Triumphrat

Mudhen

This is just plain awesome...

Thanks for taking us along.

Pat

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Pat
'96 Tiger

Rhodie

The next morning we headed 60 kms north to Muang Sing a town a few kilometres from the China border, known for its good hill trekking among the various hill-tribes peoples – the Akka, the Hmong among many others.



Filling up, this little girl in cowboy boots wanted to sit on the bike.



The road was bitumen, but the base core had broken up giving us a really bumpy unpleasant ride making the YSS shocks do some hard work. Not helped by my not changing the settings and now riding without a load!



This bunch of kids had been collecting cassava with their grandfather.
Further on we passed this colourful trio of hill tribe women on bikes.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

In Muang Sing the hill-tribe market had been replaced by a large concrete structure selling Chinese goods.

Some interesting chinese bikes and a very odd scooter trike.

Nearby some monks were shooting a variant of pool in conjunction with playing cards.One of the monks with a dagger tattooed on his hand got agitated with us and became menacing getting us to move on.

In the main street the tribal museum was closed, a few hippy backpackers were eating noodles in flyblown Chinese-owned restaurants; nearby a sign was offering ethnic massages. All in all a rather depressing town that had once been rich in hill-tribe culture and life had now been subsumed by a Chinese expansion.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

Heading out of town .... past some paddy fields



Woopie ... some dirt!



We ended up having coffee in a hotel down a dirt road outside town with a truly great view.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

Along the way we came across these kids who had been spearfishing with rudimentary spearguns and basic masks.



Another farmer had an amusing shirt.



Back in Luang Namtha three fellow GT Riders had arrived for the night on their way back to Thailand.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

The next morning we were up early as a light rain fell. We were going up to Boten on the Chinese border.



On a perfectly good section of road a group of workers were chipping away – somethings in the East will forever remain mysterious.



At a fuelstop we ran into “Calamity Jane” who wanted to use the Honda’s mirror for vanity purposes.



She claimed she was part Japanese/Laos/Chinese and had a good grasp of fruity English

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

M700R

Pretty amazing trip & great photos. Thanks for sharing all this. I haven't been to Thailand in 15 years or more. Only visited there when I was in the Marines. Pattaya Beach & Rayong if I'm remotely close to the spelling. Great place to goof off for a while. The food was awesome. Saw hordes of small scooters zipping around town, and real-live elephants doing real work... Amazing place chock full of nice people.

Regards, Guy

Rhodie

One kilometre short of the border the Laos Customs would not let us go any further.



China would not allow us to go in on motorcycles so we had to turn back.



All the shops on the Laos side were catering for Chinese shoppers and nearby a new casino had been built for Chinese gamblers.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

We had to turn back and head south for Oudomxai.
Here the road turned really gnarly with broken tarmac, large potholes and sections of rocky dirt road necessitating riding on the pegs.


Grilled rat is a nourishing snack - for some!



Along the way stopping at a Hmong roadside market where all sorts of locally caught wildlife was on sale.



Bambo Rat - they knock the long front teeth out before selling

It was early afternoon that we arrived in Udomxai, a dull & dusty town where I managed to lose my wallet.
This necessitated a flurry of international calls that threatened to curtail the trip.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb

Rhodie

After a poor night of lengthy phone calls to Amex, UK banks and friends in Laos a financial fix was now in place to keep the ride on the road!



We were joined at breakfast by a forward young girl who sat down and ordered what she wanted.



The ride to the ancient Laos royal capital, Luang Prabang, was spectacular through the mountain Hmong villages



all displaying their national & communist flags in celebration of some communist victory.

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The Dogs bark, but the Caravan moves on ... Eastern Proverb