more Laos

From Vientienne I took a bus north to collect Pedro from the China/Laos border. A rock fall blocked our way so several of the guys got off the bus and moved the rocks. Sadly the Chinese transport company taking my car to the Lao border were not bright enough to use there initiative in this way. I received an e-mail from the Chinese tour company, who had already delayed us by over 3 weeks, saying that the transporter was stuck on the road because of a rock fall! It would be at least 5 days late! Border towns are usually pretty dismal, dodgy places so I decided to stay in Luang Namtha, 30km from the border, until it was time to collect Pedro.


Luang Namtha is a popular base for hikers, surrounded by rivers, paddy fields and a national park. Most of the other tourists I met on the bus to Luang Namtha were heading straight off hiking. As the tour company hadn't given me a definite date when my car would be delivered to the border I couldn't go on any hiking trips. Luang Namtha is a lovely, friendly town but quite small, after a couple of days walking around, looking at and sampling some of the gross food in the night market and buying bead bags and jewellery from the Akha ladies; I was running out of things to do.
Then I met Nicky, a kiwi girl, travelling through on her way to China. She suggested hiring motorbikes to explore some of the local Akha tribe villages. The only flaw in her plan was that I have never ridden a motorbike. So, I opted for an automatic model(the red one).
The Akha houses look quite flimsy, made from wood, reeds and straw. So it was quite surprising to see the odd satellite dish! Shortly after we set off it started raining. We parked the bikes under a tree in a village and were beckoned over by a local lady to shelter on her porch.
The family were lovely and offered us water. I was constantly amazed at how clean and smartly dressed the tribal people were despite their humble homes with no running water. The ladies clothes are beautiful and the men always wear sparkly white T-shirts!

When the rain stopped we rode on, arriving at a river, too deep to cross and with no bridge! We had to turn back, waving at the villagers as we passed through again. What a shame we couldn't speak each others languages, they could have told us "don't go that way, there's a deep river"

The tracks were pretty muddy and slippery and my first time riding a motorbike was quickly followed by my first time falling off a bike! This was just before my fall a little further up the track. I later realised that applying the Beetles off-road technique of gunning it through the soft stuff is entirely the wrong thing to do on a bike!

Eventually the day came when Pedro was due at the border so I got up early and took a bus from luang Namtha to the border town of Boten. I hung around the border all day but no Pedro. I had to find a place to stay in Boten and return next morning. Boten was exactly as I expected. Most of the hotels were full so I ended up at an over-priced Chinese monstrosity. I was kept awake all night by doors slamming and girls running around the halls screaming! I asked the concierge in the morning, were they prostitutes and completely un-phased he said yes. Apparently most of their customers are Chinese who come across the border to gamble in the hotel casino and use the prostitutes. The hotel and casino only accept Chinese currency so the Lao people do not benefit from this and the prostitutes are young girls from the local Lao tribes being exploited by the Chinese! It goes without saying I didn't like the town!

Pedro arrived at the border late the next but there was no way i was staying in Boten another night so I drove back to Luang Namtha. The guest house manager finally understood what i'd been talking about when i turned up with my car!

Next morning I went back to the border to finish the customs process then it was time to head south again. Arriving back in Luang Prabang I drove past a VW camper parked outside a guest house, well I had to stop! The camper lured me in, the gorgeous wood panelled room and massive bath sold it to me. A soak in the bath was just what I needed after my fall off the motorbike!

The camper turned out to be a bar so after a wander round the night market it was back for cocktail's and Lao Lao whiskey shots round the camper! Steph, a german lady I met in the market was clearly in need of a drink, she's been cycling round India and now Laos.

Worlds smallest Irish bar!!

The drive from Luang Prabang to Vientienne was stunning. How many times have I used that word in this blog! But it really was, I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

30kms from Vientienne there was an almighty bang and Pedro started running rough as old boots! I pulled over and took a look. Even with my limited mechanical skills the problem was obvious. Pedro had spat out one of his spark plugs. It was dangling on theend of the HT lead. The engine was far too hot to put it back straight away. Fortunately Pedro had picked a very pretty temple to break down in front of (although, as someone pointed out, you'd be hard pushed not to break down near a temple in Laos!) so I went for a look round while he cooled down.


I've never changed the spark plugs before and as it turned out I didn't do it very well as it popped out again about half a mile later. This time we were in front of a petrol station and the boy who worked there called his friend over to help me. The lads then invited me to have a beer with them. Their parents were a little confused to come home and find an English lady sitting in their front garden. Of course I drank mostly water with a few polite sips of beer as I still had another 30kms to drive into Vientienne.

Back in Vientienne it was time for Pedro to visit the Cope centre, of course everybody loved him and took his picture. I wrote about Cope in my last post but this time Rica and I were able to look around the workshops where the prosthetic limbs are made.

A diffused bomb on display in the Cope grounds. thousands of unexploded weapons like these litter the Laos countryside!

Donate to the Cope centre via my just Giving fundraising page at: www.justgiving.com/ozrally