Yesterday we headed off from the Sainamhai Resort in Ban Namsanam headed towards Phonsavahn. Whilst this was meant to be a single day trip on a lovely new road, we somehow managed to end up on the old road which is more like a rocky cliff face in parts with pleanty of mud. After 8hrs on the trails we stopped at Muang Moc for the night in a nice Guesthouse. We went out for dinner and karaoke which ended up being a fantastic night out with many Beer Lao's and some Lao Whiskey.
After dinner some Lao folks arrived and invited us to their table for some more drinks and snacks. When i say snacks, i mean two plates of fried Grasshoppers which we tried and weren't too bad once you found the will to swallow them.
Thankfully the road was a lot better towards Phonsavahn but still very muddy and rocky so it was pretty slow going at parts.
We arrived in Phonsavahn around Lunch time and after a lovely shower headed out for some well deserved lunch. (No Grasshoppers). We luckily found a lovely place called the Laofalang Restaurant which served lovely food. We sat with the owner Marcello and talked for a few hours whilst relaxing and letting the abundance of food digest and our bodies recover.
We then rode out to the Plain of Jars site 1 to check out this archaeological site. No one know for sure what they were used for but there are many rumours, our favorite being that they were used to store Whiskey to celebrate after battles. Pretty sobering to realise that 127 UXO were cleared from this site back in 2004, so many bombs left in this country.
We rode back to the town and relaxed in the hotel for a while charging our accessories and copying hundreds of gopro pictures to the laptop for later posting.
We then headed back to the Laofalang restaurant to try some of their other menu items, all of which were fantastic, very glad we found the place. Whilst we were there we met a lovely lady named Karen from the UK who was working with Health Poverty Action, a UK non govt organisation that supports Lao families in need, providing animals and seeds and education to assist in their self sustainability. Check out their website here for more information or to see the great work they do.
All in all it was a fantastic two days, very sore bottoms after the many hours of bumps and boulders but glad we took the wrong turn in the end, such an experience!
Tomorrow (Thursday) we head for Luang Prabang via Route 7 and Route 13 which is approx 250kms away. Hopefully the roads are alot nicer for this trip as our bikes and bums could do with the rest :P
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