Thanks for being patient and staying tuned for the few days we weren't actively blogging whilst we crossed into Laos. We hope you enjoy episode 2 of our Holiday Vlog, more riding in this one, we also got stopped by police at a checkpoint which was interesting, normally they just wave foreigners on but we must have looked interesting.
We arrived at the Border early afternoon but it took quite a few hours to get across given we had to arrange a lift across for the bikes. (Motorcycles aren't allowed to cross the bridge unless on another vehicle at this crossing).
We arrived in Thakhek for our overnight stay enroute to Sainamhai resort. We didn't realise it was the Annual Thai/Laos Boat festival on the mekong so Thakhek was absolutely packed with thousands of people everywhere partying until the early hours.
The next morning we loaded up and headed for Na Hin and the Sainamhai resort. Will publish the next video of that ride and the ride to Vientiane later today hopefully :)
Having a blast and hope your enjoying the journey via our blog :D
Thanks for tuning in all, we have had a great couple of days in Udon Thani and have spent most of today preparing for our ride and border crossing about 260kms east of Udon Thani. We are planning to cross into Thakhek from Nakhom Phanom tomorrow, with our papers in hand, we will head to the border through a few morning thunder storms and patchy rain.
As i mentioned in a previous post, if we are turned back from the border it will mean an additional 500+km's to reach our ultimate destination, the Sainamhai Resort in beautiful Khammoune Province, Laos.
Only a short post tonite as we are still busy packing and such. Have some great footage from today to share on our next video in the coming days when we arrive at Sainamhai and can relax and put it together :)
That said, we were at the hotel restaurant for dinner this evening and the singer in the band requested a performance....... Being the Extrovert I am, of course couldn't resist. Thought I would share with you all, audio quality not great but hope you enjoy :)
We made it to Udon Thani! After a quick and sweet 1hr flight from Bangkok to Udon Thani, we were greeted by our main man Amarin (aka Mr Moto) who chauffeured us to the Centara Hotel and Convention Centre where our bikes were parked in the VIP spot awaiting our arrival :)
So good to be back in Udon Thani, last night we decided to have Sizzler for dinner (Go figure, we fly thousands of miles to eat imported Australian Beef at an American fast food chain in Thailand :P Nevertheless steak was great and it was off to bed for some well deserved shut eye.
This morning we headed over to Mr Moto's shop to fill in all the transport and customs forms to export the bikes from Thailand in a few days time when we head for the Thai Lao Friendship Bridge No. 3 in Nakhom Phanom Thailand. Whilst there have been many reports of Bikes not being allowed to cross at this point, we are confident that all is now OK so we will head east for the border on Tuesday (With Fingers and Toes crossed). If for whatever reason we are turned away, it will mean riding approx 600kms additional via Vientiane to get to our favourite place in Laos, the Sainamhai Resort and Mr Vongsamay and his wonderful family. (Please make sure many spring rolls ready for our arrival Mrs Malibayphit)
If all goes to plan, we will cross at Nakhom Phanom enroute to Sainamhai Resort
If it all goes wrong, we will have a 592km trek back to Vientiane then east to Sainamhai Resort.... Fingers crossed!
We headed out for a Roast Pork lunch at the T Bar (Awesome Restaurant on the outskirts of Udon) before fighting crazy traffic and a few police escorts enroute.
Oh well its off to the pool for now to cool off and enjoy the rest of the day relaxing.
We hope you enjoy the first of our vlog videos below, still practising so hopefully will get more polished in time :)
Thanks for tuning in and feel free to leave a comment and subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing!
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.
So we have reached the end of this years holiday and adventure. It has been an amazing experience as always and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here.
We have had a relatively event free trip with only a minor accident for Chris and a tired dropping of the bike for Dave. Either way our steed's are relatively well intact except for Chris's top box, helmet, intercom and Go Pro which will need replacing upon our return home. Thank goodness for insurance!
As always the vast majority of Thai and Laos people we have met along the way have been amazing, so helpful and kind, really reminds us why we love to keep visiting this magical part of the world.
Whilst there are some last day blues, we are so excited to see our little man Mason when we get back home on Sunday morning. A month seems like such a long time to go without a hug or snuggle from the little fella, miss ya heaps buddy!
As i type we are packing our luggage and getting ready for the 3 flights home beginning tomorrow morning.
We have a tonne of footage that we will go through when back home over the coming week(s) and post the Video's including the book party and following Baci Ceremony as well as the rides from Ban Namsanam to Savannakhet, Savannakhet to Pakse/Boolaven Plateua and finally Pakse to Udon Thani. I hope you enjoy these videos and they give you a view to what we find so amazing and special about these countries and their people.
Tomorrow morning is an early start leaving Udon Thani International Airport at approx 0700 bound for Bangkok's Don Muang Airport. Then after a 4 hour layover we head to Singapore's Changi Airport where we will be relaxing in the Ambassador lounge for the duration of our layover (Approx 5hrs), before catching the overnight flight back to the Gold Coast landing on Sunday morning at approx 0900. Here's hoping we don't have too many issues at Gold Coast airport, which i have had many not so nice things to say about them in the past, last years experience was pretty good so hopefully they don't hassle us too much again this year.
Thanks everyone for following our blog and don't forget to check in here every now and again to see the videos we will be posting and a round up of this years events including a summary of the funds raised and where they went. Remember we are still yet to raise some more funds to add to the left over funds raised to help provide a Well (water) and electricity to the Ban Oh village school in the coming months with the invaluable assistance and coordination of Mr Vongsamay and his family from the Sainamhai resort in Ban Namsanam, Khammoune Province Laos.
