Laos: Two-Wheeled Adventures

By Feann Torr - 20/June/2007

If you're a motorcyclist in Australia, you may be used to people sometimes telling you how crazy you are. I've been told that I have a death wish because I ride a bike, that drivers dislike it when motorbikes cut through traffic or park on the path.

I've even heard someone utter that bikes intentionally lurk in blind spots to confuse drivers. Yep, that's completely logical.

Indeed, I've heard quite a few things in my time, but the reaction from my favourite anti-motorcyclist colleagues when I told them I'd be riding trail bikes in Laos was priceless.

"Isn't that a communist country?" one said. Yeah, it is.

"You'll get shot by bandits, you're mad if you go," another decried. That's okay, I've got kevlar body armour.

"The Golden Triangle! You'll be abducted by drug cartels and sold as sex slaves, or put to work in the drug factories," exclaimed a different colleague in earnest. Okay, sure, and the plane might crash and I'll burn to death at an altitude of 30,000 feet as well, or perhaps I'd stub my foot and get hit by a bus.

But you know what? We went, and we're back. Alive. The only injuries to speak of were superficial cuts and bruises when we came off the bikes at tame speeds. There were no bandits, there were no Golden Triangle drug squads, and we only saw one soldier with AK47 rifle.

In fact most of the local Military officials were quite pleasant and even keen to help us find our destinations. As the classic Public Enemy song suggests, don't believe the hype.

Put simply, Laos is an incredible country. This was my first time there, and I can tell you it won't be my last. Not only is the land-locked nation's natural beauty arresting, but the people too were some of the friendliest folk I've ever come across.

Bandits? Nope, we didn't see any, but we were offered plenty of helpful advice along the way. Without such help we would have been lost numerous times, GPS co-ordinates or not.

Anyway, the trip started after an eight hour flight from Melbourne to Singapore. There were three of us all told, one rider from England, one rider from Singapore and yours truly from Australia.

The next day we jumped on a budget flight to Udon Thani in northern Thailand, because as it turns out it was far more cost effective to fly to Thailand, then catch the bus across the border (over the Australian-built Friendship Bridge) to Vientiane in Laos, than to fly directly into the country.

We got more passport stamps too.

Accommodation was very well priced in Laos, and even when we stayed in an upmarket hotel with a pool the most we paid was $US45 per night for three blokes ($15 each), and every night we ate good quality meals for about $2 each.

The local currency is Laotian Kip, but American dollars are generally accepted in most places and by most people (but sometime you pay a slight premium).

Laos is located in South East Asia and is an bordered by Vietnam to the east, China and Burma to the north, Thailand to the west, and Cambodia to the south.

The country has a population of roughly 6.5 million and the landscape is mostly  plateaus and rugged mountains, which ensures a large contingent of avid rock climbers in the region. Bhuddism is the major religion in Laos, and as we discovered shortly after picking up our Honda XR 250 Baja dirt bikes, infrastructure in Laos is fairly basic.

There is no railroad system, telecommunications are fairly limited (but improving rapidly), and even the road system is relatively primitive.

The perfect place for a mid-year getaway!

After we picked up our bikes in Vientiane, which we rented for $US18 per day, we headed north out of the provincial city to our destination about 250 kilometres away, a place called Vang Vieng.

Leaving the legendary Mekong river behind us, along with the relative hustle bustle of the small city of Vientiane, we decided to do without a guide and find our way.

In hindsight it may have been quicker to get a guide - at least as far as Vang Vieng - but at the end of the day it was refreshing to just set out on a journey with some pals.

The 2002 model Honda Bajas we rode had an average of about 40,000km on the clocks and though they weren't brimming with power (output is rated at 20kW (28hp) @ 8000rpm), the single-cylinder 4-valve bikes nevertheless served us well.

The brakes were up to the task (baggage was one backpack per person), and the suspension on the XR 250s was in pretty good nick. For rental bikes, they weren't too shabby, and even managed to get us through a few decent river crossings.

After a few hours in the saddle, it became clear that rice growing is one of the more common agricultural endeavours in the south-east Asian country, with rice paddy after ride paddy flying past us as a blur of green and brown. As it turns out, revenue from rice makes up half of the Laotian GDP, and totals 80% of the nations employment.

The backdrop to the endless ride paddies that cover the Laotian lowlands is absolutely stunning, a mixture of rugged jungle-covered mountains, and limestone plateaus that jut vertically from the ground. The highest point in Laos is Phou Bia, at 2,817 metres above sea level.

After a few hours riding on the right hand side of road (our directions were simple - we followed the compass north) it became clear that driving etiquette in Laos is very different from Australia.

Overtaking can be dicey at the best of times, and on more than one occasion I was overtaken while I was overtaking another vehicle. Three abreast? Not an ideal situation with large trucks headed towards you...

Generally speaking though, the drivers in Laos are pretty good and because there's a large majority of scooters and bikes on the road people are used to checking their blind spots for two-wheeled vehicles.

While the majority of the trip north was on straight sealed roads, there were a few twisty sections that wound their way through mountain passes, and would have made for brilliant riding were it not for the pot holes that peppered the apex of half the corners.

Some six hours after leaving Vientiane we arrived in Vang Vieng, which we wouldn't have found if it wasn't for the helpful directions of the locals. We covered about 250km and the reason it took so long was two-fold: the bikes didn't go much faster than 105km/h, and we stopped regularly for photos/snakes/bovine crossings.

The weather took its toll on us as well, particularly wearing heavy kevlar-padded motorbike jackets. We sweated profusely in the intense heat (so much for the monsoon season...) and had to frequently take on water to avoid dehydration.

Though it didn't rain once during our journey, the average temperature was about 36° on most days, and the heat was fairly dry.

The sun had set by the time we got to Vang Vieng, whose tourist population was almost exclusively young European backpackers. I think we saw one other Aussie guy there, and the reward at the end of a day in the saddle was a relaxing swim in the Nam Song river with the locals.

We woke the next day surrounded by karst terrain - essentially limestone or dolostone plateaus that rise vertically from the ground. We decided we'd cross the river and try and wend our way to the top of one of the plateaus.

We rode through some of the most amazing countryside, cruising through tiny villages whose dwellings were built mainly from palm trees with the odd tiled roof, and whose herds of cows, flocks of chickens and numerous goats and pigs roamed free. There were makeshift fences here and there, but for the most part the livestock grazed wherever they wanted.

As we made our way closer to the base of one of the huge vertical rock pillars, we soon realised that the only way to get to the top would be either by rock climbing, or by helicopter. We had neither the skill nor the equipment to climb, and the helicopter option was intriguing, but ultimately moot. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Instead we went for another swim.

After another day in the saddle, we headed back to Vang Vieng and came across an unused airfield not far from town. Originally called Lima site 6, the air strip was used by Air America, which is said to have been a CIA-run operation to supply and support regimes friendly to the US in the South East Asian region.

Nowadays the runway is home to the odd truck and edged by a couple of local market stalls, yet the huge runway is still an eerily desolate reminder of the conflicts that besieged the region in the 60s and 70s.

Laos also holds the tragic honour of being the most bombed country in history.

Most of the restaurants in Vang Vieng will feed you for between $1 and $3 and the local beer is surprisingly good for 80c per bottle. A few of the local eateries had large screen TVs to attract westerners, showing movies at dinner time like 300 and Spider-Man 3. As well as pizza, steak and other western cuisine that is offered, the local Laotian food was pretty tasty, and reminded me of a mixture between Malaysian and Vietnamese food, with a slightly more hearty taste.

Beyond the major arterials in Laos, sealed roads don't really exist, and apart from the odd pebbled river beds we explored, the next few days were spent on dirt roads.

We had a few river crossings in our travels, and later in the trip took a day off from riding the bikes (after a few choice stacks) to canoe down the Nam Song river, which provided an even more stunning view of the mountainous jungle-covered scenery.

We used Vang Vieng as our base and explored the surrounding regions with the trusty XR Baja bikes, which is an experience I'll never forget. The local villagers we came across, while incredibly poor and without the modern facilities we take for granted in Australia, were some of the happiest people I've ever seen.

Everyone was smiling and despite the intense heat of the sun the locals seemed at ease in accepting a trio of foreign strangers and taking the time to say hello.

Our odd faces and skin tones mesmerised the ankle biters in most villages and though our communication was haphazard at best, it wasn't difficult to see why the locals were so happy. It's a quiet place out in the countryside, but the people have everything they need: food, water and shelter.

Forgetting about mortgages, insurance, superannuation, tax, bills, the price of petrol, and all the other complexities that blanket our thoughts and bombard us everyday, it was refreshing to have those shackles lifted and feel truly in awe of the world around us.

The journey back from Vang Viene to Vientiane where we dropped off the bikes was far more relaxed because we were on sealed roads, and before long we had crossed the Friendship Bridge to northern Thailand and were winging our way back to Singapore.

Back to civilisation...

If you ever need a short break from the everyday, I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Laos. It's a stunning place to visit and if you're feeling adventurous grab a dirt bike while your at it. The standard scooters cost about $US5 per day to rent, which compares well with the Honda trail bikes we rented at $US18 per day, but having decent suspension and off-road tyres means you can really get off the beaten track.

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