Phonsavan to Lak Xao (Kham Khuet)

bsacbob

Administrator (Retired)
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Location
Chiang Rai
Bikes
Honda CRM-AR 250, Honda CRF 250-L, Suzuki V Strom XT 650 Honda XR250 Baja BMW F650GS
Day 7 from Phonsavan to Lak Xao (Kham Khuet)


340 Km 10 Hrs


Screen Shot 2014-04-27 at 18.54.49.jpg

GpxViewer


After a hearty breakfast in the Bamboozle (the best in town) i was on a mission to get as close as i could to the Mig fighters, so roadworks near the Airfield made access a bit tricky but surprisingly i scooted around without a problem.

Saw a few soldiers whom i gave my royal wave and poked around until i came up with these shots, they look as if they have been moved around since i last saw them, but anyway they are not flying any time soon.


Outer perimeter
















Getting closer










Boom !!!

























The dusty graded road out of town was a race track for the buses and pick up’s and not the best of rides, but the countryside was full of terraced fields.













Not the typical Wat you would see in Thailand, in Laos they make a grand entrance way but the actual Wat is pretty basic.











Still some moist bit’s from the earlier storms











Plenty of fuel drums available.













New bridge in progress, look at the huge tree’s awaiting who knows what











Hope the old bridge survives till the new one is commissioned, on reflection this trail should be called the Bailey Bridge Trail i must have crossed a hundred of them this day.











Rocky graded sections

















Architecture is different from the further North.












Not the most enjoyable riding surface.















Again you can see the huge investment carving out these new roads.



















Came to a real gas station to fill up and grab a snack, the owner's kids were just back from playing Songkran the red face (and hair in lots of cases) is part of the festival in Laos.

















More Bailey Bridges.











Even more moist sections.











One of the nicer Wat's i had seen on this trip.











Now heading into the mountains and new graded roads not on the GPS























This section was more like a mining area than a road.











Every one of these rocks i saw had been split open as if they had been looking for some mineral inside each one.











Came across this new housing project, almost complete but deserted. Not sure if this is for the road construction but it looked too permanent so i guess for some mining works.












Rain clouds forming, time to push on.













Translation anyone.











Saw this solitary lone monk i asked for a picture but ensured his iPhone headphones and cigarette had been hidden away.











Logging trucks headed for Vietnam











House with a view in a million











Clouds closing in



















The scale of highway construction in Laos is truly amazing

















Today was a very hazy day as the smoke hung in the mountains











Coming into the township of Mork.











Leaving Mork a heard of cows blocked the road, so i stopped to let them pass next thing two of them kicked off almost knocking me off the bike so time to get the hell out of there











More of these split rocks along the route











Not good fun if it rains i guess.



















Broken down logging truck ahead












And more rocky sections















Almost all of these bailey Bridges had a 5 ton weight limit so the logging trucks had to make alternative crossings.













Isolated communities

















Came across this logging camp and found a fuel drum.





















Nice graded section a welcome sight.

















End of the gravel and hitting smooth tarmac was a real blessing after all those rocky sections



















Meeting the junction of route 8



















Nam Ngouang river looks beautiful after all the dust.













Wat next to the river





















Route 8 is littered with huge logging stations and sawmills with high walls surrounding them along with many charcoal making plants



















Route 8 is very well paved and a real sports bike run.











Mountain range looking to Vietnam









Poor attempt to get a picture while riding of the hardware salesman









One of the few fires during the day









Approaching Lak Xao

















More logs heading to Vietnam








Made it into town and checked in at the Souriya Hotel 100K Kip

















Grabbed a couple of beers and watched the world go by

















Walked around the local market but the light was failing and my camera was between settings so crap pictures





















The local crazy going around begging for scraps from the stall owners



















Think he liked me













Almost dark

















Headed into the One Restaurant just across the road, huge place but i was the only customer










The fridge was full so all was well and spent the night chatting with the owner's daughter














Morning at the hotel and market



























Breakfast











Oh dear looks like i lost something along the way












Day 8 to follow the day of dead ends and screw up's
 

Attachments

  • day 7 montana.gpx
    2 MB · Views: 328
Last edited:
My command of "English" fails on me, I have ran out of superlatives......:DD
 
Great stuff Bob. It looks so different to when I went through in Sept 12. No logging trucks then, in the mud.
 
Another great report Bob. Not sure the Crazy Guy liked you to be honest. did he approach you or was you daft enough to approach him ? :naughty:

You mentioned the Temples where pretty basic at the start of the trip. I guess the locals don't have as much money to waste on making merit as the Thai's do. I know a couple of nice Wats near the Thai Border and one in a village south of oudumxai towards Pak beng that where built by Thai money (donations). The nice Temples towards the end of your report where beautiful and very Thai Style too :hmm

I suspect the trip would have been a nightmare in the Rain
 
I passed so many temples that for the most part looked nothing more than wooden huts on the trip the only very nice ones i saw could be seen near VTE city. In the rain it would have been intresting as normal none of the pictures show how steep it was in places.

The crazy guy was harmless all the locals knew him and fed him every night

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Bobtifficacious!

This ride report series is amazing, well done!

Your choice to break the reports into separate days is perfect too, each one makes for excellent reading.

Thanks for taking us with you Bob.

Ally
 
Video taken coming down the mountain on the graded road to Mork, sorry but the angle is off must have bumped the cam along the way.

[video=youtube_share;BmwnnEknSJ8]http://youtu.be/BmwnnEknSJ8[/video]
 
Did you see many other bikes on the trip? This report should maybe made a sticky in the Laos section, great ride information.
 
Funny you should say that coming down into Muang Ngam a guy on an old XR250 passed going the other way we exchanged waves, other than that nobody until i met up with Bank and his pals in Sayaburi
 
P1020880_zpsa30a2297.jpg

Sorry Bob, tried to get a Thai friend to read this Lao script but he couldn't piece it all together coherently.
 
It would appear a fellow rider has been following in my footsteps elsewhere so here's a bump for my effort :RE
 
View attachment 28708

Sorry Bob, tried to get a Thai friend to read this Lao script but he couldn't piece it all together coherently.

I would read this as simply: A geographical map of the Baan Pha Daeng area.

I have a week off work towards the end of October and will be heading back to Laos. I'm conscious of the wet conditions caused by the rainy season so am considering the central region. Six years since I was last riding that area. Still look adventurous! :ride:
 
You shouldn't have any major problems is you copy my GPX file, the route is pretty well graded although rocky, expect a few landslides along the way to make it more interesting :dirtbike:
 
It would appear a fellow rider has been following in my footsteps elsewhere so here's a bump for my effort :RE

Well mate that is quite common as no one owns these trips and anyone can report on them. But what I find annoying is that replies to these reports sometimes disappear. Put in a reply yesterday asking when he did that trip as in May/June this year when I was there to check out things I found that the first 25 km from Muang Khoune to Muang Moc was paved instead of all unpaved as reported. Sad to say that when I looked at some replies to that post this morning, my post had magically "disappeared".
 
:rage: No surprises there Auke, likewise mine was mid April and it certainly was not 100% dirt...
 
Back
Top Bottom