Bikes, buses, balloons and boats – Laos

by Unknown - Sunday, March 29, 2015

Following a wonderful month back on Koh Rong (during which I became legally entitled to a drink in the US), and a brief stay in Thailand I headed to Laos.
Laos happens to be the one country on this planet that dislikes Canadians– which I gathered from the fact that we have the most expensive visa on the list.

Of course, having just left an island for another island I figured it was only fitting to head to the 4000 islands.

Four Thousand Islands (Don Dhet and surroundings)

A small waterfall

Khonephapheng Waterfall

After a week of eating too many samosas and drinking more shakes than is healthy heading north seemed like a good idea.

Pakse/Bolaven Plateau

Thakhek Loop

There’s not that much on the map about central Laos, but about half way up I’d heard there was a loop that could be driven on scooters rented from the town of Thakhek.

After checking that insurance covered motorcycle accidents and finding that it did (so long as I wasn’t racing) we rented motos from a place at the edge of town called Wang Wang’s– They had relatively low mileage, started, and the brakes worked.

We were set.

Later I realized that the mileage didn’t change, my speedometer didn’t go higher than 10 clicks (although I definitely did), and the brakes didn’t work… Kidding! I mean, the brakes worked.

The road started off smoothly, which was good considering the lack of experience driving a weed whacker.

Day two saw us to the end of the pavement. We figured we should take a photo before the bikes broke down and we all turned red from dust, heat, and exhaustion:

Still looking cool

Shortly after this photo was taken we all looked like oompa loompas minus the green hair. Fortunately for us there was a convenient splattering of waterfalls and swimming caves/springs along the way.