Monday 5th July 2010

Vientiane was ‘ordinary’, lots of nice coffee shops and pastry shops but after that architecturally not impressive. Walked to find a camera shop for that replacement broken lens, and those we did see, say the same thing. “There are no local agents and should they need the items are imported from Thailand.”  Scratch that from the list.

The hotel was excellent, as was their breakfast.

Leaving around 11.30 and refuelled we caught up with the others at Vang Vieng.

Internetted, ice coffied and then found a nice place for camp about 8kms north of the very tourist hub.

Camp was beside the river, again an old gravel pit, providing firm unmuddied flat ground. Across the road was a bar playing soft music till we turned off out lights – great spot.

Camp 35:  Outside Vang Vieng

N19* 03.309 E102* 25.756

Distance Today:  172Kms

Total Distance:  6415Kms

Tuesday 6th July 2010

Vang Vieng is in karst country and heading north those vertical limestone formations surround us.

Slowly those craggy hills give way to more dominant mountains, now we start climbing. The rice paddies give way to corn then pineapples and bananas.

Today we start out driving practice for Tibet. The road loops back and forth as it snakes it way upwards to 1,500 metres. At one crest we stop for Coffee Lao.

Turning of highway No13 to No7 towards Phonsavan the road twists and turns and rises up and down between 1000m and 1500m many times. It is a great drive, but the passing vehicles and particularly the trucks leave little room for error on the tight corners.

Along the road are different ethnic villages each with their own style. In the steep valleys are the thick rainforest remnants, however anything up to 70 degrees slope has been hand cleared for mostly bananas and pineapples. First the heavy logs are cut out for the timber traders; the remaining timber is cut for fire wood and charcoaled. Smoke fills the air from December to the start of the monsoon in June/July as this cut and burn process continues to denude the slopes.  Teams of women plant out the crops between the remaining stumps.

Phonsavan is famous for the Plain of Jars; hundreds of small up to the largest that weighs six tonnes, are scattered over a number of sites.

Said to be over 2,000 years old their use is unknown, and theories vary from rice wine fermentation units celebrating a 6th century battle victory to sarcophagi’s. An impressive site.

The site also bears scares from more recent battles. Unexploded munitions, mortar shells, and cluster bombs from French, Chinese, American, Russian and Vietnamese manufacturer are left behind from nearly 100 years of fighting.

This part of Lao is the most heavily bombed part of the world; the Americans dropped over 200 Thousand tons of bombs during and after the Viet Nam War, that is 2 tons for every man, woman and child in the area. Lao was even used as a bomb dump zone when bad weather or heavy artillery fire stopped US aircrafts from dropping their load over Viet Nam and instead of the problems of landing fully loaded, they simply dumped their bomb load over Laos. At the time this information was kept secret from both the US people and the congress.

Today MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is a UK organisation dedicated to clearing these UXO’s (Un-eXploded Ordinances) and has been doing so since 1994. The most problematical are the cluster bombs of which some 30% of those dropped did not explode. Manufactured by Honeywell and about the size of a tennis ball, loaded with ball bearings, they detonate when hit with a hoe or picked up and thrown by children. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them across the land.  Every year hundreds of people are killed or maimed.

See www.maginternational.org for more information.

We left MAG a donation being a bit ‘shell shocked’ (excuse the pun) of what we did not know about.

Sharing the bathroom facilities of one room at the Xieng Khang Hotel (@ US$22 incl breakfast) we parked the trucks in the paved court yard out the back.

Camp 36: Xieng Khang Hotel Camp 

N19* 27.086 E103* 13.005

Distance Today:  243 Kms

Total Distance: 6658 Kms

Wednesday 7th July 2010

The hotel being Viet Nam owned served Vietnamese coffee with our eggs and fresh bread rolls.

Leaving town would not be complete without the market and shopping for our on road lunch.

A great selection of everything, including some great asparagus. The most interesting a large nest of wasp pupa. 

On top of the hill overlooking Phonsavan is the Lao War Memorial and stupa where 4,500 Lao soldiers are buried.

More  ex-military rifles.

Returning to Highway 13, north again through more winding mountains where we again join the Mekong River at Luang Prabang.

The Phathonxay Guest house has room for the four vehicles, air-conditioned rooms, hot showers etc all for R100,000/night (US$12.50)

Michael’s wife Sarah arrives on Saturday and he is looking forward to seeing her and the parts to fix the Webasto stove and the replacement Fuso hub. Unfortunately although the vehicle only has less than 16,000Kms the replacement hub is at Michael’s expense because the truck is outside Australia and therefore outside the Fuso warranty. 

Camp 37:Luang Prabang ( Phathonxay Guest House)

N19* 52.780 E102* 08.155

Distance Today: 274 Kms

Total Distance: 6932 Kms

Thursday- Friday 8,9th July 2010

The last couple of days have been very lazy. It is still extremely hot and humid so we tend to do something then retreat to the room for a cold shower and some air-conditioning.

Time was spent cleaning the vehicles and repairs where needed. Breaks adjusted after all those hills and just general on road maintenance. Bill and John also managed to get their side windows tinted. Here they do not accept US$ for fuel payment so it is the first time I have put over 1 million of currency into the tank. (1 million Kip = US$120)

Friday started at 4.45am in time to catch a tuk tuk down town to see the ‘Giving of Alms’ to the monks. Our ladies also joined in as the young monks walked the streets accepting the food donations. As the sun rose we walked the 307 steps to the top of the hill and the stupa that overlooks the town.

Later that morning we searched for food supplies at the markets and Lyn had been searching over the last couple of days to have her hair trimmed and coloured. As you can see she is very concerned, as the two Vietnamese girls and one Lao girl start the procedure

None could speak English so all was done by sign language, and even managed a manicure and pedicure, but I think that just happened. With much giggling there was comparing of arm diameters, arm hair, skin colour, but in the end all were happy.

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall is 32 Kms south of town and is a many tiered limestone waterfall amongst lush green bamboo rainforest. We spent the afternoon here swimming in the turquoise cool water.

Sarah arrives tomorrow from NZ, so Michael had the truck very clean for her arrival.

After meeting her at the airport, we will then continue our drive north in readiness for our China border crossing on Monday.

Camp 37:    Luang Prabang (Phathonxay Guest House)

N19* 52.780 E102* 08.155

Distance Today: 0 Kms

Total Distance: 6932 Kms

Saturday 10th July 2010

Up early and re set the vehicle foot and park brake, our clothes are all cleaned, water filled, and a few more dollars changed for Kip. Then a quick visit to the Phosy food markets for some fruit etc.

On the north side of town is a blacksmith village that specialises in knife manufacturing. Using the most rudimentary means they make all kinds of farm knives from vehicle leaf springs. John in his love of knives watched as his ‘order’ was made, tempered, and finally sharpened.

The airport was just down the road from this village so Michael waited there for Sarah’s arrival whilst we slowly drove north to a pre-arranged meeting point.

Camp 38:    Road Side 33Kms North of Paxson

N20* 34.546 E102* 11.917 

Distance Today: 218 Kms

Total Distance: 7149 Kms

Sunday 11th July 2010

Our group is now complete with the arrival of Michael’s partner Sarah. Stopped at Oudomxay where Sarah had her first taste of Coffee Lao and also here first Asian toilet experience.

Locals hand grinding corn the traditional way

Dogs off to the meat market

Found an old road base camp site which we GPS marked then headed into Louangnamtha for dinner.

Our night market meal consisted of 3 grilled chickens, 2 plates of pork, some spring rolls followed up with chocolate & coconut pancakes. We all needed a meat fix and that was perfect.  This was our last evening in Lao we had to use up our local currency as it is not accepted outside Lao so what better thing to flaunt our final Kip on – 2 Magnum Ice-creams –

very decadent.

Tracking back to our predetermined camp was our first experience of night driving.

Really crazy; most drive without lights, kids playing on the road around blind corners, even people sleeping and using the bitumen shoulder as a head rest! Anyway we arrived without incident.

Camp 39:    Road Base Camp

N21* 035.347 E101* 37.738

Distance Today: 202 Kms

Total Distance: 7352 Kms

Tomorrow China!