Laos on a Lifan...

I checked out your link,have to agree,its for a good cause.I've seen what mines can do here in Cambodia.I shot some footage on the K 5 with Halo Trust and in Kompong Chhang with CMAC.
Rode all over this country and Laos will be next.
Good luck.

Thanks Aboveankor...

Those mines are nasty things...:eek1

I spent 5 days in Luang Prabang some of it meeting up with people and some of it resting up, last year I was non-stop riding and the fatigue was too much so this time I'm taking it easy, I had a good look around town but my favorites where the Mines Advisory Group MAG and the Tardsae Waterfall.



The UXO center run by MAG has a big display of all the different types of munitions used on Laos in the secret war, the bombing figures are mind bending and hard to get your head around especially because not many people know of the war.





Nou was my guide and showed me around.





An interesting afternoon, didn't know bombs came in so many different shapes and sizes, but the worst has to be the Anti-personnel mines Bombies as the locals call them and their still going of today.



The children think they are toys and when the find them they start chucking them around, I'm sure you can work out the rest.



That's a big bomb.



More on MAG as the trip goes on.

I got the bike's oil changed and decided to go and have a poke around outside town, found this great bamboo bridge.



I saw a sign for a waterfall so I thought I would have a look so I parked up and walked down to the river, on the way down I bought some Bananas when I turned round this dude was there.....made me jump.



They are so quiet on the move, beautiful beast.



Went down to river and got my ticket.



All the locals where pulling a heavy steel cable down to the river, I thought it was a scrap find.



Jumped on my boat and headed down the river, it was a nice cooling trip and very peaceful.


When I arrived it was busy, Elephants and Waterfalls everywhere, the falls look man made but they say they are natural, wish I had bought my trunks.









Back to the bike for me.



When I got back to the bike I realized what the cable was for, but what they where pulling I had no idea, so I waited around to watch.



What a monster, makes the Elephant look small, big Russian V8 6X6



They were pulling logs out of the river, how they found them I will never know the water is not so clear, locals ready with the chain saw.





I've seen enough and headed back to the Hotel, on the way back I saw these guys who looked like they were having problems, meet Chris and David from Australia





The local Mechanic was having problems.



I got involved and we were running in 20 mins, water in the plug cap which is no surprise as they had dropped the bike in the river what a day and night they had had. They invited me up for dinner as a thank you, lots of beer and a late night thanks guys I really enjoyed your company.

The next day I was getting ready for the of to Vang Viang, I had chosen a route that would take me past a Ls25 Phou Chai and old Lima site, so bright and early I set of down routes 13 and then took a small dirt track towards route 4 Via Muang Name, it's a fantastic route with dirt most of the way. I have this all on video and will try to get it edited when I can, this how my day looked as I headed for the mountains.




Another beautiful day.



190k's of dirt and mind blowing scenery.

Soon I was up in the clouds with very few people about.



The views where stunning, not much more I can say about this route other than if your in Laos you best come ride it.





It just got better and better, at 2000 meters it was amazing, so I stopped for lunch to take it in.







That's Ls 25 in the distance where the buildings are, I rode up there but the gate was locked.



It was great going up but coming down was just as good especially with the smooth Tarmac.They are working on this road so soon it will be Tarmac most of the way.





Just a magic day riding, time to find a hotel and sort a few bits on the bike out!.

No sir. I thought your name might indicate that you were.

I'm trying to get back and see the southern part of Lao. I hear you about not delaying it for too long.

I look forward to your continuing adventure!

Such a beautiful place!!
Thanks so much for sharing, and I will be following along!

Ride safe

Brad

trying to follow your route on google maps proves difficult :)

Great trip report mate :) And nice choice of bike too, trips places like this are a lot more fun when you have a nice light small bike

Enjoying the read just got back from Laos myself and really enjoyed it. Are you using a GPS ?, I did got the maps from Jim at remote asia never had a problem even out in the back blocks. Would love to get back and see some of the southern regions.

I can send you the Garmin tracks if you want, view them in Google earth or mapsource...

Yeas it's small and light and does about 75 to the gallon, need more power....

Yes I'm using GPS, the map is great, has such great detail, even fuel drums in the back of beyond....

Sorry for the delay but the internet has not been to kind to me in Laos, all night to upload 50 pictures and I have 100's.


I arrived here quiet early after a pretty uneventful ride but the plan was to get here as quickly as possible, so not much to see in the one stop I made, this young lady spoke great English and we spent some time chatting.






I rode into town and spotted this Hotel 130,000 kip for a brand new room with all the mod cons very nice to.




After check in it was time to have a look at the bike, I was thinking the Chinese had used elastic to make the chain as I only adjusted it a couple of days ago, I had thought at the time that the bolt seemed a bit suspect so I decided to remove the nut and check it...Oh dear







The guys must have cross threaded it when they changed the wheels, I'm in the crap now. I went for a wander around town and found a little engineering shop and asked the guy to do a repair for me, 20,000 kip later I have a new thread and nut, the nut was a bit small but I'm back on the road.




check out the new addition to the tool box, beer Laos better than WD40....



My mate in Chaing Mai Hass has ordered me another and will post it to Vientiane in the next few days, disaster averted I decide to go and check out the party town of Vang Viang. To my surprise it was very quiet as they have had a lot of problems with people doing crazy things on drugs and drink so the police have shut a lot of it down, they do have some nice views though.





All this is built next to an old run way, I have no idea when it was decommissioned.





So it's another early night and up early in the morning to get to Vientiane which was another pretty uneventful ride. I checked into the Villa Laos where I had a pal staying, a nice quiet place for 130,000 kip a night, little out of town but no problem on the bike.

It was nice to catch up with Don and his wife and we drunk a few bottle of wine and had some food, very nice evening, the next say was back to fixing the bike as the front suspension kept bottoming out and I want to change the rear shock, so bright an early i get up and head down to Fuark's garage to see what can be done, meet Fuark.





He's a pretty cool guy who suggested a fork oil change, but no shock.Lots of guys riding around the worls also turned up to fix there bike, fuark will let you use his premise and tools to fix your bike, as well as supplying the parts, if you get stuck in Laos he's your man.




Both these guys where on round the world trips, Natco and Julian.






Nice to meet you guys, the Lifan got some new fork oil and I removed the cat in the quest for more power, small improvement but every little helps.



turns out that they put to much oil in the forks so over the next few days I drained a bit at a time until I got what I wanted from the front, I'm a little happier, as for the back I need a new shock. I decided to stick around for a few days as the Aussies Chris & Dave had called me to say they where on the way down and wanted to go riding and would I wait for them, of course fellas. We hooked up the next evening and went on a bit of a bender, turns out Chris can sing real good and Dave can drink to match him we managed to get most of the bar singing American Pie, a great night with a head to match the next day.



The night market is a must.




Just when I thought it could not get any better they called me to say they had a spare room in their 400$ a night Hotel, hell I was there in a flash and very nice it was to, the Green Park Hotel VTE. We decided on a easy evening as we were going to get up early and head down to Thaket so we could ride the Ho Chi Minh Trail, well a part of it the guys were pumped and looking for wad to getting there but you know how it goes with a group to much messing around and the schedule was shot before we left so I planned a little detour.M Kamkuet and we would find a Hotel down there for the night. It had been a boring ride apart from Chris getting rear ended and hitting me after an old lady just walked out in front of me, damn Chris was real lucky, no real damage, we stopped for a while so Chris could collect his thoughts.



David thinking what could have been, a lucky escape and a good reason to keep alert in Laos.



We pushed on and we found this Gem, a reward for a hard days ride, the Limestone forest, another wonder of Laos.






Another Jaw dropping view.







That sort of view keep me going for a long time and we still had a way to go, I spotted a sign for a resort and asked the boys if they wanted to stop and it was a yes. It turned out a hard place to find but when we got there we were impressed, it's an Oasis in a beautiful setting and only 130,000 kip a night!!!. The main restaurant area.





The accommodation comes in the shape of Bungalows all with TV,Aircon,Hot showers and a view to die for, we were so happy it was better than the 400$ a night place.








I could stay at this place for Months so quiet and the real feeling of village life, we went up to the main building and ordered some food and to our surprise it was magnificent, some of the best food we had had on the trip so far we ordered lots of dishes Laos and European and it was all first class, we dined like kings and washed it down with beer Laos.






Make sure you visit.



Later on the owner came over and introduced himself. Mr Vongsamay Malibayphit very nice chap who had a wonderful story to tell, he had grown up in Savannakhet during the war and had been unable to go to school because of the bombing, he said if you didn't see the blast's you feel them!. He later got the chance to go to Cuba to get an education and spent 7 years there in school, when he returned he worked hard and saved his money and got the land to build his Hotel and live his dream, he also gives a lot back to his community working with the disabled and supplying school uniforms and other educational equipment to the local schools, great man.







Well we dined on into the evening and retired at a reasonable hour as tomorrow would be another big day down the route one which I'm told is a bit nasty with lots of broken tarmac and dust.


Once again the morning was lost in riding terms, I had got up at 5.30 to catch the sun rise, a beautiful morning.







The clouds falling down the mountain.







By 11Am I knew we would not make our destination by night fall to much messing around choosing underwear etc so we went to explore some caves instead and then go to Thaket and get closer to the Trails.





Big Chris broke the steps on the way up, whoops



Used to shelter from the bombing, lots of effort went into them, almost shrine like.







We went up to the house on the top to pay for the damage but they did not seem to understand but took the money, I guess they went and got some steak instead of these.



I'm sure the locals think we are mad!


Back on the road again the boys have charged of on their high powered KLX's leaving me behind so I'm going to get some photos and take my time .... still lots of UXO in Laos.



Great views.





And the children always have a smile.



I like these views up the river into the jungle, my imagination just runs wild.







The children were very friendly and not scared of the power ranger even letting me take a few shots, why are the children so happy over here?









More great views along the way.




The guys were waiting for me here, a few photos and of to Thaket







We arrived in Thaket about 7 pm the roads here at night are very dangerous and I was happy to follow the boys lights into town, there is also some big things flying around at night that hit you like bullets, I road last year at night and said never again, I'm not doing it again and people ride with no lights on the wrong side of the rode as well as having cows walking about......danger.

We pulled into a new hotel called Vannida Hotel 130,000 kip a night, clean and tidy. I always find Thaket a hard place to be in so this Hotel was nice, we ate Vietnamese food which was really nice and got to bed early as we were going to have an early start this was the boys last chance to ride the Ho Chi Minh Trail before they had to leave for Thailand. Time to upload some more pictures...more tomorrow.

Man I miss the fast connection.......feel like I got to rush, sorry for the last double text..:eek1

I got the boys up real early and we were on the road by 6.30 AM another beautiful morning in the making.



Heading East from Thakhek it's about 60k's to the first stop of the day for breakfast and a quick look at an old SAM missile.




After our morning feed it's back on the road for another 30k's passed a bombed out bridge and then we turn right of onto the trails.




The Guys are really pumped about doing this part of the trail, the guy they hired the bikes of told them to stay away as they don't have the experience required to take it on, my thought where that I had done it solo last year and it was my first trail riding experience so if we stick together and take our time all will be fine.

Last year Laos had had a really long rainy season so it was muddy and wet, this year it was dry as a bone and the dust was thick. I set of and told them to give me a few minutes to let the dust settle and that they should do like wise or choke on the dust, if I was making a turn I would wait for them. This section of trail is about 30k's and brings you back out near the Mu Gai pass a nice little trail with no river crossings.


It was so much easier than last year, the river beds were dry and there was only a few rocky sections.




This is what I came for I'm not really interested in the tourist spots so I'm in my element just plodding along and keeping upright, after a while I stop to wait for Chris&David.




No problems apart from the dust we are having a ball so we press on. When I arrive at the next village which signals the end of that trail I pull over and wait again, it's a great spot.






Time for a rest and a cool down.



Village life, so peaceful




After about 20 mins I'm wondering where they are eventually they turn up smothered in dust, Dave had had a small of but he was fine, infarct he was delighted to have taken a tumble on the trail and lived to tell the tale. after a little break we head of again there is a couple of places I want to show them, one is an old choke point and the other is a small field of bomb craters, then onto a village to try and find some war scrap which was gone but it did turn up this little river crossing.



The local were enjoying the sun playing in the river, wish we joined them as the midday sun was very hot.



The boys crossing the bridge on the way out.



Time to leave the trail and find a lunch stop up near the pass, on the way we met a MAG team so we stopped to talk as this is part of the reason I'm here. Meet Dalawang she was in charge of this site which we could not walk down to.



The rest of the team where having a lunch break, look like they were laying cables to detonate what ever they had found.





A few pictures with the boss.








The bombing stats for Laos are incredible, it's hard to get your head around them especially as the war was in Vietnam!!



Lao PDR is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in history
Approximately 25% of villages in Laos are contaminated with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)
More than 580,000 bombing missions were conducted over Laos
Over 2 million tons of ordnance were dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973
Cluster sub munitions or ‘Bombies’ (as they are known locally) are the most common form of UXO remaining
More than 270 million bombies were dropped onto Laos
Up to 30% failed to detonate
Approximately 80 million unexploded bombies remained in Laos after the war
All 17 provinces of Laos suffer from UXO contamination
41 out of the 46 poorest districts in Laos have UXO contamination
Over 50,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents in the period 1964 -2008
Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of UXO accidents post war period, 1974-2008
UXO Lao works in the nine most heavily UXO contaminated provinces in the country.
UXO Lao needs on an average, US$6.5 million, for operations. It employs over 1,000 people

We said our goodbyes and headed of for lunch, we were all very hot and dusty.





A very happy but hot Chris








After lunch we headed for the Mu Gia pass to check out the views over Vietnam at the customs point.



The boys arriving at the summit.




It had been a great day and the boys were happy to have ridden a price of History, both vowing to return next year for more, we blasted back to Thakhek and enjoyed the last evening together before the boys went to Thailand, we ended up having chips for tea as that was all we could really find, a tiring but great day.

I enjoyed your company boys, the twist was I ended up going back to Thailand as well to sort the bike and myself out, just waiting on some paper work and I'm heading back to Laos

It's been a while since an update but for various reasons but today I have time so here it is, I arrived back in Thailand around the 25th Nov a bit earlier than I expected but an old friend had arrived earlier than expected and was keen to get things moving. I jumped on a plane and flew up to Chaing Mai to check out a Hotel my friend is looking at buying, I'm not a Hotelier all I know about Hotels is that people pay to stay there and generally moan about something after, but as it's going to be on a biking theme he thought I might have some input which would help.

After a few days in CM it was time for me to get back to Laos, unfortunately the paper work I required took longer than expected, I should have known better as everything in Thailand takes longer so the best thing to do is add a day and then double it and then start planning from there, I got my papers on the 1st Dec and planned my escape leaving first light on the 3rd my destination was Ban Laboy Ford the most bombed piece of real estate in the world to date.

It had taken me 2 years to get there last year 2 attempts were abandoned airing on the side of caution so this time I would ensure it all went to plan, I rode 1500k's in 6 days over the hardest terrain I had ever encountered dawn till dusk most days lots of blisters and lots of pain but I made it......

Monday 3rd December 2012 and this is how my day looked out of my back door.



I had gotten the bike ready the evening before, I'm travelling really light this time the bare minimum, that means no razor and 1 change of clothes, survival kit and spares for the bike which I had serviced prior to leaving, no route was planned just get down there with a little tarmac as possible.



I headed up Nong Khai border crossing which is about 160k's from my House arriving there about 10am, it was very busy. This would turn out to be a real pain in the backside, 4 hrs I took me due to paper work and other issues which would raise their heads on the Laos side of the border. I was taken aside and asked what my plans where and who was travelling in the group, what group? I'm on my own. Soon it became clear to them that they had the wrong end of the stick and gave me a big apology for wasting my time, when I asked them why they stopped I was stunned....more about that later!.

So I'm over the fence and into Laos but my day is ruined so the best thing I can do is get the bike pinned and try to make up time on the Tarmac, I made it down to Pakxan and found a hotel for the night got some food and relaxed so I could be ready for the morning, lots of Vietnamese in this town.




Tuesday 4th Dec.

Up bright a early and I'm heading south toward route 12, then I will turn of the highway on to the dirt, which started like this, fast gravel...





Then it turned into the hard packed mud with big pot holes and surface to rattle your fillings. So I was glad to stop and talk with the MAG guys.





One of the ladies was pregnant but still working hard. Guess that's the next generation of De-miners.



Time to press on, this road was hell with no rest from the pot holes,dust and bone shaking holes which seemed never ending, the dust from the oncoming traffic was like fog and I often found myself stopping, so when I saw this little place I thought it would be nice place for lunch.



I had the normal lunch which consisted of tinned fish and sweet things washed down with water. The guys in the truck stopped and watched me for a while, I suppose they think who's the loony!



After a while a little girl appeared from out of the bushes and came over, "Hello Mr", she spoke good English and asked me the usual round of questions, I asked her if I could have a picture and she hopped up onto the bike immediately.



She then insisted on taking me picture before wishing me good luck, what a lovely young lady I wish her well too.

Back to the trails.



My Aim was to get to Villabouri for the night as this would get me very close to the Target, although it was a hard trail the views keep you going.



The Lifan was taking a real pounding and so was I, so rest stops became more frequent.



This little shop was another good stop, friendly people. The little lady was impressed with my camel pack which made her laugh heartily. Mum was enjoying having her picture taken and I was happy to cool down and watch the children play.






Time to hit the road again as I get closer the trails start becoming remote all the trails here are part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail net work and I start to recognize things from last year.










This bridge has improved a lot from last year.



I'm starting to loose the light so no more pictures, but soon I come out on a trail I was on last year I will never forget mud up to the axles, rivers and nasty rocks, the light Lifan made easy work of them and soon I was on a new graded section, it's true the trail is being covered over and electricity is coming to town, last year this section took me hrs this year I'm blasting along at 60k's hr arriving at the same hotel I stayed in last year, even got the same chalet...4.a good omen?, or a bad one, guess tomorrow will tell, so its food early to bed and bags ready for the of , I will stay here 2 night so the trip to the ford is done with as little gear as possible, survival and spares only.


Wed 5th December.

I'm up at 6am I cant tell you how excited I am, 2 years of planning have got me here, I have completely immersed myself in Laos history and the Secret war, much has been written and one of my favorite pieces comes form this web site, Ed the author of the site Talkingproud.us has written some great stuff about Ban Laboy Ford and I have used it in my research, along with some great books my favorite being "The Ravens" and another "Shooting at the Moon".Check Ed's site out if you wish to learn more.

Ban Laboy Ford back in the day





Picture with kind permission from Edward Marek Talkingproud.us



So we are off heading back on the same trails as last year, this year the rainy season was not to wet so the trails are dry, last year it was a bog. Back through the same villages it all recognizable to me, this time I have the drift camera on and manged to catch the whole ride on Video which I will post once I have sussed out to edit video. This is how my day is looking beautiful trails not to hot...









I'm thinking this is to easy and I will cover the 50k's in no time. Time for a little rest.




After about 40k's the trail started to get harder and it appeared the easy day was over.







The rocky slope got steeper and steeper as the rocks got bigger, traction was hard to find and if I stopped it was really hard to get going again. I had a couple of off's and the camera didn't get much use. Four Vietnamese guys on Honda waves came the other way and gave me the finger, they all had video or cameras mounting on the bikes, not very friendly. The Last section of the rock pile nearly killed me the video captures my pain really well, when I got to the top the view where incredible and the pain etched on my face, it was the hardest ride I had ever done and I still had 4 k's to go.

The top insight, with some guy watching me, he disappeared when I got there.


Stunning beauty.






It took me about 20 minutes to calm my breathing down but what a great spot, then it a flattened out a bit and the views change also.



Then I found this...I stayed away from it looked intact.





I pressed on and the trail got a easier mostly down hill but lots of big holes and ruts and then like magic the famous Ford of Ban Laboy was right in front of me.








What a beautiful spot although I don't think the North Vietnamese picked it for that reason it's remoteness was the reason. It must have been so hard back then to get up and down to the ford especially with B 52 bombers pounding it, the rainy season would surely close it. I had made it.



I had my lunch here and just sat and pondered what had happened here, took a couple of souvenir rocks and a million photos. Upstream..



Down stream..



And me.



It was time to head back and there were a few things I wanted to check out on the way back, one was Target Charlie and alpha and a Choke point.



The first was a choke point, this would be a point on the Trail where traffic merged on it's way up and down the trails the land around the Village is pop marked with craters, the vegetation has grown some what but you can see the landscape is not normal.






Photo Talkingproud.us

That's the first Choke done so I now head for Target Alpah & Charlie which looked like this back in the day.




It was about 20ks and time to make some new friends.





The boys were cutting down trees, very happy indeed guess the new trailer came from the wood they cut, nice wheels dude....Then I passes through another village, last time there were bombs every where but these 2 in the same place and the others cleared up.

2011






Spot the bomb in this picture? it's under the beer crates.



Then it's onto the next Village



I stopped here last year to take some photos.





So I'm riding through the village and I spot the little girl, well I did not think I would ever see here again so I must pay her for the photo as I used it on my site. So I stop in and ask someone for a bit of help, I tell them I was here last year and took photos of the little girl and would like to pay her some royalties. Then I spot the old lady and try explain to her, they are getting some it but not the whole picture by this time quiet a crowd has formed.




They understand I want to give them money for a picture but I think that was about it, so Mum comes over and I give here some money, then she legs it, then the little girl appears and discovers we are talking about her she legs it to guess she thinks the Farang wants to buy her. I tell the Mum to give some money to the student (young girl) and she says OK, that's her in the green top holding onto the money.



An old chap comes over and thanks for the money and tells me take pictures if you want you are welcome, I decide that I should come back with the photos and a better interpretation of events. So I say my good bye and leave without a new photo of the Girl, next time. Hope they buy her something but I get the feeling that Beer Laos will be purchased.




Back to the trail and I arrive at Target Alpha which look like this now. Charlie was the same.





No sign that anything happening here, just lush vegetation. it's time to head back to the hotel and drink a beer or two, this house was not here last year it was a scrap yard.



I had done what I set out to do 2 years ago, I was chuffed. I relaxed in my Hotel room that evening and got ready to head up to the Nape pass first thing in the Morning, I did not cross the ford!!.



More Tomorrow from the Nape pass!.

Oh oh photos missing , broken link:eek1

Hi Steve,

Nice reading, and great pictures. My son has basically the same bike in Malaysia, his is a Nitro 150, but they are also sold under other names. Mecanically (engine) has been good, no problems at all. Starting when hot got the be a problem, but that was cured with a new spark plug. Quality of componants and the metal used is very bad compaired with Japanese bikes, and we faced some problems getting spare cycle parts as nobody carries spares for these bikes. Luckily bodging bits off other bikes works OK. Chain is elastic as you say, but ofter 6000km its still going OK. Another big issue was punctures, we found that unless the tires were inflated to 40psi and checked regularly, the tire was actually moving on the rim and stressing the inner tube. Getting imported heavy duty scrambles inner tubes and keeping the pressures up seem to have cured this.

Best of luck.

Thanks Gavo...had to leg it back down the internet cafe......all fixed now..

I have done 4500k's on the Lifan with no problems....touch wood!!

I have been using IRC tubes and so far so good...

Hope we haven't jinxed now....

Most people said it will fall apart before it leaves the show room, the only thing that has fallen of it is me...

I know what you mean ... beauty isn't it ... this was in Dec 2010

Stunning place Yem...

I just fixed all the picture links, checked it all, logged out checked it again and there all broken again...

I've got a headache....:eek1

pictures work fine for me

They are working fine for me as well today, they fixed themselves whilst I slept....Happy boy