Laos Sekong To Attapeu & The Elusive T54 Tank

222 km covered

Revisit of this trail and had hoped the Sekong bridge would be finished but progress is slow.

So we waited for the ferry.

Smiling bong lady and new toy.

Progress on the new road was very slow, maybe when the bridge is complete they will push on.

Still some bailey bridges remaining.

Village head man or spirit house.

The old French runway.

Some many huge holes dug in this area, not sure if they had been looking for UXO's.

Varied scenery along this route but most trails are nicely graded out.

Bringing firewood back home.

As you get closer to Attapeu, the trail becomes full of loose cobbles, making it very hard going.

UXO crews carefully picking their way through some deforested land.

The T54  which was uncovered during road construction works is easily missed and already overgrown.

For some reason it had been filled with rocks inside, i assume this is to stop scrap hunters.

Munition racks.

Onward to the Sam missle looking freshly painted.

Cluster casing fence.

Tuk tuk has seen better days, maybe a good restoration project.

We rode on to Saysettha to view the old French hospital ruins and nearby Wat.

Must have been an impressive place in it's day.

Wat Ban Phoxai is just next door and worth a look around.

Checked into the Xaysavanh GH for the night after a nice days riding.

Laos Luang Prabang To Phonsavan

Day 3 of the we woke to a cold cloudy start and after a quick breakfast we set off on what we hoped would be a good days riding.

Total distance 230km

The first 40 km or so are now fully paved so we hoped we would eventually see dirt as we had both done this route in its glory days when it was full of river crossings.

This was a great dirt and river crossing now fully paved

Finally we reached the fun stuff

The first of many villages

Shy young Hmong girl in her best dress for the new year

Man and boys enjoying a game with the spinning top, things can get pretty serious with this game

Another village coming to view

Many of these villages only reachable by suspension bridge as you see in the shot

Still some nice bridges with water crossing option in the dry season

We soon reach the old fat lady crossing, gone are the old canoes, they now have two well constructed bridges in place, crossing cost 10k kip each

The old canoes now out of action

Reaching the next village we stopped for gas and to give out some toys to the kids

We approached another village and all the Hmong people out doing the ball toss

Dont want to be late

Still see one of the older water crossings coming from the new graded trail

Another remote village way off in the distance

 Nice new bridge in place as we come close to the end of the trail

Old American Air, control tower

Quick photo stop at the P76 tank

Reaching Phonsavan it was freezing cold and checked into the Jara GH, very clean