Back home in Australia

Howdy all,

After a few nights relaxing and unwinding in Udon Thani, we started our 21hr journey back to the gold coast, Australia. The flights back were a breeze and after upgrading the long haul to Scoot Biz we had a comfortable sleep on the return overnight journey from Singapore to the Gold Coast.

The last few days in Udon Thani were a bit of a non event, apart from of course catching up with our good friend Mr Moto (Amarin) and having many drinks and good food together. One day we decided to see if we could find a good vantage point of the runway at Udon Thani International Airport, as it turned out our hotel for the last part of the trip was located approx 500mtrs from the Runway itself, whilst this made for some noisy takeoff's and landings during the day, it led us to see how close we could get. We found a couple of decent spots after being turned away by the army and air force barracks we were trying to ride into :P Of course they had guns, but we had smiles and that seemed to make them giggle at us as we tried to no end to gain entry.

We visited the night markets to buy some souvenirs and pressies for the folks back home although for most of our stay their David was had a funny tummy which meant not too much exploring around town in the heat.

We found a lovely restaurant called The Bookhouse Restaurant where we got to know the owner/cook who makes a very large selection of fantastic food. This was our meal at least once a day for the 4 days and everything we tried on the menu was top notch! The last day their we tried some of their Thai food which the owners mother cooks, simply devine!

Friday night we handed the bikes back to our good friend Amarin to look after until our next adventure sometime in 2015. Whilst it was a bit sad to hand them back and see them go, we were nonetheless very excited to get back home to see Mason after 3 and a bit weeks away.

When we got home, Mason was super excited to see his daddy and ran to him with arms wide open for a huge hug, then Uncle Chris got a cuddle too :)

Thanks to Maz for looking after the house, mason and cats. It was very good to be home.

Thanks to Mum and Dad for picking us up from the airport early on a Sunday morning!

Over the coming week(s) I will continue sorting through many of the photos we have yet to post and
get some up on the blog as an overview post. Will also tally up our fundraising efforts thus far and provide copies of the Receipts for the purchases we made. It is very important to us that you all know that every cent raised (and a little bit more) went towards this great cause and has really helped to change the lives of hundreds of Laos people for generations to come.

We will be starting our fundraising earlier next year as we would like to try and visit multiple schools to take book parties to as many kids as we possibly can, such a small financial investment that yields such an amazing result!

Last but especially not least, again i have to say a huge thank you to those who have supported us in our cause as well as our previous trips, your support is what gives us the motivation and will to continue these efforts each year and we hope to be even bigger and better next year with extra time for fundraising and planning. Bless each and every one of the you and know you have been instrumental in changing the lives of many, many people!

We look forward to sharing more images of the trip with you over the coming week(s).

If you have any questions at all about anything we could assist with, whether it be general travel advise for Thailand or Laos, how you can arrange to do something like this on your next holiday abroad (Not necessarily just in Laos) or any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on the below details and I will be happy to get back to you.

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

Farewell to Laos

This morning we had a lovely breakfast at the Leuxay Hotel before heading out for a coffee and waffles at Cafe Amazon! Best coffee in Laos.

We then headed back to the hotel to pack up the bikes to head for the border. Only a 1.5hr ride to Udon Thani depending on the border time. The bikes again were loaded up except this time with our Boots etc as well as we couldn't be bothered wearing them for the short ride.

We arrived at the border and the crossing was relatively pain free which was fantastic! Accross the bridge on the right (left) side of the road again and we were back in Thailand! WOOHOO

Good to be back in Thailand again, especially safe and sound from our amazing adventure, we do love the people of laos and their country, cannot wait to come back next time for another amazing adventure!

We headed for Udon Thani which was about a 50km ride from the border to our Hotel organised by our good friend Amarin (Mr Moto). Such a beautiful place. After checking in and a much deserved shower, we dropped our laundry off at our favourite laundry spot in Udon Thani (Cheapest) before heading to Central Plaza for a Sizzler feast! Soooooo Good!

After a late lunch we met up with Mr Moto at his favourite bar and proceeded to demolish a 1ltr bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label along with many Chang Beers :D Happy times with our friend Amarin, so good to see him again!

Tipsy

Very tipsy

Merry and Drunk

Ting Tong :P

Sloshed! 555

All in all was a great day and good to be back in Thailand! Over the coming days will sort through some more photos from the ride and get these on the blog.

Thanks again for all who followed and supported us in our cause, we love you all and are so happy you joined us for the ride!

Kop Kuhn Kup!

Arrived in Vientiane

Monday afternoon we arrived in Vientiane after a busy ride but relatively uneventful. Always good in Laos!

We checked back into the Leuxay Hotel and called Angela (Vongsamay's Daughter) to give her the key for the room at Sainamhai Resort we accidentally took along for the ride.

We headed out for dinner at Fhons Pizza just out of town, some of the best pizza we have ever had, awesome food and a lovely quaint atmosphere. We then headed to the shops to get David some more DEET free Mosquito repellant and tiger balm as they seem to love him.

We retired and watched a movie in the Hotel room before passing out, so good to be back in civilisation again!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head for the border and back into Thailand! Nearly at the end of our adventure, it's been so much fun and we can't wait to be back in Laos next year for our next endeavour!

Regards Chris & David

Like minded soul in Vang Vieng

Sabaidee all,

As luck would have it, whilst i was at the internet cafe last night uploading the pics of Route 4, i met a lovely chap that runs the internet cafe in town and we got chatting. It turns out he has helped some foreign friends of his arrange to help children in some of the villages about 100kms from Vang Vieng. A friend of his from Norway had raised money to build a school in one of the villages which cost approx 10,000 USD. Seems like such a small amount for a school, given the land is donated by the Government and it is only building materials and desks etc that are needed, we were so happy to meet this guy. When we mentioned what we we're doing here he offered to take us out to one of these schools to give some books and equipment.

As we are headed for Vientiane today and didn't have many books left to give out, we asked if he would take the remaining books to one of these villages to donate to them. He was so excited and graciously accepted our offer. This morning we are off to the morning market to buy a couple of Soccer balls to give him to take along to the school when he goes.

We exchanged details and he asked for my email address so he could take and send me some photos of the books being given out to the kids. As we are heading direct to Vientiane today and we won't be passing many villages, we felt this was the best way to distribute the remaining books we had.

We have his details now and he has said he would be very happy to organise some village visits for us next trip around this area.

Thanks again to all of those who have and continue to support us in our endeavours. Please know that you have changed the lives of many Laotian people for generations to come and we love you all from the bottom of our hearts. We are so grateful you trusted and helped us to make this all possible. One of the most amazing experiences of our lives! We are definitely addicted and can't wait for next time.

After breakfast at the Inthira Hotel in Vang Vieng, we headed to the markets, a quick stop to our new friend and then we hit Route 13 to Vientiane for our last night's stay in Laos.

On a rather amusing note, whilst i managed to replace the exhaust mount bolt in Luang Prabang, it is clearly in the wrong spot as you will see below :) Mr Moto, sorry but you will have a few things to fix for us before the next trip :D hehe

Korb Jai Lai Lai, Chris & David :) (Two very happy and quite emotional farang)

Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng via Route 4

 Howdy all, below are some of the nicest pics we took on the Road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Some of the most amazingly breathtaking landscape and some wonderful happy kids along the way. Sorry there arent more pics of the kids getting books but it only took a photo every 10secs which means we missed many of the quick stops with the kids in frame.

Enjoy the pics, when we get to Vientiane tomorrow we will upload more pics. Our mobile internet in Vang Vieng is pathetic so i had to stand at an internet cafe for an hour to upload these. Hope you enjoy!