buffalo soup is on todays menu. Now’s also a good time to work out where we are.
Shit we’re good, it seems we passed Longsan an hour ago. No dramas then as that will give us buckets of time to go the last 80klm’s :-)
We keep heading east towards B. Nong & the Nam Ngap river. We’ve been told there’s a ferry here to cross.
It has taken us 1 ½ to get here, then another 25 minutes to get across so it’s now 3pm with 36klm’s left to go.
Once across, we’re on what the GPS calls a jungle track. Up until now the roads has been fairly dry with a bit of dust. Well that soon changes. This is now a sloppy, muddy, hilly winding track that yes, goes through the jungle. We’re having a ball. I get quote of the day. “I’m going to slow down a bit now in case I come off”. You guessed it, 2 minutes later the front washed out & I’m down.
Our speed has dropped considerably because of this & we can now see why Jim had some concerns about our arrival time. If we were here any even a week earlier, this would have taken maybe twice as long or even been impassable. Luckily there’s only about 20klm’s of this.
We finally arrive in Muang Huang at 5pm (yep, that last section of 80klm’s took 4 hours) & find a bed & food at the Keomany Guest House. The rooms are a good size but only have cold showers. We don’t care as the food is great & there’s plenty of cold beer.
Day 1 over & everyone has thoroughly enjoyed their introduction into riding Laos.
After last years 7 day trip on my own 4 mates from Perth joined me this year to do some of the stuff I missed & just to have a look around.
Crusty Quinns do Northern Laos
Arrival day.
We arrive in Vientiane around 9.30pm on the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] December. Luckily at Villa Lao, there are cold beers in your fridge when you get there.
We immediately meet Richard Winter (V-Strom) so settle in for a few beers while we’re awake.
Day 0
We all get up for our fee breakfast. It’s time to chose bikes as they’ve been sitting there waiting for us for a few days. We all pick “the best one” but Tommy decides to go for the only Baja among them. The beast will be both kind & cruel to him over the next 19 days.
Jim from Remote Asia arrives around lunchtime for a chat & to get the paperwork done.
The stress starts already. He’s looked over my planned route & reckons we’ll struggle on Day 1 & 2 to do the distances within time allowed. He recommends changing the routes or extending them over 3-4 days. Great!
After he leaves, we have a bit of a chat about it & make a decision – stuff it, we’ll stick to the original plan. If it turns to shit on the trail then that’s all part of the trip. I modify Day 1 slightly with Richards help on his laptop just to chop an hour or 2 off it but basically it’s the same route & we’ll end up in the same place.
Right, bikes are sorted, we’ve bolted on the stuff we need for GPS’s etc, added the Airhawk seats & got them ready. Time for a test ride, Mike; ride on the right, ride on the right. Guess what he does straight away! I get to the end of the laneway & the bike is out of fuel. We were told they are on reserve but we expected at least half a litre to get the 1klm down the road to the fuel station. Empty drink bottle, drain a bit from one of the others then it’s all go. Lunch down by the Mekong then a bit of shopping which includes emergency food (baked beans, tuna or Nutella are the choices) a new flash Nokia phone for Tommy with SIM cards all round.
Back to Villa Lao to pack the bags then we have a few more beers & head out for dinner & an early night. We’re trying to be on the road at 8 in the morning.
Day 1 – 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Dec 2012 – Vientiane to Muang Huang
239klm’s Maximum Elevation 970m
Moving Time – 5h 32m Stopped Time – 3h 8m
Moving Average - 43kph Overall Average - 27kph
Everyone is a bit excited that it starts today.
8.20am & we leave Villa Lao for the journey. Stupid drive on the right road rules, I nearly get cleaned up leaving the driveway. :-)
We head north out f town up Route 10 until we turn east onto the 4509 then east agin onto an unpaved road heading through the Phou Khao Khouay National Park. 6000k entry fee each.
For a day 1 road, this looks a hell of a lot like where we ride in Perth. Yarra Rd, Powerlines & even the Wokalup area.
It goes up over a few hills that have some road construction that was started years ago and never finished. This turns out to be a standard practice in Laos road construction. It is a fantastic ride never the less with all sorts of terrain.
Now we’re pushing to get to a place called Longsan before 2pm. Advice was that if we’re not here by 2, we wouldn’t make it to MH by dark so we’d have to do a main road run. This was part of the stress yesterday.
We get our first bit of twisty tar road heading down the mountain & as it’s around 12.30 when we get to B. Xiengmee so we get some fuel & stop for lunch. Buffalo soup is on todays menu. Now’s also a good time to work out where we are.
Shit we’re good, it seems we passed Longsan an hour ago. No dramas then as that will give us buckets of time to go the last 80klm’s :-)
We keep heading east towards B. Nong & the Nam Ngap river. We’ve been told there’s a ferry here to cross.
It has taken us 1 ½ to get here, then another 25 minutes to get across so it’s now 3pm with 36klm’s left to go.
Once across, we’re on what the GPS calls a jungle track. Up until now the roads has been fairly dry with a bit of dust. Well that soon changes. This is now a sloppy, muddy, hilly winding track that yes, goes through the jungle. We’re having a ball. I get quote of the day. “I’m going to slow down a bit now in case I come off”. You guessed it, 2 minutes later the front washed out & I’m down.
Our speed has dropped considerably because of this & we can now see why Jim had some concerns about our arrival time. If we were here any even a week earlier, this would have taken maybe twice as long or even been impassable. Luckily there’s only about 20klm’s of this.
We finally arrive in Muang Huang at 5pm (yep, that last section of 80klm’s took 4 hours) & find a bed & food at the Keomany Guest House. The rooms are a good size but only have cold showers. We don’t care as the food is great & there’s plenty of cold beer.
Day 1 over & everyone has thoroughly enjoyed their introduction into riding Laos.