We decided to rent a motorbike to ride around Northern Laos.
Sarah had been around the region on a motorbike that she bought a few years
ago, but I’d never been to Laos. We had to choose between a 150cc road bike
(with somewhat knobby tires) or a 250cc dual purpose (but much more expensive).
On the map, the roads looked paved so we went for the cheaper one.
I'm glad Sarah made me turn around to get a photo in this spot
We left a bag at the guest house and loaded up. I had to buy
more bungee cords to feel the luggage was more secure (I’ve had several break
while riding). The trip out of town was fine, the first roads were well
maintained and fairly straight. We stopped for lunch where Sarah ordered me
soup (like Laotian pho), by just saying one food (no menu here!)
Good soup
Nong Khaiw, which is hard to capture
Two-thirds of the way to our first destination, Nong Khaiw,
the roads got a bit worse—smaller, with potholes, and lots of curves. This was
the still better than the roads for most of the next few days. There were so many ups and downs (285m to
1600m) and hairpin turns. Overall, we travelled over 800 kilometers, our best
average speed over a longer stretch was probably like 50kph (30mph). Sometimes
we were averaging more like 20-25kph. I had to yell “BUMP!” often so Sarah
could prepare for a giant pothole. Our last day on the best roads, we went
260ish KM to make it back to Luang Prabang.
The roads were too curvy for bikes, much less tanker trucks!
The first day's bike ride.
Kids at one of our stops
Along the way we saw so many rivers, every river was
surrounded by a village. It is also how people commute, bathe, and wash
clothes. So many mountain tops, many of them also had villages. It seemed like
every sort of animal we saw had babies: pigs, ducks, cows, chickens, water
buffalo, dogs…humans 😊 Kids waving and yelling hello (or bye) is a
common occurrence. Lots of adults did as well, which makes me feel more welcome
than the kids because kids do it everywhere.
some of the many animals we encountered
Rice fields and villagers working them
There was a lot of slash and burn agriculture—corn, bananas,
rice. The valley bottom rice paddies seem more sustainable to me, but people
are trying to make a living. You can feel the presence of NGOs in many towns,
they are newer houses (although the mix of houses probably has as much to do
with ethnicity as money), schools, water sources besides the river.
One of our more memorable stops was on the Plain of Jars.
Thousands upon thousands of Neolithic stone pots over many sites. No one is
totally sure of the origins, but they are probably more than 2000 years old.
the biggest jar
plain of jars
The sad thing is that this area was the most bombed area in
the most heavily bombed country (per capita). The US had 9 years of bombing
runs, nearly 580,000 missions, every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day. This had to be
terrifying and many fled the country or lived in caves. Almost one ton of bombs
were dropped for every person in Laos at the time. Many of these bombs were
cluster bombs that broke up into hundreds of bombies that are still found all
over the country. Many people are injured and killed every day by these,
including children who mistake the small bombs for toys. Farming and
construction are especially dangerous enterprises.
Luckily, organizations like MAG (link) have been working on
uxo (unexploded ordinance) removal for decades, clearing many areas. Please
consider a donation to them if you can.
bombs and bomblets
The trip, minus side roads we also took
Sarah's selfie with the bike
the roads will be straighter when this tunnel is complete (I assume it is a road tunnel)
Rain in the distance
Slash and burned landscape with bonus ant on the lens
Sunset over the rice paddies from one of our hotels
thanks flounder. very interesting.
ReplyDelete