Happy to say we have arrived safe and sound in Thailand :) After an exceptionally long day of travel from the Gold Coast yesterday morning, we arrived in Bangkok at approx 3am AEST after leaving at 9am the previous morning.
We had a 7.5hr stopover in Singapore which was sped up by some time relaxing in the Ambassador Lounge at Changi T2. (Best Showers EVER!)
I look forward to posting some pictures and videos in the coming days once we have arrived in Udon Thani. Can't wait to see our Awesome Honda CRF's and of course Mr. Moto who looks after our bikes so graciously, we love you Mr. Moto!
Can now officially say it feels like we are on holiday. In just a few hours we will land at Udon Thani where we will be picked up by Mr Moto to chauffeur us the Centara Hotel where our prepared our bikes ready for our arrival.
Thanks for tuning in to the blog all, we love sharing these adventures with you all.
On the 29th September 2017, David Burrows and Christopher Jilley will be reunited with our awesome Honda CRF 250L's for another hoot around Laos. We have not arranged a fundraising campaign this year for another book party as the timing wasn't with us this year with many exciting things happening with us and our extended family.
It's been almost two years since we were last in Laos, alot has happened in that time but you get the feeling that when you get back, the pace will just slow right down again. Kind of like stepping out of the crazy hectic western world into an Oasis with the wonder of nature all around and a beautiful people for the most part not distracted by the unimportant.
For 3 weeks in Thailand and Laos, our route will be approx 1700 km's and will take us East through Isaan to where we hope to cross the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge No 3 at Nakom Phanom (Thai) into Thakek (Laos). We have heard there have been issues in the past with this particular bridge crossing into Laos not allowing motorcycles due to a band of rogue Thai riders that avoided Laos police by darting across the border some time ago. We crossed this bridge in the other direction from Laos back to Thai almost 5 years ago not too long after the bridge had been built. I vividly remember the Laos official saying "Maybe you not go today, if he say no, you not go".
FB3 Border Crossing from the Lao Side.
Photo from 2012 Trip - On the rented Kawasaki KLX250's
After some polite and friendly patience and pleanty of Wai's. we were off on our merry way across the bridge, apparently both David and Big Chris forgot that the bridge was Thai and didn't observe the clearly marked flow of the road and signs showing the change in direction and rode half way across the bridge on the wrong side of the road. All good though, we avoided a 300+kms trip back to Vientiane's Friendship Bridge No 1 (The Main Land Crossing for Thai/Laos).
We are planning to cross at FB3 this time so we can head straight for Na Hin and the Sainamhai Resort to see Uncle Vongsamay :) where we will enjoy 4 glorious days and nights relaxing in the beauty of Na Hin and Khammoune Province, but most importantly in the company of some amazing people. Can't wait to see you all soon!
The Road to Paradise (aka Sainamhai Resort)
We then make our way West to Vientiane and then north to Vang Vieng en route to Luang Prabang where many more amazing friends await us to spoil us with their hospitality as always. :)
Last year we were a bit dissapointed that we had tried to reach Long Tieng (South west of Phonsavahn and North east of Vang Vieng. We had attempted to approach from the North which apparently wasn't the way to go so we were very politely turned back around and told it was best to go back to Phonsavahn. Long Tieng was long regarded as one of the most secrect places on earth due to its geographical military use during the Vietnam war. We hope this year to get a glimpse of Long Tieng in its current untouched form before the area opens up to tourism which may occur in the very near future.
We will then head back to Vang Vieng and then a leisurely ride back down south to Udon Thani where we end our tour and our very good friend Amarin (Mr Moto) will look after our trust Honda's until our next visit. We are so blessed to have met so many wonderful and helpful people through our many trips to Thailand and Laos. Look forward to seeing you all again very soon :)
WOOHOO, 17days till take off!!! :D
Some things we will be attempting not to do on this trip! Enjoy the below
Dave on a wet and oil covered Route 8 in 2013 :)
Chris on a dry road with no oil cover in 2015 :)
Chris gets rear ended by an Isuzu with a Bull Bar when little Laos lady steps into the road in front of us. Bike was 3cms shorter after this incident.
