Video: A quick ride around Vientiane

Our first ride video. A quick ride around Vientiane. Still learning :)

Last day on Vientiane

It was a lazy start to the day with breakfast at the hotel.

After relaxing around the poolside we decided to head to the shops to pick up some souvenirs and presents for those back home.

We got a bit carried away and ended up with a rather large bag of trinkets and presents that we needed to offload before heading to Vang Vieng tomorrow.  Thankfully Amarin helped us organize with Fuark to take the bag of goodies cross the border to Thailand tomorrow when Fuark will drop off at Amarin's shop for us.

A lovely lunch at Kop Chai Deu we headed to our laundry lady to pick up the washing before we head off tomorrow.



Chris then begin creating a video using some of the footage taken with our action cams whilst riding around Vientiane and after a few hours wrestling with Adobe Premiere our first video was ready to be shared on youtube using the hotel Wi-Fi.

We begin uploading the video which should be finished in about 4 hours time, internet certainly isn't what it is back home.

For something different we decided to head to the Lao kitchen for dinner before heading to the night market to do a bit more browsing. Looking forward to heading to Vang Vieng tomorrow for an overnight stay before we had to Luang Prabang on Monday.

Picking up the books

This afternoon we headed to the EDF Laos Offices (Educational Development Foundation) to pickup the books. Complete success! They had all the books we were after and they were all ready to go! Thank you Martin Momodo from Momobooks, Khamiane and Jamie from EDF Laos, you made this very easy for us!

We ended up purchasing close to 350 books for this years tour as well as of course the uniforms for all the children at the Ban Oh village school. Book party is scheduled for the week beginning 9th November and we can't wait!

With the books packed in our top boxes we headed to Kop Chai Deu restaurant for some food whilst we waited for Luna to come and meet us to collect the books and money for the Uniforms. Thank you Luna, Angela, Nana, Guut and Vongsamay for helping us bring it all together every year.

After a quick hello with Luna we realised that everything is now organised, books and uniforms are paid for and will be on their way to the Sainamhai Resort in Ban Namsanam which is the base for our Book Parties in Khammoune province, as well as being a beautiful place to stay with the one of the nicest families we have ever met!

As such we decided that it was appropriate and warranted that we get drunk this evening to celebrate the achievement so off to the supermarket to get a bottle of Lao Lao (Lao Whiskey/Moonshine) and snack which we took back to the air conditioned comfort of our hotel with YouTube on the TV :)

As i type this i can feel the alcohol taking effect and getting tipsier by the minute. On that note, thank you again to all for supporting and following our trip, we really couldn't do it without your support and generosity.

Tomorrow will be a relaxing day in Vientiane with plenty of time for the Pool, Good food and whatever else is required to mitigate the inevitable hangover (Lucky Chris doesn't get hangovers but David on the other hand will likely be moping around for the first few hours tomorrow).

Good night and see you all tomorrow :D

Fixing the bikes in Vientiane

We headed down to Fuark Motorcycle on Asean Road in Vientiane this morning after breakfast to drop off David's bike to have the luggage rack replaced and the air filter cleaned.

Whilst we were waiting we decided to head to the air conditioned shopping center in town to grab a coffee and cool down. Vientiane Center is a large upmarket shopping center with very little of interest unless your female and have 50 billion dollars to spend on makeup, jewelery and bags.

After our coffee's whilst watching the shopping centre staff awards ceremony (bit random) we headed out for a ride (David on the back of Chris's bike) before then returning to the hotel for a light lunch.

After lunch we were a bit happier and headed back to Fuark's to drop off Chris's bike to get the air filter cleaned and top rack replaced as well just to be sure we have no more issues.

Whilst waiting for Fuark to finish Chris's bike we were still a bit peckish so whilst we were waiting we found a nice little restaurant that clearly wasn't frequented by foreigners. We had a bowl of Beef and Organs soup with noodles which really hit the spot. Spicy and awesome!

With the bikes ready to go we headed back to the hotel to collect the top boxes and shortly heading to the EDF Laos offices to pickup the books for the book party as well as collecting our washing from our lovely laundry lady.

Fun times! :D

Border crossing into Laos

After a brisk ride to the Friendship bridge from Udon Thani we arrived at Nong Khai at about 10am. Upon arrival we realised that the luggage rack on David's bike had snapped leaving  the top box held on by a couple of bolts. Being that we were alot closer to Vientiane we decided to engage Macguyver mode so out came the bungee cords to save the day. After adding some support, securing the box to the bike we very cautiously headed through the Thai border crossing and over the bridge into Vientiane.

Upon arrival at the Laos border, everything seemed to be going well until it came time to head to Room 105 {The Laos Customs officials} to finalise and stamp the export papers for the bikes. It was at this stage that the official pointed out that part of the paperwork had not been completed by Amarin specifying who was authorised to take the bikes out of Thailand. (The only form completely in Thai}. As such the official advised we would need to return to Thailand to have this completed by the registered owner before we could proceed across the border.

As you can imagine we were somewhat frustrated at this point and attempted to contact Amarin back in Thailand to see if he could fill out and fax new papers to the Laos border to permit us to pass. Whilst waiting for s response from Amarin we got talking to the officials and explained we do this every year and exactly what we were coming to Laos to do {Good causes etc}. Once this was established and it was clear from our passports that this was a regular thing for us, he decided to go and speak to the head of immigration and customs who very kindly authorised our crossing with incomplete paperwork. With a sigh of relief and many Kop Jai Lai Lai's we were on our way into Laos.

Amarin organised with a good man Fuark in Vientiane to replace the luggage rack on David's bike while we were here before heading north. A fun ride through Vientiane and it's immensely insane traffic  and we arrived at the Leuxay Hotel, our favourite stop in VT.  Back into air conditioning to cool down before we headed out for some well deserved lunch at Joma Bakery in town for a nice sandwich and cold drinks. That hit the spot!

We headed to the local Mini mart to purchase our Laos Unitel simcards and then back to the hotel to escape the heat and get us back online. Tomorrow morning we will be heading to Fuark's shop to get the rack replaced which we hope is the last motorcycle related issue for the trip. Touch wood!

Tomorrow we will be heading for the EDF Laos offices to pick up our book order and then meeting up with Vongsamays daughter to arrange transport of the books to the Sainamhai resort for the Ban Oh village book party in just over a week.

Currently eating dinner at Kop Chai Deu Restaurant, another favourite in VT and our food has now arrived so time to push the button.

All in all a long but good day and happy to be in Laos once again.

Here we go :-)

And so it begins. This morning we ride for Nong Khai and the border crossing into Vientiane Laos.

Bike loaded, strapped and ready to go, we leave Udon at a reasonable 9am and should arrive In Vientiane approx midday.  (Depending on how painful the border crossing is). Thankfully we have done this crossing numerous times so shouldnt be much of an issue unless of course they make a mistake which as we previously established isn't uncommon.

Next post should be from within the Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos.

Woohoo. Let's Ride!

Last day in Udon Thani Thailand

This morning we took Chris's bike down to Mr Moto to have the fork seals replaced as these started leaking fork oil. Good thing to as there was not much oil left in the forks which would have made from some interesting bumps and braking on the trip.

Whilst Mr Moto was hard at work on the bikes, we headed back to the hotel for a massage and some more relaxing in the pool, sauna and spa! Tis a fabulously hard life we lead :)

After picking up the bike, we sat down with Mr Moto to complete the paperwork required to cross the border into Laos tomorrow. Fingers crossed we got it right for the always fun border crossing from Nong Khai Thailand to Vientiane Laos over the Thai - Laos friendship bridge.

We spent the afternoon catching up with a good friend in Udon before returning to the hotel to pack our top boxes for the journey. Thankfully we fit it all in with a little room to spare :)

Not much else to post about today but i'm sure that will change very soon!

Tomorrow will be a relatively early start after breakfast which should see us arrive at the border approx 10am, at which time we will begin the Laos border experience! Fun times!

Hopefully tomorrow's crossing will be uneventful and quick, we have done it a number of times but its easy to forget the process and end up wandering from building to building to get the approval to bring the bikes (and ourselves) into Laos where the real adventure begins.

Stay tuned for more updates over the coming days to let you all know how we are going.

Don't forget, to see our position live on GPS on the way, you can click on the link in the top right of this page.

Kop Kuhn Krab, Chris & David