330km - Boten/Luang Prabang - 17th Feb

11 hours on the road for only 330km and 13 hours on the privious day is far too much for me.. I would not target more then 300km a day in northern Laos. .. say 250km max. reached Luang Prabang, once the capital of Laos.. arrived at about 8pm in the dark again, though the last hour into darkness here is not that bad as this is a major town and there are street lights on the way in..

some beautiful river view along the way..

9 hours... still on the road.. ahhh

taking a break..

in case you wanna do booking... this is her number..

yeah, she runs this guesthouse..

with 30 ethnic groups within the northwest of Laos.. here is one pretty Loatians..

betweeen Oudom Xai to Luang Prabang, I reach this little town (smaller the Oudom) call Pak Mong. a few chinese food outlets.. wow, there's a guesthouse here out of no where..

... slight detour as road disappear again..

ahhh... stress...

.. padi fields noted after Oudom Xai..

looking at the milestone as I set off from Oudon Xai... ahhh, still 194km to go.. the 120km that I just did took me more then 4 hours..

.. happy family, bathing, playing and washing their lorry...

.. to my Muslim buddies, looking for halal food is a problem here.. suggest having a one meter long baguette to bite for 10 hours..

food here..? hmm don't ask, just eat to live..

first major town after 100+km.. quite a sizable town call Oudom Xai.. guesthouse and rst available.. notice a few chinese rsts..

where's my side of the road..?

at times you see yourself on the gps being stationary. looking across, you realize you were on the other side some 30/40 mins ago and have actually travelled quite a distance

oh dear.. a truck just went down the ravine.. it's way down over a hundred feet.. looking at my phone, there isn't any signal.. nothing I could do, I moved on.. with my knees a little 'jelly feeling'..

Whats the commotion..? looking at the villages gathered looking down the ravine, you know it's something not good..

the road in many sections is so bad that my average speed is hardy 30km/hr..

phew... road was worst then the previous day.. land slides all over. the most scary thing is seeing it as you come out of a corner.

have to back track about 20km, where I realize how bad the rd was when I went through last night in the dark..

temp should be below 15* whn we set off..

Boten from a distance..

having 330km to clear.. we set off at 8.15am, hopefully not to ride into darkness again...