Laos Vientiane To Chomcheng

Day 11 Vientiane to Chomcheng border point

212 Km 8 hours

After the last few lacklustre days, it was good to get back on the road, today would take me along  the Mekong to the Chomcheng border point or Friendship Bridge 1

Amazing how just a short distance from the affluence of Vientiane poverty is in plain sight and the old wooden houses prevail.

This road like so many in Laos is in the middle of major remodelling and starts off smooth tarmac and quickly to graded

Then the usual red dust

Some of the more  beautiful Wats along this route

This unusual Wat was like fantasy garden with so many Buddha’s and effigies  on display

A large meditation centre on the Thai side

More images from the Wat

Back on the road and newly paved section

The Mekong shrouded in haze

Cute smile

Another old Wat

Dragon boat shelter

Example of the rapid change, old and new

And again

This route is a real mixed bag of all surfaces

More Wats

Soon after i was flagged by a group of friendly ladies making a collection for yet another Wat

I gave them a small donation

Armed with my lucky lucky string i was good to go

Haze slowly lifting

Another new GH  development

One of the few older bridges

But as usual a  water crossing was available for the heavier trucks

My favourite picture of the trip, these guy’s wanted  to drown me, but in exchange for a picture they let me pass

Like i said a mixed bag of surfaces

Arriving at the ferry point a nice new ferry waiting, but the old lady in the bamboo hut hailed a more modest  form of crossing transportation

Here’’s my ride, always a welcome sight when you see a double canoe ferry the singles can be a little unsettling 

He had an ingenious roll on roll off barrier system

Back to dirt

Very nice stretch until a truck comes along 

Arriving in Chomcheng, looking for a GH, several in town and a few restaurants

Since i was making good time, grabbed some noodles and thought to push on to Paklay, leaving  town a huge thunder storm was approaching and stopped within yards of the edge of the rain, i  decided to turn back  and wait out the storm in this abandoned restaurant

As the storm hit i contemplated pitching camp inside  but half the roof was missing and i had seen some pretty nice GH’s  in town so i sat waiting for it to ease off and check out a room for the night. Headed back to the Ivee GH 80k kip for a nice relaxing evening

Day 12 Elephant day to follow