Southern Laos

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  LongChen, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, November 3, 2006

The trip into Laos was meant to be easy as I was crossing into the capital of Vientiane via the main route, the Friendship bridge from Thailand. Unfortunately once there I found ou that recently the customs department have chanfged the rules and they no longer accept Thai registered bikes into Laos. After messing around for two days trying to find a Laos goverment department that could over-rule customs I finally got it with the bike. Aparently the Laos tourist police have a lot of power and when I returned to customs and showed the letter they wrote for me they were very quick to get me on my way.

I have read a nunber of books on the war in Laos and that has given me an interest in the area where the secret US airbase was located, in a town called LongChen. I decided after seeing the area on a map and hearing other riders talk about the area I thought i may have a go at getting up there even though the area has been closed for 30 years and there is still a lot of activity there between the Hmong and the Laos government

Bridge

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The trip started from a small village in the main road that goes North to South (route 13), I did my final preparation there, petrol, water etc. The road to Longchen is very easy to miss, it is a small track that leads to the back of the village and could easily be mistaken for a driveway or path. About 2 kms in it gets a bit wider but the surface does not improve at all. Very rough road and slow going.

Anybody who is interested, this link is about the area and the trouble there : http://www.rogerarnold.net/Default.aspx

After about 80km's traveling along the raod you come to a fork in the road, left to Longchen and right to Saisombun (a decent size town). I thought i better fill up with petrol here again as I didn't know if there were any further stops along the way. I took the left turn and headed out of town, at this point the road becomes no more than a well used track, with villages about every 5km's. The road also has a number of Loas Army personel along the route.

The further along the route I got, the louder the Army screamed at me to stop, but I figured I would play the stupid tourist and just wave back and pretend I didn't understand. This are as one of the most beautiful areas I have been in, crystal clear rivers in the shadows of jaggered mountains. I ended up getting about 5km's away from the airbase itself before I had to stop due to a Army road block. They looked a little surprised top see me but were pretty friendly. They pointed at me then pointed at the road ahead and said, 'Bang, Bang'. I took this to mean that if I continued further I may be shot. It was at this point a decided I had gone as far as I could and it was time to head back, maybe I will try again in a few months.

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Bumpy Road	Crossing the river.	Final town	First turn off to LongChen
Mining Camp along the way	Sign Post	The final village	View across river

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