Thakhek - Savannakhet - Phin

Another long day on the motorbike. From Thakhek we took a secondary road to Savannaket. The road was rougher, but went closer to the river. It turned to be a good choice as it past some interesting things.

During first part of the day we had many views of the wide Mekong River and the life of people beside it.

There were many small ethnic villages similar to what we saw in the mountains: some seemed ok while some were very poor. It seemed to depend on the land they were on and what they could grow. The better-off villages had rice fields while the poor ones seemed to be trying to survive on a small plot of banana trees in the forest.

Being a secondary road, it got very rough in places.

At one point we passed a complex that turned out to be an important site. It was the Sikhittabong Stupa, originally built in the 1500's. Inside a temple a Lao woman offered to take a pcture of me.

The location was once a populated area, and it is now callled the Ancient City site with a few replicas of old style Lao houses.

We stopped briefly in Savannakhet and then continued on. This is a large city on the Thai border. The highway from Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border is fast and very well paved but full of trucks.

We kept going until it got too late and stopped in the small town of Phin for the night. Next to our hotel was a restaurant and bar with pool tables, and all the youth of the town spent their evenings there.

In the morning we found a place that was open early and had our usual breakfast of Pho. While we were there the monks came by in their daily collection of food donations.

Vientiane to Thakkhek

This was a long day on the motorbike, 11 hours and over 320 km. The road was straight and flat and only a bit rough, with a speed limit of 80 km/hr. On a little Honda 125cc, even going 70 km/hr makes you feel like you are really flying. The goal was to make a lot of progress toward the border crossing to Vietnam.

The landscape was the large flat river plain around the Mekong, filled with large rice fields, and hills in the background. The road only came close to the river a couple of times.

Along the way there several Buddhist temples and monasteries, usually fairly large. There are always quite a few monks there, and it seems like the number of boys who are monks in Laos is quite high.

Vientiane

We had a day off in Vientiane to look around. Compared to other capital cities in Asia, Vientiane is smaller and although there is still a lot of traffic it is not too crazy. This could also be due to the Lao character. I find the people here very gentle and patient. For example, it is rare to honk your horn, and a driver will wait behind someone for a while without trying to push past.

The day we arrived we had a snack at a restaurant run by a guy from Montreal, and we were joined by a Canadian friend of Denis' who lives here. I saw a fair number of tourists on the streets, and I get the impression there are quite a few ex-pats.

Vientiane is on the shore of the Mekong river, with Thailand on the other side.

There is a large night market beside the river, with food stalls and small restaurants offering grilled fish from the Mekong.

The morning of our day off we did a tuk-tuk tour of the major sights. The first stop was Patuxai, a monument built in the style of the Arc de Triumph to commemorate their independence from France.

Next was Pha That Luang, the most important Buddhist site in Laos. It was built in the 1500's, destroyed during a Thai invasion, the rebuilt. It is a large stupa surounded by temple buildings, one of which houses a research center on early Buddhist writings.

Next was Wat Si Muong, a smaller temple but very active with a constant stream of people coming to worship.

Wat Si Saket is a beautifal wooden temple in a unique style. While it was built in the 1800's, it is the only temple that has not needed to be rebuilt so it is in it's original form. It is also the oldest monastery.

Haw Phra Kaew used to be a temple that housed the Emerald Buddha before it was moved to Thailand. It is now a museum.

Finally, Chao Anouvong Park is a large park by the river, named after the last king of Laos before being taken over by the French. Behind the park is the presedential palace.

Vang Vieng to Vientiane

Vang Vieng is a tourist spot with lots of operators offering tours like river tubing, caving, kayaking, buggy tiding, etc. It is a major destination for young backpackers. There were also a lot of Korean tourists.

We stayed in bungalows by the river, and to get to them we had to cross this bridge on our motorbikes.

We had a day off in Vang Vieng. We got up early to check out the local food market, where vendors sold vegetables and all kinds of meat, including frogs and bats!

For the rest of the day the others went on a tour of a cave, but I just stayed at the bungalow to hang out and read, enjoying the down-time.

The next day was a fast ride to Vientiane, the capital city. It was a 150 km from Vang Vieng, but you have to realize the speed limit is 40 km/hr, although on a good flat road like this we could go more like 50 km/hr. (In the mountains we averaged about 30 km/hr).

As we got closer to the capital the towns got bigger and there was a lot more traffic of course. The bigger towns had more elaborate temples.

There were still food stalls along the side of the road, although they too got bigger and offered a lot of types of vegetables.

We arrived in Vientiane in the middle of the afternoon. A big city and noticably a lot of tourists. We took advantage of being in a big city, doing things like picking up some food at a big grocery store, taking in laundry, etc.

Sop Lau to Vang Vieng

The day from Sop Lau to just past Phonsavan was great. Nice weather, good road. The morning was spent in the mountains with beautiful misty scenery.

Parts of the hillsides are cleared to grow corn. I saw corn growing on the side of the road and in front of houses.

Many of the villages we passed through so far seemed ok in that the people seemed happy and well kept, and the kids would smile and wave as we passed. This day, however, we passed through some villages that seemed very poor: the houses were really run down, the children were scraggly and unkept, and nobody smiled or waved. Heartbreaking.

As we rode into Laos, the landscape changed from the steep limestone cliffs of Northern Vietnam,  to red clay hills.

We came out of the mountains into a broad valley that had cities and the people seemed well off.

We kept going until we reached Phonsavan. This is a tourist destination which is near the famous archealogical site called the Plain of Jars. The origin of the Jars is not clear, but they date from about the 5th century. It is also a place that was bombed heavily during the Vietnam War.

Laos is different from Vietnam in that religion has a much bigger presence. In Laos every town has a Buddhist temple.

After Phonsavan we continued until we hit a nice guest house about 20km out of town. It was actually run by the family of a doctor who worked on town. We talked a bit about the medical system. A year ago, medical care was made free in Laos, but the people in the mountains either don't know or don't believe it, so they don't seek medical care when they need it.

They next day we continued to Vang Vieng. Ran into some heavy rain. On the way we passed an area of steep hills reminiscint of Northern Vietnam.

The mountains made a great background to the stalls along the road.

Sam Nuea to Sop Lao

The guest house we stayed at in Sam Nuea was like many buildings in the cities: built in a kind of old colonial style even if the building is not that old.

The original plan for the day was to make it all the way to Phonsavan, over 200km. However the road, while paved, was a very winding mountainous road with steep up and down, up and down. It was also pouring rain for much of the day, and actually kind of cold up in the mountians. So we made it less than 100km and stopped at a small town called Sop Lao, by the Nameun river, which had a guest house.

On the way we passed more ethnic minority villages, up on mountain and covered in mist and the rain.

In this part of the country, rather than harvesting rice, they are planting seedlings in the paddies. It seems that the whole community gets involved.

When we arrived at Sop Lau we first stopped for lunch. I saw a girl at the restaurant making what was called a 'Cafe Lao', so I ordered one myself. It's basically coffee with condensed milk and lots of sugar.

Into Laos

We had a breakfast of pho in Na Meo, and waited for the border crossing to open. At the border we went to one office, filled out a form and paid money. Then went to another office, filled another form with the same information and paid more money ... and that was just the Vietnamese side. Then over to the Laos side where we went to one window and filled out a form, and then to another window and filled out another form with the same information. Part of the excess paperwork and fees arose because we were bringing vehicles across the border.

After about an hour everything was done and we rode into Laos. The road was extremely rough. Most of it was either under construction or washed out. Parts were so steep and rocky that they were just like logging roads in British Columbia. Also very muddy and I just about slipped and fell a few times. I would have liked to take pictures of it but finding a place to stop and start again was just too difficult.

I guess the rough road on this side of the border explains why there was so little traffic on the Vietnamese side the day before.

On the better parts of the road, when I didn't have to focus so much on the riding,  I could enjoy the amazing scenery and very quaint villages. It was interesting to notice, for example, tbat the style of making rice paddies was different compared to Vietnam.

Fortunately it was cloudy with just a little bit of rain, so the temperature was much more comfortable. We arrived at Sam Nuea, the first city about 80 km from the border, in the late afternoon.