The Worst Days of my Motorcycling Tour Ever

Day 23 | 11th June 2016

Is this dude flying?! Gosh! Read on..

473km. The distance to the border town of Laos and China from where I am. GPS estimates me 9 hours +. So far it is pretty accurate because I am never able to go fast in Laos. Its too dangerous to go fast. Average speed for me was at about 80km/hour so far in Laos.

There is NO actual proper high/ freeway in Laos at all. One will have to drive through mostly many rural villages and crappy roads. Because of this, I woke up early today as it would be far.

After the usual tedious routine of packing the stuff and shifting it onto the bike with the donning of safety PPEs, I only managed to physically move off from at 06:03 hours Laos time.

Only in the morning will you be able to see the clouds lying low over the landscape. Beautiful! First time ever seeing such a scene.

At 06:00 hours in Laos, the entire country is already 100% lit by the sun. The sun actually starts rising at 05:10 hours here in Laos. I would only consider myself starting early when the sun has just started to rise. You know, that kind of twilight hours where its mostly blue-ish..cooling breeze..dark..with hints of light coming..one of the best parts of the day for me.

Back to my trip towards China..

Starting off at 06:03 hours, I stopped by a stall by the road to have first meal of the day only 2 hours after. Food is expensive.. guessing Foreigner Special price. Plus it wasn’t fantastic..especially the chicken, it was mostly bones to me and cold. Whatever.. just filled my stomach and off I go. Getting good food is not my priority here.

Expensive food even in non touristy areas. I forgot the price as I am writing this at a much later date. Reason being many locals tell me that they import from Thailand therefore the cost price is much more. Hard to believe, as the average monthly income earnings per person is not that high. I believe I get foreigner special price.

I soon came to the peak of the mountains where the visibility got poor due to low cloud formation. It was also raining in the clouds. The decent roads became an abrupt gravel way. Not only gravel but the road was not even flat. It was filled with holes that can be almost called called steps even. The proper road just stopped. It doesnt look like it was because of upgrading/ construction purposes that it became like that.

It just looks damaged and still deteriorating highly due to the fact that the earth at the peak of the mountain have eroded/ loosened over the years, thus destroying the road in that 100 meters stretch. Obviously, it wasn’t cared for nor reported for long, looking at the ridiculous condition in that stretch. It actually looks like it have become a trekking way made for humans instead. Within 30 meters of this stretch, I had my first fall.

Within 10 mins, I had a 2nd fall. Motorcycle Riders skills bad or the road? You be the judge. I would say 50/50 plays a part. 50% my skills being not good enough to control this clunk of metal on treacherous off roads. 50% being the road. You be the judge.

13 mins later, I had a 3rd topple (Below).
This is the first time the bike is completely flat on the ground. The boxes manufactured by SW – MoTech Trax is really really robust. It did not even break, though of course normal dents caved in. What you pay is what you get.

Checked the motorcycle and descended down the mountains and I am rewarded with beautiful hilly regions on the way to lower altitudes. Had to stop to photograph the sceneries!