Luang Prabang - Vientiane - Bangkok

  Bangkok, Thailand
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Itinary : Luang Prabang - Vientiane - Bangkok
Dates : 4th October - 11th October.
Mileage so Far : 5500 km.

It's been a week since I last updated my travelpod so I have a lot of writing and uploading to do...

Luang Prabang is a nice little city and so I decided to rent a bicycle and just roam around the town during this "day off". That was done pretty quickly as the town is small and realised that I could have easily walked and save a dollar for the bike rental...The main street is packed with cosy reataurants and cafes, so stopped a couple of times to have a drink and just watch the people pass. Then while relaxing at a terrasse, I realized how there was still a lot of "trace" from the french era as all the street signs were starting by "Rue, Avenue or Boulevard" and I bumped into a guy in his sixties that could speak french as well...To top it all up, there was petanque fields all over the city! Was funny to see the locals play this game...Vive la France! Oh and they drive on the right side of the road as well...Spent the rest of the day on the internet to update my blog and answer a few emails, when I had a monk sit beside me and surf the net...I think it's the beginning of his reconversion to atheism...

Luang Prabang's main street...

The beginning of reconversion...

Satellite TV?

Started early the next day when we realized how slow we were moving on the road and we wanted to reach Vientiane in the evening (380 km). As we were getting ready in the morning, we bumped into Helge again (the guy organizing bike tours) and he asked us if we were willing to ride with them so that they could film us. We later understood that Helge is a relatively well known guy in the industry and he was actually shooting a 12 episode series to go on TV in the states and had a crew and a backup van following him around. So we got interviewed in the morning before hitting the road...I felt a bit like a movie star as the cameraman was filming us riding in the mountain roads. Too bad it was raining the whole day but eh...We cannot have everything...So spent the day riding all together and rode up to Vientiane where they were planning to stay as well. Helge bought us dinner in Vientiane to thanks us for the day's shoot...He doesn't know yet that I will send him an invoice for him to use my image...

Helge...with a very nice HP2...

Truck equipped with a local GPS...

Camera man filming us in Laos...

Town stop in Laos...

The following morning, we left early again as I am suppose to meet my sister in Bangkok and spend the week-end together. It's a 700 km ride from Vientiane to Bangkok, mainly highway so my Ipod saved me from boredom a bit...My sis is bringing me a new pair of gloves, my laptop and a couple of spares as I did aleady 6000 km and I am still in bloody Bangkok! I still wanted to see a bit of Vientiane before leaving so I rode around town and took a quick picture with what seems to be the local "arc de triomphe" and by 10 am we were on the road again...Weird day riding as I didn't see Kevin the whole day, after we had crossed the Laos Thailand border...We kept missing each other so we said we'll just meet in Khao Sarn road tonight. The Border was easy to cross and took us less than an hour...Funny because it was my first on land border crossing where you are driving on the right side of the road and switch to the left between the 2 borders...Was curious to know what system they would implement for the "switch" and it was an x-shape traffic light junction, my first...

Vientiane's "arc de triomphe"...

Sunset on the highway in Thailand...

Bike, taxi, office, bed, living room...All in one!

Nice scenary in Thailand...

I stopped twice on my way to Bangkok...The first stop was by curiosity as I could see all those stalls along the highway with Lady farmers selling something and waving at me to stop...Intrigued I decided to have a look...There were maybe 20 stalls, all spaced by a couple of meters and the ladies were all waving at me so I couldn't make my choice! I'm not use to having 20 women waving at me so I was a bit confused. Nevertheless I stopped at the one that was waving the most desperately...I think she didnt realize from far away that I was a foreigner, on a big bike and that didnt speak a word of Thai...So when I stopped and removed my helmet, she completely blocked. As I was trying to use my fast-developping "sign-language" with her, she just stopped moving and just stayed there looking at me with big round eyes...She was probably telling herself what shit she got herself into...After a couple of minutes, she settled down and finally understood that I wanted to eat the stuff she was selling more than her...So she finally handed me what looked like a bamboo, maybe 20 cm long with the 2 ends closed with dried mud...So After a couple more minutes of sign language, she understood that I wanted her to show me how to eat it. After peeling it open like you would peel a banana, I got to realize that it was sticky rice inside the bamboo! All this hassle for sticky rice! Well, it was a funny moment so it was worth the time...As I handed her 20 baht, she didnt even look at it and just continued staring at me with her mouth open watching me getting ready to go on the bike again...

Which one to choose?

Sticky rice lady, with my 20 baht, watching me go.

The next stop was a funny one as well...I was cruising on the highway when I noticed this huge cow...So I thought that I could take a funny picture of this huge cow with my bike...As I jumped off the bike I was even more surprised when I saw how small the lady farmer was! It was probably the biggest cow to owner ratio I will ever see...She had the cow leashed and I told myself that if this cow decides to run, she will probably be road skiing...It was a fun moment trying to take the picture...The lady understood straight away what I wanted to do and she was amused by it...So we were laughing a lot and as I was waiting for the cow to stop eating and start walking to position itself beside the bike, the bloody cow decided to just zoom pass the bike and the next thing I could see was the women running behind the cow, turning her back at me with one hand in the air waving goodbye...I don't like to stay on a defeat so I U-turned on the highway and caught back up with her...More giggling went on and I finally managed to get my picture! She kept on laughing although she didn't understand a word of what I said so I thought that I could hand a 20 baht bill for her time and kindness...I think she didn't expect that too much and she was so happy that she let go of the leash to shake my hand with her two hands before running back to the cow that was peacefully walking up the road...I asked myself what if I had given her 200 baht? Maybe she would have throwed the leash at me and given me the cow? By the way, have a close look at the pictures of the cow...I think they have been cross-breeding in Thailand and the cows have rabbit ears in this country...

Biggest cow to owner ratio...

Cow with rabbit ears...

Those 2 people made my day and I decided to not stop anymore until Bangkok bacause my sister was waiting for me. As I was speeding my way around the traffic of Bangkok's suburbs, I noticed the elevated highway sign board and, although I was aware that motorbikes were not allowed on this highway, I couldn't help myself from taking it. The elevated highway started about 30 km from my destination and it's 30 km of no traffic where I could speed. Probably gained 30-45 minutes by choosing this "naughty" option. I zoomed pass every toll gate on the highway without stopping which automatically turned on an alarm each time I went trough...Just kept my finger crossed that the police wouldn't start chasing me...And they didn't...After a long day riding, I finally reached Khao Sarn road around 8h30 pm and managed to find my sister relatively quickly. Really nice to see my sister again, so we celebrated and went to have a couple of drinks at the bed supperclub...I thought that a gogo bar wouldn't be appropriate...Oh and I woke up at 3 am that same night to watch the french, once again and at the right time, beat the New zealanders in rugby. Really happy to watch the french play good rugby and without doing any fouls. The next day we went to visit the grand palace and we had a blast together. It was fun and kept on laughing as well...We couldn't enter the Grand palace the way we were dressed up so they handed us pants and shirts to wear. It was a super hot and sunny day, we were sweating like hell...Steph, sorry to say this on the internet but your bum was soaked and it looked like a water dispenser that day...My sis left for the airport the same afternoon...Was fun spending the day with you Steph! And thank you for bringing the stuff!

My sis proudly standing with the GS...

Grand palace with Steph...

 

The military, national guard and toilet cleaner...

Welcome to my house...

So there I was back in Bangkok again, this time to send my bike to Kathmandu.
We met the transport agency with whom we prepared the paperwork, then met the "crateman" that took the dimensions of the bike, and then I headed for the workshop to have the bike serviced again. Had quite a couple of things done on the bike...I changed the rear brake pads as it worn out in 5000 km! Bought a new pair of tyres and had them fitted on...I didn't use the one I had on my bike because I just did 6000 km and I am still in Bangkok! So I figured that I will need them later on in the trip...I had another 12V plug fitted as well so that I could use my 12V pump compressor and decided to put fog lights as the last night ride experince in Laos was rather dangerous. I reckon that I will surely be brought to ride again night time, and if it were to happen in India, well let's say I'd rather have those fog lights showing me a bit more of the road...I wouldnt want to kill a cow sleeping on the road in India...By the way, the owner Yut is a very nice guy that speaks good english. He was working and trained by BMW in Australia before opening his own workshop.  His staff is fantastic and the service is just great. Fast, precise, accurate... Really pros...They knew exactly what they were doing and my mind was at rest when leaving the bike there.

Brainstorming session at the workshop...

I have 2 tyres...He has 4 tyres!

It's heavier than the moped!

It was a long 3 days waiting for the paperwork to be done and for the crate to be built...But we finally got the phone call from the transport company informing us that the crate was ready...We could finally bring the bikes to the shop to have them fitted in the crate! I think less than 5 minutes after the phone call we were already at their office...The bikes are considered dangerous goods so we had to unplug the battery and empty the fuel tanks before packing the bikes. It was just a really cool day seeing those guys putting the bike in the crate and doing such a good job securing that the bikes wouldn't move. The office and the crate looked scary at first but as I was having a close look at what they were doing, they were actually really professional and they did a serious job. It was so properly done and so well secured that I dont know if we will manage to get the bikes out of the crate in Nepal! It will probably cost more to have the bikes put out of the crates then having them put on!

Transport agency in Bangkok...

Crateman in action!

Crate worker with nice key chain...

Bye bye bike...I hope I will see you again!

While we were at the transport agency and the bikes fitted in the crate, we bumped into 2 pakistani guys that were sending back to Pakistan used truck and land rover parts that they had bought all over Thailand. Personnally, I saw a 9-ton pile of shit but apparently they told me it's good business...They were super friendly and I had a good time talking to them. They gave us a few tips for when we get to Pakistan and told us that it's a safe place. For them only maybe! The only advice they gave us is to not go further than Pechawar near Afghanistan. He literally said that when we reach peshawar, to U-turn back to Islamabad...I forgot the name of the town after Pechawar that he told me not to go...They were quite funny and gave us their business card. They proposed to come visit them in Islamabad...They insisted to invite us for coffee, food and smoke some "chicha"...Kevin was thinking more of Beer, burgers and opium....When I saw that they were open-minded, I joked with them about the Talibans and Ben Laden...They were rather amused by it and themself said that they were pro-Musharraf. They explained me how he was a good president and a strong president...That if the talibans start to speak too much, Musharraf will send the army to have them eliminated and they thought that it was a good thing. I then asked him if he could help me organize a photo session with Osama and he said "yes of course my friend"! I hope he realized I was joking...Finally, to end the day on a good laugh, I suspisciously asked them if they were not actually buying those parts to build a nuclear weapon...If Pakistanis are like those 2 guys we met, we are going to have a good time there I think...

My 2 friends from pakistan...

The pakistani traders with their used truck parts.

Time to pack the truck parts for Quasim...

Now that the bikes are at the airport and the paperwork is done, we finally went to the travel agency to book the tickets...Bad news...We are on the waiting list because all the flights are full until the end of the month and we only managed to find a flight to Nepal on the 15th that transits trough Calcutta! A 7-hour transit in Calcutta...Argh...There's some sort of festival or something else going on in Nepal during this month apparently...The bikes will only leave Bangkok on the 17th so we will have 3 days of sightseeing in Kathmandu before we can hit the road again...

To be honest, I can't wait to get out of South east asia and start riding again in Nepal...I have not been riding for almost a week now and won't ride before the 18th...I'm starting to get bike withdrawal symptoms...The only real satisfaction of this past week was that I finally got the code which will allow me to go to the Iran embassy in New Delhi and pick-up my Iran visa...Iran here I come!

To end, I would like you to know that I had a big dilemma this week on whether I should shave or not...I was holding my razor in front of my mirror ready to shave when I was struck by a brilliant idea...I told myself that it would be safer to keep my beard in case I would run out of food or water in India and Pakistan...Yes because now I can feel that everytime I eat and drink, I'm starting to have a bit of food stuck at the tip of my moustache...And I figured that if I keep my beard I would be able to have some food and water reserve for difficult times...Hopefully by the time I arrive in India I will have a complete course buffet hanging...
Have a look below at my hair growth evolution...

Still unshaved...Roots attitude...

Scaled down version of my house...