Laos Ban Long To Oudomxai Off Road

Day 3 from Ban Long To Oudomxai

251 Km 10 Hrs. 20 minutes

I awoke refreshed after a good nights sleep at the Siseng GH, it’s pretty basic with squat toilets but good hot shower (apart from room 3 ). Bid my goodbyes to the owner and new granddaughter and placed a little sticker.

Last year i rode this trial the other way and if you recall had a brush with one of the mining Landrovers, this time no traffic at all, the bull dust i had encountered last year was all but gone likely due to the big storms, but sadly had exposed the rocks that could rival any section of the old rock road to Pongsali (no pictures of that too busy trying to keep my bike together).

Wasn’t long before the old machete was in action again to clear away fallen tree’s and scrub.

Hitting the first village with a small water crossing, things had developed since i was last there and a number of what i guess are logging trails had opened. I pointed myself down one of them but ended up going in the wrong direction, so saved for another day.

Some burning in evidence but not as much as last year, but again i guess the storms dampened them down.

More tree chopping then this larger tree that was beyond my tiny machete, lucky for me i could lay the bike down and with of effort project the bike through in first gear and flick the clutch.

Small logging camp

Sky starting to clear

Lots of small villages along the way.

Lovely cool water crossing

Even the smoke appeared to have eased today so i could enjoy the views.

Loved this little house, they called me down for a drink but i couldn’t figure a way down.

Power poles ready for erection, thats a bad sign

More great views

But not this

This is one of my most enjoyable trails in Laos and still remains untouched and reached Nalae in record time, i checked around the guesthouses and all were deserted, a very large Songran party was underway and all the village was there !

Gassed up in town to consider my options, i figured i could get to Oudomxai before nightfall and the guy in the gas station confirmed the road was graded (turned out he was wrong or at least the way i went) since i had never ridden this section so off i went. 

Came to the only real village along the way, my GPS was pointing me through the village and off the graded road to a series of water crossings, trusting the GPS would guide me through, this was the first one leading from the village.

Then quickly another

Some sort of Dam in progress 

Now this bit was getting interesting and hardly any signs of motorcycles coming this way so i was a little apprehensive and the trail turned to single track and numerous water crossing some of which in hindsight i was foolish to be doing alone.

Pretty much the trail was the river, hard to imagine in the rainy season

Notice the green slime

A couple of them had nice bamboo bridges but the last i gave a miss.

Interesting gate

This one was the worst for me and my short legs.

Finally i was back on more frequently used sections of the trail and i could pick up the pace, but i could see no link back to Nalae of this graded section

Final stream crossing

Back in open countryside

Nam Hin reservoir was a beautiful place and wish i had spent some time there, but the light was fading fast.

Arrived in Oudomxai, the Nam Mao river was very low and looked like some sort of mining works in progress to extract minerals.

Not sure how she got the wheel barrow down there

Decided to go posh, i was going to stay in the Vilavong GH and wish i had, but had a brain fart and decided to go to the very large Friendship Hotel. Chinese owned  had a big restaurant area and what i guess was a big Karaoke in the front, staff extremely unhelpful and i asked for a double room with Wifi at the back of the hotel hoping it would be quiet.

Given a single room out of reach of the Wifi, complained and got nowhere, the said i could use the lobby Wifi, great customer service !

Restaurant did not serve food WTF, so went to a place across from the main entrance, the food was almost uneatable but since i hadn’t eaten all it would have to do.

Turned in for the night and thought i would check out the massage building in the rear, too late it was closed, late at night turns into a local disco / beer station full of drunk teenagers until 1AM.

Not much sleep that night, why didn’t i just play safe and go to the Vilavong :-(