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!