Jan 22 – Jan 25

Next morning I leave early to have enough time for the way back to Vang Vieng. Its again cloudy in the morning and I am freezing while moving south on the new road (another one than the one I came on). Soon the sun comes out and I stop at a crossroad to get a little petrol. Two guys from Thailand come rolling down the mountain road I have to take on bicycles. I give them big respect for taking that road on the heavy loaded bikes but they say they have just been rolling down for more than 15km. Sounds interesting and as it is the new road to Vang Vieng they are coming from I head up the mountain. A truck comes rolling down the other directions with all breaks are smoking heavily. Soon it becomes freezing cold again and some time before I reach the pass the GPS shows an altitude of more than 1600 above sea level. I go further up to reach the pass at a freezing cold 1839m.
Going down the other side carefully I find a signboard advertising a cave – I am curious and find, surprise surprise, nobody to collect admittance fee. Too far away from either Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng so it obviously doesn’t pay to sit in the shadow and collect money for doing nothing from stupid tourists. The cave is amazing and when I come back to the bike I have to hurry a little to make it to Vang Vieng before sunset.
The next day is the last day I got the bike so I explore the closer surroundings of Vang Vieng finding a few more nice places. Tomorrow I want to do the famous tubing/kayaking tour. With a group of Korean guys we go tubing on a river in a cave – amazing but I expect more fun from the kayaking! And it is. Not as I thought because the river stretch is rather unspectacular for kayaking but still too hard for the Koreans. After half an hour I ask them what they took the Kayak for if the go swimming all the time… At the best rapid the guide points out a way around it and I am stupid enough to trust him. After the rapid I ask him why he didn’t let me go down the steeper right side of the river. He says no way and I reply I could walk up there – with the kayak. Again he says no way now sounding like he believes what he is saying.
Everybody who knows me knows what came next – even though my right leg is in bad condition at the hip joint I take the kayak and walk up the rapid to take the steeper edge again – no problem, its all about motivation and nothing gives me more than somebody telling me what I can not do.
That was my last day in Laos as I have booked a bus ticket to Hanoi for the next day. The bus is supposed to leave at 1:30 but when it finally leaves around 3:30 (pm) I am transferred to a faster Minibus to catch the sleeper bus to Hanoi in Vang Vieng. No way to do that in 2,5 hours (150km) so in the evening I am in Vientiane (again) and the guys tell me I have to stay one day to get the next bus next morning. I am a little pissed but not so much as I meet another couple of old friends I know from paradise beach in Gokarn at the bus station. I don’t want to change money anymore and spend the night with a finnish couple (travelling overland by train back to Europe passing Bejing) in a dorm – nice!

Jan 19. to Jan 21.

I spend my birthday this year in Vang Vieng with a motorbike I rented for 5 days. I really enjoy riding the 150cc Hongga dirt bike (Chinese brand). My birthday present is a little bird I find trapped in an evil bird trap in the jungle – an about 10m wide nylon net put over a river. I destroy 5 more such nets on the way back and when I ask my host about it in the evening he says “This is our culture! You want some monkey soup?” Either he tells me that the nets are controlled once a day anyway so the worst the birds have to suffer for 24 hours. People here seem to be as much Buddhist as IS in Syria seem to be muslims – not at all!

Next day morning I jump on the bike to ride to Luang Prabang wich is less than 100km north but at least 190km on the road. I choose to take the longer way going there which is about 250 leading over some mountain passes taking me up to 1500m above sealevel several times – its fucking freezing on the bike. The road is pretty mindblowing amazing – one curve follows the next so my average speed is a little below 50 on the small bike. The battery charger of the bike has a problem and I recognize in the evening I have no lights. I did this one time in the Himalayas on my Enfield and I promised myself never to do it again. Riding mountain roads full of bump holes left hand side a wall right hand side an abyss in the dark without light is not funny!

I manage to get down the last pass and find the first guesthouse after 100km just as the last light is fading. I am freezing like a tiger in the arctic when I discover a huge 25l bucket in the bathroom. The water heaters here only produce a small amount of water at a time so it is not really enough to have a satisfying hot shower (the more water the colder it is). I slowly fill up the bucket with nearby boiling water to have the best bucket shower ever in my life. I love bucket showers but a 25l bucket is enough to heat up the whole body. After showering I go to the restaurant next door to get some food. This is, even though only 25km away from Luang Prabang an absolute not touristic area. The food is spicy as hell and I only get Sticks to eat it. I never had such spicy food before – not even that one time at the Indian highway when the chef wanted to fuck me and made something for me that he didn’t even touch when I asked him to show me that he is eating this. Locals have several good laughs at me sweating like a waterfall and still trying to eat with sticks. After I have eaten a quarter they have compassion and give me a spoon. Still I can only eat half of it as it is just too hot. After food I make a little walk through the village and get the best shave all over southeastasia from a very cute girl. Enjoy!

Next day I go to touristic Luang Prabang but I promise myself to do my best to be back here in the evening. After breakfast and massage (my shoulders desperately need one after the cool bike ride) I ride 25 more km to the Tat Kuang Si Falls. Arriving there I pass a butterfly park 300m before the car park at the waterfall. I am asked to pay for parking at the waterfall so I turn around to park the bike at the butterfly park. The small park is run by a dutch couple who created an amazingly beautiful place here. I enjoy the park a lot, try a fish spa (for free once inside) for the first time as I see fish that are well kept for the first time. Its amazing! Ineke has great coffee and cake for me and even some time for a little chat. When I look at my watch I realize I had spend way too much time here already (not enough still) and hurry up to go to the waterfall. For the first time in Laos I have the feeling the admission fee for waterfall and butterfly park is well invested. The butterfly park is amazing anyway and at the waterfall area they take care of bears rescued from poachers. The waterfall itself is incredibly beautiful with all the blue pools and nice cascade. The main fall is just breathtaking (but no swimming here). I take a quick shower in one of the small cascades and then have to hurry already to get back to the guesthouse in time. After another very hot shower I have another very hot meal and again everyone is laughing about the waterfall that springs from my face. I love this tiny village – here and at the Butterfly park I feel real hospitality not only for the money for the first time after I left Bangkok.

After crossing the border I spend a nice week in Don Det – one of the 4000 Island in the Mekong river at the biggest waterfall of saoutheastasia. Very touristy place but very ok to spend a view days! 😉