Riding to VangVieng

Yesterday we had our bikes overhauled @ a local mechanic that our friend Lee confirmed as a "fair guy". I had new tires and tubes put on as well as oil changes and had my bike back in an hour. 

When we went to get Pete's 2 hours later all we found was a frame and a bunch of pieces scattered about everywhere.

We left the bike overnight and crossed our fingers it would be ready for the ride out.

It's was ready and perfect as promised. We've put approximately 3,000 Kms on these little guys in the past month and although we are changing oil/fluids regularly I feel like they're being stretched to unexpected limits by our quest.

We've been here in Laos for over a week and still have not seen a single vehicle with Vietnam plates, or for that matter any plates other than Laos. We got pulled over by a group of Laos police yesterday and were sweating it out while we considered they were going to deport these (illegal,not sure?) bikes and leave us hoofing it.

 Turns out they were just informing us that our headlights were on, apparently a formidable offence as it shows disrespect for the life of the headlight & taillight (you think I make this shit up?).

After manually and somewhat aggressively turning off the bike and then the light switch they let us go with a warning. This time, thank God, there was no begging necessary. However, we did quickly weave into traffic as we drove away with the idea we would hide the Viet plates and prevent further roadside questioning.

           Sweet new kicks though!

This morning we took Lee to breakfast as a small thanks for treating us like family on our stay in Vientiane. 

The French controlled Laos for many years and since Vientiane is the Capital City there's a huge French influence in the cusine. The breads, pastries and sandwich choices are the best I've seen in SE Asia. 

     Looks like a place in Philly aye?

Now we are on the road again heading due North for our next town VangVieng. 

We hear great things about this place and look forward to exploring the caves, caverns and culture we have been told about. 

On the way outa town truck loads of bikes were coming in. Considering none of them had Viet plates I figured these were legal cargo.

The roads aren't getting much prettier. Clearly the most beautiful riding and scenery was in Vietnam. I hear the northern roads of Laos are nicer but this ride was mostly long stretches of baron flatland. Still awesome weather so no complaints, except my aching ass!

The signs tell us we are close. I heard some great things aboutVangvieng and plan to crash here for a couple of days.  

For all you who love (or hate) the Mulberry tree, here is the Motha!

And a whole bunch of baby Mulberrys hanging with her.

As we started getting closer to town the water began to draw our attention back to scenes of natural beauty. Local fishermen catching dinner gave me feelings of home. 

Mountains began to appear on the horizon

and Spirit houses adorned more and more homes and businesses.

We finally made it! the gates of Vangvieng welcomed us. 

Edit. A combination of our hunger, sore riding asses and the Happy Pizza we found upon arrival into town has today's story end here. Hopefully I'll live to write about tomorrow! 

Laos

Today marks the start of our next and final country before returning to Vietnam in 3 weeks for my return to the US. 

Laos is the fifth country I've toured since I left 9 weeks ago. 

After yesterday's fiasco which included 12 hours of twisting mountain roads, broken down bikes, hitch hiking and border pleading I was ready to be landed and spend some time relaxing. 

Since it was pitch dark when we arrived last night I was excited to open my eyes and look out the window but the exhaustion from the day preceding had me snoring until almost 9am. 

The guesthouse was large and spacious but the room was small with no aircon and by 9 I was ready to spread my wings and float down for breakfast. 

As I walked down the large winding rustic wood staircase to the dining area I was taken by the beauty of KongLor. We appeared to be in a lowlands of sorts with high rocky peaks shooting out of the tabacco fields that surrounded our luxurious home. 

Last night when we arrived the dining room was filled with traveler strangers eating and drinking. That had been a large group of Australians who came in on a bus and a speckling of assorted other couples all talking amongst themselves giving me the opportunity to quickly eat in front of the community TV and head to bed before the drinking games started. 

This morning was a very different scene. The diningroom was empty. Not a sound in the whole house. The big tour bus and motorbike that filled the driveway last night were long gone. 

I sat at the pretty wooden table eating my handmade strawberry chocolate waffles, fresh squeezed lime juice and coffee in the tranquility of the mid morning calmness. Hummingbirds levitated outside the window and farm workers picked leaves in the neighboring field. 

I stared out into the mountains and considered how lucky I am to have this life and the people in it who make this dream a reality for me. 

Cool cuz joined me as I was finishing up and with just a awestruck shake of his head I could tell we were of the same mindset. The gratitude was contagious this peaceful morning!

After I'd finished eating we jumped on our bikes for a bit of exploring. We headed toward the mountains to find the river caves. 

The KongLor caves were different from the caves we had seen up to this point. We had to cross a river on a wooden bridge and walk up a natural stone staircase to enter. Once inside, the small opening turned into a massive cavern with vaulted ceilings. Small canoes pointing into the dark depths of infinate blackness were all we could see along the dark shoreline. We were handed hard hats with lanterns along with life jackets and climbed into the boat with our captain, who sat in the back with the long propeller motor and our guide who hung over the bow looking for shallow rocks and floating logs as we weaves our way through the pitch dark river. As we rolled in and out of the twisting caverns our helmut spotlights appeared as a lazer light show off the walls and water surface of this natural wonder. 

We motored up this river for over an hour until a light which at first appeared to be just a reflection started to illuminate our space. As we approached its origin the jungle outside took the place of the blackness and we found ourselves among forests full of bamboo and sandy riverbanks. Water buffalo bathing within a few feet from where our canoe passed. 

The shadows of the overhanging trees were just the framework for the huge black mountains hanging out in their backdrop. We had just pierced one of these stone monsters and were now heading further up river for a beach landing at the face of a river village.  

Women and children adorned the few kiosks just above the muddy banks.  The small outdoor shops sold beverages and snacks to eye popping tourists and added some local culture to the amazement of the nature we had just witnessed. Today no one was there except local villagers. Cuz and I were the only Western faces among the dozens of locals, few paying any attention to our presence.

As I sat eating my seaweed chips and drinking a BeerLao I took an interest in a 3 year old girl who kept dipping into my chip bag for a snack. We shared small words from our native languages and her very young mom sat with us as we played. So simple so beautiful yet sad in some kind of cosmic sense. I felt so much love for them. They are so poor but you would never know that by the way they act. It was beautiful to just sit with them for that hour. Another unforgettable moment.

As I left for the boat I couldn't stop thinking about how things would be if I never left that little village. The simple but difficult life these people live as mine. The river, the caves, the jungle, the bugs. It's all so simple but is it really?

1/24

Happy trails are left behind by these dudes, everywhere!

Riding the Dunes just north of Mue Nie

Right?!

Our day traveler

Big ass Shrooms, roadside

Cops selling Shrooms(no shit!)

Mountainin

Fishin

On our way to Halong bay (eventually!)

Big biz

Vietnam's got cement

Our own private beach resort. Not a sole around!

Flat Tire & Border begging-2/4/14

Today we woke up in Pho Chau after last nights dinner of (2) Bar-B-Q duck & a late night partner meeting call gone bad.

This would hopefully be our last night in Vietnam until we return for Hanoi in two weeks by way of a more Northern Laos border.

A Vietnam coffee then a quick run through the village market for a handful of road bananas/oranges & we were heading West for the Cao Trio border crossing into Laos. 

We met a Canadian traveler yesterday who told us that Laos didn't allow Vietnam bikes in and that they would surely confiscate them at the border if we tried. 

We passed through some gorgeous mountain ranges enroute and about 40 Kms from the border my cousin's rear tire blew out.

 After pushing it by hand for an hour we were able to find a sweet local guy to fix it as we drank beer and spoke Englimese with his family.

We were back on the road after just a couple beer leaving lifetime friends behind as we headed west for Laos.

We made it to the exit point of Vietnam's border and what happened next we are still trying to figure out. 

I wish we had pictures but it was to precarious to whip out my phone and start shooting. 

The Vietnam border patrol officers wouldn't let us go through with our bikes. They kept insisting Laos did not permit Viet bikes to enter. We were held up for a good hour as full buses, trucks as well as cars and people came through, had their passports stamped for exit and left. 

They finally took our money after we shoved it through the glass at them but took no more than was required (20vmd/ea) but then held off on stamping our passports until all the crowds had thinned to empty. 

At that point the one guard stamped us out and we immediately made our way to the bikes. Both guards walked behind us and followed us to them insisting we could not take them over the border. I invented a story that all we intended to do was ride up to the Laos border, get the stamp on our passport and turn around and come back to Vietnam.

" It is all about getting a Laos stamp",  I told them, thinking a white lie would convince them to lay off. 

They stayed insistent and told us to take our bags off, leave the bikes with them and walk the 1 km to the border crossing. 

The big plus and our saving grace was that we had a multi-entry Vietnam visa with 6 days validity still on it. In addition all Smiles, a whole bunch of humility and nothin to loose. 

I explained, "our bags are sooo heavy" and that we will surely see them again in just a few minutes when they turn us around at the crossing.

I quickly recognized it was a loosing battle as these guys weren't budging. They wanted our bikes and my approach was not working.

 I dropped down on both knees in the middle of the street and cried, "please please let us get a Laos stamp!!!". 

My cousin and I agreed later that this was something they had definitely never witnessed before this moment. 

Both men cracked smiles immediately! It appeared as though I touched something (humility?) in him because the one turned & looked at the other with a gaze of "who the hell are these guys!" Just before turn to me, still on my knees, & said "ok" as he pointed to the bikes and waved his hands onward. 

I jumped to my feet, hugged the one guy and don't even remember starting the bike I moved so fast outa there! 

Humility Prevails:)!

We still had to make our way into Laos but won this first battle and were feelin strong. 

When we rode up to the crossing we noticed 6-8 guards playing a game of Laos Bacci in the dirt off to the side of the gate. We parked our bikes and quickly made our presence known by cheering them on with claps, yelps and high fives. Now we had friends at the gate!

Ten minutes & $2/ea later we were over the border and riding our bikes as fast as they would move into the mountains while looking over our shoulders for flashing lights.

We made it 40 Kms to the first busy town we saw and ducked into a bar after hiding the bikes from the road. The only license plates we saw were Laos and we were taking no chances of being deported at this point.

The bar had 8 Israelis in it who had rented bikes in the south and were surprised we were able to get Viet bikes in. They gave us a map to help us stay invisible. 

After our adrenaline calmed to a reasonable level and a couple beers (which helped( we gased up and were back heading West.

It was starting to get late and we still had 100+ kms to travel before dark. All was good and other than us being the only non-Laos licence plates on the road we were moving back into the mountains and on to our destination. 

That is until our 2nd flat tire of the day;(!

This time not only were we in a country with less than legal bikes/plates, we were in a remote point in the mountains with 37 Kms to go to the closest town. 

We flagged down the first truck we saw and had the bike and Pete in it before I I could say "I need a beer"!

I kept thinking about how fortunate we are despite it all as I remembered the snow/ice storm currently hitting my home in the US Northeast.

I followed behind as Cuz's unofficial photographer.

We found a roadside garage with a nice Laos family sitting out front. The dad pulled apart the bike only to find that it was not a Laos bike and the tires/tubes he had were the wrong size and wouldn't fit.

After an hour of McGivering it he had us back on the road just before sunset.

Now we are riding in the dark looking for a hotel near the Khong Lor river caves. 

 

It's pitch dark on the last 40 Km ride down the country road toward Khong Lor.

My cousin hates driving at night but it's warm as toast tonight, frogs are howling river songs, the skies are crystal clear and we made it through another amazing day so he's handling it!

Tomorrow we go cave exploring and see what this place looks like in the daylight!