Friday 6 January 2017

Xepone To Saravane Via The Bamboo Bridges

After a good nights sleep at the Viengxay Hotel it was time to hit some of the tourist spots before heading off.

Total distance today 222km


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Suckling pig to go in Xepone town 600 baht.




Stopping at old Xepone to visit the Wat and the remains of the old bank.











Inside.











A little further down the road is another old Wat.














The nearby bombed bridge.




Boats made from aircraft aluminium. 







A stop at the Halo office always interesting to here how they find and dispose of UXO’s








The silver object is a motion detector bomb, not seen before.




Then on to a whistle stop tour of the Museum.















Latest addition, we was to see similar later in the day.




Old bridge now out of service on the 6307.




Heading for Nong, the short section of HCMT cobble stones.








The road down to Nong is pretty well graded now.




Nice looking Gh on the edge of town.




In Nong there are two bridges one 10k kip and the longer 20k kip.





The shorter bridge upstream.








Not much of a selfie person :-)




The more famous long bridge 250 metres long.















Price list, no negotiating 




Banker.










The village is a stark change to Nong on the other side very very poor people.







All the kids a bit scared of the farang.








Picking our way through the village we soon hit old HCMT cobbles.







Very straight in places.















Very dry already.







But sloppy in the shade.




Nice crossing.




Iot's of small villages.













Obstacles.




Old meets new.










Nice crossing, remains of old bridge to be seen.







The last 15km or so of the trail is being nicely graded.




Upon meeting the 15B a short ride to the next section to Kaleum, which is undergoing major upgrade as part of the new dam.










Diversion due to blasting works.




Old Kaluem in the distance.




Part of the new hydro project.




Bit dusty in places.




The old town is a ghost town now only building shells left, before they flood the place out for the new hydro dam.













Spotted these old pontoons look very much like the ones in the museum.







Ferry to the new township.




Hmm



Some of the remaining buildings being used by contractors.







After a beer it was time to get out of town, this guy must have lost his brakes.






Reaching Lakay village, once a busy logging town now empty.







Power lines down, guess nobody cares now.




Bone dry along here.




A very rare piece of water, hard to imagine how farmers can grow anything in this area.




Bamboo bridge leading to Saravan.







Check in to the not so nice 9-70 GH N15.71211° E106.40248°














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