Xepon/ Sepon to Saravan/ Salavan - The Ho Chi Minh Trail (in Laos)

[KTMphil]

Out of Xepon and south across the old suspension bridge


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& into the dusty talcon powder



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A few KM's and your on the remnants of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail



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Great to see that they are protecting this special piece of history




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[KTMphil]

The protected piece of the trail extends about 1km


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A little bit of tarmac further south here and there



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[KTMphil]

The long bamboo bridge at Ban Along, across the Xe Lanong River is quite spectacular




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40,000 kip toll at the southern side




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[KTMphil]

A few more shots of the bridge



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[KTMphil]

Remains of a Russian built personnel carrier near the bridge


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Then south to bomb shell casing flower pot city


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Time for some fishin



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[KTMphil]

Back onto the powdery unmade road and south we go


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Not too smokey - we can see a pretty long way



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A few fun little ford crossings along the way


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South of Xepon there are 1,000's of bomb shell casings littering the area



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They make great stilt legs for buildings


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[KTMphil]

.....more to come

 

[KTMphil]

The heavily bombed village south of Xepon


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Nice legs


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Another crater



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[KTMphil]

A few more shell legs


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There's so many in this village



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Amazing pace to the way the roads in southern Laos are being widened and graded and shingled


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Next village some more bomb legs


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This must have been a munition base with the amount of old fuel drums in one place



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The crop spraying wholesaler was in town


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Then south onto the trail thats not on many maps


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Looks like they're going to bypass the trail with a big graded road. Its pretty steep and rocky/ rutted



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Small village towards the end of the trail



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They were fascinated by us, you can tell by the villagers' reactions whether they see motorbikes coming through or not


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Stick bridge, we wernt sure if this would take the weight of the loaded crf's


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Other side looked ok


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Was much more stable than expected


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10,000 Kip toll


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One more river crossing



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Then back out onto the hard top


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[KTMphil]

North of Saravan, another destroyed bridge


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Vietnam border is only 77km away


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10km down yet another destroyed bridge


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This plant had a rotating separator pipe, must be produce from a mine



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Into Saravan, a basic room for 130,000 kip, good food was close by so no big problem


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[bsacbob]

Some additional pictures of this days riding.

New bridge over the Xepon river alongside the old suspension bridge.

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Preserved section of the old French cobble trail, surprised this is not more carefully kept.

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Unusual style spirit house, only saw them in this area.

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One of the many bore holes provided by world vision.

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This caught my eye as it looked unnatural, had the look of trenches ?

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Made a slight detour to visit the bamboo bridge in Nong.

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Aircraft fuel cell boat.

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War scrap school bell.

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Back on the trail bomb casing everywhere.

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Clearly very heavily bombed and remnants everywhere.

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Marking left by UXO disposal teams.

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Another donated bore hole.

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Inquisitive kid's

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Appeared everywhere we looked more bomb casings being used for construction.

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Views spoiled by the smog.

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One of several concrete water crossings.

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The ever present march of the power poles.

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Soon we reached Tagnong village which had been heavily bombed.

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Almost all the houses had some sort of war scrap supporting it.

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Bomb fragments all over.

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Bomb craters.

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Curious eyes.

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Anvil i was told was made from shrapnel.

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Family resemblance.

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The trail on the gps ended here but Auke had told their was a way through onto a nice trail that will soon disappear as the road progresses.

Great views down to the Lanong river.

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Small mining set up.

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Nice trail down to the river.

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We reached the water crossing stick bridge, carefully concealed toll booth in orange.

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Phil making the crossing.

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Soon after another one, easily navigated.

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Bombed / washed out bridge near Ta Oy

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Phil making a closer inspection.

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Reaching Saravan, this bicycle seller fully loaded.

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After a nice day's riding we found the conveniently placed Sokmixay GH complete with karaoke for the night.

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[Lone Rider]

Out of Xepon and south across the old suspension bridge

The old suspension bridge is still there but the bridge is no longer in use (but still open and accessible) as the new bridge is now ready and open for the traffic. The first 18 km. of the road from Dong to Nong is now paved and they are working hard to get the whole road ready and probably paved before the next rainy season starts.



The long bamboo bridge south-west of Nong has got some competition and a second bamboo bridge has been constructed at the ford in the river where trucks can cross a bit further to the west


Copyright picture I.B.Gatenby