Day 21
We walk to the bike company and arrive in good time, allowing us to get some breakfast before we head off....
The two bikes are out and ready for us... A new 250cc Kawasaki for Shiree and the guild and a slightly older Honda XR 250 for me....
We kit up and head out... I've not ridden in ages so everything is alian... Only the basic bike controls feeling anything like normal... The guy leads the way through reasonably quiet streets of Laos.. And I literally just follow... If he pulls out at a junction I make sure I'm close enough to do the same... I don't really look left or right, I just go.... Riding on the wrong side of the road is ok.... It becomes complicated when you have to look out for other people using the road on the wrong side.... You soon learn that you've driven on auto pilot for years, and having to adjust just one thing is harder than you'd imagine.... And on a bike it could prove a steep learning curve.
We arrive at the end on a busy slipway that leads directly down to the water of the Mekong and we switch off, here we wait for the ferry to the other side. 10 minutes pass and the boats not arrived... You can see the boat on the other side of the river and it's not moved in a while, our guild decides we've waited long enough and turns around.... Bloody great I think.... There are people everywhere so finding enough room to turn around is not easy, its on a steep slope and the bikes still unfamiliar, coupled with a sports exhaust note.... Nothing will be done quietly or easily here... Thankfully the guild takes the pressure off my as he finds it more difficult to turn around than I do. We travel on normal roads for 5 or 6 miles before heading off onto unsealed roads for most of the day.... I think we end up doing the normal bike tour in reverse as we end up crossing the river on the ferry at the end of the day, but it makes no difference at all, in fact I think it's better, as the roads the far side of the river crossing are the worst we encounter so by the time we arrive I'm feeling happy on the bike so it's no issue... I follow the guild all day.. Around 8 hrs with a food stop and village stops along the way.... There is some road riding in between the dirt roads and we see witness of a bike crash... Two bikes lie on the floor and one guys flip flop clad foot is covered in blood....
Following a bike on the dusty dirt roads means I'm continually in dust and as the speed increases as the day goes on you loose sight of the road between you and the bike in front. Its a good day, its nice to be out, doing your own thing, even if someone else is choosing the route, we cross a bamboo bridge, and a couple of river crossing along the way, and Shiree and the guild manage to run a snake over that comes out of the bushes... I witness this, the snake looked fine, but its speed increased somewhat to get off the road before I got there....
We visited a waterfall which was quite slow flowing... It had a long drop, but not much water... This meant that the pool at the bottom was not the normal pool of white turbulent water, it was crystal clear and calm and looked inviting, but was not warm enough for me....
The last village stop was a hill tribe settlement. The Mong tribe which are apparently quite hard for travellers to find as they only live high up the mountain ranges. We noticed whilst here that the have a strange collection if birds... They mix breed them so you end up with some real strange looking birds...Like a duck with a chickens head... I wonder what they taste like ??
I enjoyed the bike day, although it was long... Shiree jokingly refused to get back on the bike after the waterfall.... Our bums are not used to so much time on the saddle.
It's made me think about selling my two bikes and just getting a xr250 as there easy and go anywhere....
After dropping off the bikes we walk back to the alleyway from last night in search of more chicken... We sit down and just buy meat this time... Firstly a chicken breast each, followed by some kind of river fish.... Both are placed between a thin split length of bamboo to be cooked and both tasted fantastic !
We'd made the decision to only have the meat as we also wanted to visit another French restaurant after which sold Baked Camembert..... Our intention is to shared this before heading back to our hostel for our last night.