World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Laos

Since the last couple of days had been quite exhausting in China we were pretty relieved to cross into Laos. We immediately all agreed to drive to the first tourist town nearby and stay there for at least a couple of days. Relaxing was our main priority.
It was just about 50 kilometers from the border to Luang Namtha but we were quite impressed by the extraordinary green landscape, the green mountain tops and the sheer number of various plants. We were instantly struck by this beauty and were looking forward to the next couple of days.

We found a nice hotel and our home for the next couple of days right in the center of Luang Namtha. We were able to park the bikes in an inner courtyard. We planned to stay between 3-5 nights here and ride further south then. The days went by and we all just moved from our room to the restaurant - still in the courtyard - and back. It was perfect!! One day a couple of Italians, Luca and Luca, suddenly showed up and asked us if we would like to join them for a soccer match against a couple of Laotians. Our soccer abilities are as bad as Germans can possibly get but that did not stop us from joining them for a proper match of course. A small game in someones backyard would not be a problem we thought.
We were ready and waiting for the Luca's in our room. We were quite surprised to see them walk up to us in brand new football socks and cleets. A bit confused we asked them if they always took their own soccer gear on their journeys. Their answer threw us off completely! They just had bought these shoes for tonights game. They explained further that we were going to take a Tuk Tuk to the nearby soccer field with floodlight. We had scheduled a match with a couple of Laotian soccer players that played 3-4 times a week! Of course we had...

Once we arrived we were quite relieved to see that the soccer field was "just" a small field. Another game just finished and we were allowed to go on the field and "warm up". The referee set the clock to 30 minutes and the score to 0 - 0. We were ready for the first half of Europe vs. Laos. At first it looked quite good for Europe, with every step we did our opponents had to do three to catch up. Dribbling around us turned out to be quite difficult for them because we always managed to get our long legs in front of them. But after a while we got surprised how bad in shape we actually were. Denis was not sure at the end of the first half if his legs would not simply give way to his weight. Even though Basti and Fabi looked a bit more in shape we were all trying our hardest to catch our breath. The second half was a bit better but it was incredible how badly out of shape we were. But in the end we managed, mainly thanks to the good and sporty Lucas, to win 14 - 13. We had really a lot of fun and with our last strength we pushed us back into the Tuk Tuk to get back to our room before our legs gave up.

Luca and Luca are a bit overambitious and so they had convinced us to join them for a rafting trip the next day. But since we mainly used our legs playing soccer we knew it was no problem straining our arms the next day. But sincerely it was a great time and we were already looking forward to the next day on the boats.

As expected our legs were terribly sore the next day. Nonetheless we were excited about our kajaking trip along the Nam Tha river. Early in the morning we were picked up by a tuk tuk and brought to the river. It took us about an hour in the tuk tuk and we were quite eager to get into the kajaks once we arrived. Our group consisted of the two Luca's, Gail (whom we still could not get rid off ;) ) and us three. After just a few meters we were surprised by the beauty of the scenery around us. The river was quite slow but along the river were amazing plants and huge trees. We were floating right through the thickest jungle we had ever seen. Incredible mountains, overgrown by amazing plants, some of them had leaves as big as umbrellas. Except for a couple of small rapids the river was rather slow and relaxed. We all had a lot of fun watching the two Lucas freak out about each tiny spider that fell into their boat. This quickly led them to loose control of their kanu which in turn caused them to hit more branches with more spiders on it. :)

It was all fun and games until we reached a certain rapid with a tight corner. Gail and Denis were quite amused to see the two Italians navigate the kanu straight into the bend and backwards out of the corner. They laughed quite loud just to make a fatal mistake right after them. After a perfect right bend into the rapid they got carried to far to the right in the following left corner. Because of this they hit with the broadside of the blowup kanu a tree in the middle of the stream. Since the river was quite fast at that point the kanu was pressed hard against the tree and half of it was pressed under water. Gail went overboard and struggled quite a bit with the heavy stream. He was pressed against the boat by the current and was unable to free himself right away. Denis still sat on a small part of the boat that was still over the water. In that moment Basti and Fabi arrived at the same spot. Because the part was to narrow with the turned over boat, they had problems to navigate through. For a brief moment they also hit the boat and Gail with it, just before the entire boat also turned over and threw them off. Gail managed to free himself thereafter and dove under the boat to the save shore. Fabi managed to get back into their boat and started to collect all the things from the others boat. After a short while Denis managed to free his boat as well. He quickly noticed one of Gails shirts was missing as well as one of our GoPro's. To catch our breath we got some lunch in a little village alongside the river. They even had a little monkey their with whom Fabi and Denis had a lot of fun with. The rest of the journey was rather uneventfull but we already had more than enough for that day.

We took another day off afterwards to recover from those busy two days. So after just a little over a week we rode on towards Luang Prabang.

Basti and Denis had to cover just 186 km to Vang Vieng that day. To be as relaxed as possible they started in the late afternoon. Fabi had picked up Steffi and was heading towards the same town.

The small city of Vang Vieng offers not a lot of culture but on the other hand has one bar after another and party every day. Everyone but Denis went to bed early that day because they wanted to be ready for the following day. We had planned to go tubing down the river stopping at every possible bar nearby. Denis eager not to disappoint the city stayed up with Francesco and his friends - he had met them already in Luang Prabang.

So the next day we went tubing. Tubing is a sport where you sit in an old lorry tire and float downstream jumping out at every possible bar along the way. For amateurs it is a difficult exercise but we had luckily already practiced in the river Isar in Munich. After just 50 meters was the first stop and it was incredible how many struggled to come ashore. They played good music and a couple of fun games. We had the best weather and after just a little while we made it to the second bar. Here we were able to relax a little, chilling in some hammocks. The way back lasted for almost an hour and one had a lot of time watching the sun set behind the beautiful mountains. We managed to come ashore just before the darkness had settled.

Since we wanted to see a little bit more than just the bars we decided to go to the nearby blue lagoon. Even though it was more a green lagoon when we got there, it was still a welcomed refreshment from the heat of day. Especially since a tree that grew over the water and was used as a natural diving point. We were soon surrounded by a lot of tourists, further some Asians with bright life jackets showed up. Even though it was a lot of fun watching them jump into the water just to be pushed up immediately by the life vests. Since there was a cave nearby we decided to grab the opportunity by the hand and check it out for ourselves.
After an exhausting walk up the hill we walked into the cave through a narrow entrance. The sun still shined into the cave at the beginning which in turn made for a spectacular view. We pushed further and further into the depths of the cave until we had to turn on our flashlights. It was an amazing feeling to walk into the depths of this cave without any restrictions. We headed further down but since we only had two flashlights for 4 persons and Denis was not sure how long his batteries would keep up we later decided it was best to turn around. Only after we had explored almost the entire cave and spent a little over 2 hours walking in the pitch black we decided to go back. We managed to leave the cave just when the sun had set and went back to our hotel.

The time in Vang Vieng flew by us and so we soon had to head towards Vientiene, the capital of Laos. And since we are always very responsible we had just a good dinner without party that night to be ready to ride the next morning.

Basti and Denis decided to try and take a smaller road, then the main road along the Thai border. Since Fabi still had his leaking suspension and of course more weight - because of the obviously light Steffi, but all the heavy luggage - he decided not to join the others to not stress the bike any further. Since the day started with a little rain, Gail decided to stay with Fabi and Steffi for another day.

The weather was intermediate for a while until Basti and Denis got into a big shower just before they arrived at their destination. Even though they got soaked to the skin they were still able to enjoy the bizarre landscape around them. We road on a beautifully paved road through something like a lake or a swamp with tons of little islands. In the water were old dead trees that gave this scene an out worldly flair.
Our hotel consisted of a couple of bungalows right in front of the lake. We were the only guests but one other German that had worked in Laos and was now on his journey home - on a bicycle. With the right weather this would have been a nice place to stay for a while.

Luckily the next day was sunny. First we took some nice drone footage of the surrounding area. Fabi and Steffi were taking the same route along the river and then back to the main road. We on the other hand had planned to take another smaller road which quickly turned into a dirt road. We were not 100% certain if we would be able to cross one river but as usual were quite confident about it. The track was extremely muddy and slippery and to make things worse also covered with puddles and potholes. We stayed on this road for about 70 kilometers and struggled on the last few kilometers with deeper and more slippery mud puddles. In the end we had to give up. Basti's bike was stuck so deep that a couple of the villagers on their way back from the fields had to help us getting his bike out. We saw another chance to cross the river on our navigators but it was 20 kilometers further. After we checked out the first couple of meters of the road we evaluated the risk of there being no bridge to high and decided to turn around. We knew we had terrible 70 kilometers in front of us and with only one hour of daylight left we knew we would end up in the dark. We made our way across the dirt road just when the sun was setting and managed to get back to the paved road. We were actually very relieved to be back on tarmac and our thirst for offroad riding had been quenched as well.

Since we lost a lot of time with our detour, Fabi and Steffi had passed us and we met (almost) by accident at the same place in Thakhek. Since Fabi had arrived quite a bit earlier, he was able to follow our failed attempt on our satellite tracker and saw when we arrived in the city.

We wanted to see as much as possible of Laos so obviously we could not pass up the chance to visit one of the 4000 islands. Without fear (maybe a little ;) ) we put our bikes on small ferries and set course to Don Det. Gail was already waiting for us. At first we were told they could not take bikes, then they said one at a time and go back and forth for 3 hours… In the end we had two bikes on one ferry and three ferries going simultaneously since there were some scooter riders taking up the opportunity. So instead of three hours it took us roughly 20 minutes in the end.

From the point where we landed there were some bars and restaurants. Our bungalows were just one “street” over and right in front of the Mekong with a beautiful view of the sunset. If one were to leave the small village, you could easily explore the entire island or even go over a small bridge to the next island called Don Khon. The main path was a bit too boring for us which is why we decided to take an even smaller trail. Everything was fine up until the road was blocked by large bushes that grew above it. Since we are not good at turning around we had to start a little jungle expedition to find a path around. A lot of sweat, some scratches and a couple of mosquito bites later we managed to overcome the blockade. Now we were finally able to continue to the end of the island from which we were able to see our next destination - Cambodia. On our way back we decided to take the main road this time.

The last day before returning to mainland we decided to take a canoeing trip along the islands. We were told we would be able to see or even swim with some river dolphins but they sadly did not want to show themselves to us that day. It was still a lot of fun and we saw some great scenery. We even went to the Khone Phapheng waterfall, which is the widest waterfall in the world. The next day we loaded our bikes back up and road to the border. Leaving Laos was easy as expected and left us with many incredible experiences of a remarkable country. Khobchai Laos!