Laos - Back to the Start

-Mike guest blogging again-

Unexpected things can happen.  That is part of the adventure - will everything go as planned or will something big, little or just plain odd creep up.  So far it was a few little things with my rental bike, first the speed odometer gave up the ghost, then the blinkers and half the rear brake light and then a blown rear wheel spoke.  But in all these are just some little annoyances that haven't slowed us down or required a change in any of our travel plans.

We rolled into Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos on Monday for a planned two day stay.  Our guesthouse was a great place overlooking the Nam Khan river.  Luang stands for Capital, and Prabang is for the Prabang Buddha that was given to the city in 1359,  We spent the better part of one day visiting the dozens of temples throughout the city.  Our first stop was the Tad Sae waterfall.  To get there is a relatively short ride to ferry parking, and then a 10,000 kip ($1.20) boat ride up the river to the waterfall site.  Upon arrival, there is a 15,000 kip ($1.80) entrance fee and a short walk up to the waterfall....except there was no waterfall, as it's the dry season, and there was only the smallest stream trickling down.  Ugh.  However as we left we chatted with some other travelers that said the Kung Sai waterfall was spring feed and worth the trip, so back on the bikes and we hustled there about half an hour before it closed and WOW.  what an amazing waterfall, with several levels of pools to swim in.  The pools were a deep aqua color which contrasted beautifully against a white rock.  Just spectacular.

We went back to the guesthouse, and to our surprise, Ken's bike was leaking oil.  Based on what we could see our guess was that a seal or gasket had partially failed.  We found a tour agency in Lao called Mototour, and enlisted them to to take a look.   It turned out that the mechanic was from Switzerland with over 30 years of experience and a great resource. He agreed that the seal had failed but that Ken should be able to ride it to Vientiane for service.  So rather than continue into the remote southwestern part of Lao we changed our plan to stay in Luang Prabang another day then ride straight south to Vientiane back thru Vang Vieng.

Tonight we are back in Vang Vieng and had enough time to explore another one of the amazing caves here.  Tomorrow night will make my last day in Laos.  So sad.  

Leg Distance:  211 mi (340 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 36,389 mi (58,697 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam