Wet, greasy clay on the Ho Chi Minh Trail... heading to Attapeu. The only other early morning traffic, before the sun dried it out a bit, was a couple of Russian 6 wheel drive trucks, moving at about 5mph... and sliding.
But they weren't going up here...
They sure make a mess of the road in the wet season... the trucks had dug it down 6' here... the bikes stay up on the ridge
but then the ridge can get a long way from the road... this is about 40' above the road, down there on the right. It got to about 60' earlier... but it was a bit narrow and greasy... so I didn't want to stop.
250 km in 12 hours over two days... and 40 of that was bitumen. Average speed 12 mph
It looks dry... it isn't. Its greasy.