tsol‏

Were you so excited about your first deep motorbike water crossing that you failed to notice the drastic change in the road conditions, that the once previously smooth 2 lane paved road had turned into nothing more then a dirt track.  And were you also so excited about the water crossing that some how you didn't even think about why you were having to submerge your fancey motorbike thy deep in the first place.  Had even one of the four of you sparked the slightest of brain functions you'd have realized you were having to do the water crossing because...'there was no %#$ing bridge!'  5 miles back you had been passing trucks not to mention busses and now you had just made your passenger dismount to walk across the elevated 2 foot wide roting bamboo foot path so that she could take your photo as you glefully submerged your motorbike throwing wake towards the couple of bewildered local ladies washing their cloths.

Of course the next two bridgeless watercrossings didn't tip you off that maybe you'd missed the 5 foot by 5 foot sign at the last major intersection. But maybe you should have seen it in the locals eyes.  Remember the past 22 days of motorbike driving you'd done and the 1000's of children you'd passed.  Remember how there wasn't a single one who didnt' come running, arms flying, to the side of the road to scream, 'Hello!' and smile as big as they possibly could.  Yet now every child and every adult you passed just stood there utterly dumbfounded, you might as well have been headless, you'd have gotten the same reaction.  That was because no one drove down this road unless they lived on it.  

Ok so you didn't notice the road turned into a dirt track, you didn't notice the absence of bridges and you didn't take note of the locals reactions but 30 km on there was no way to miss the fact that the dirt track just abruptly ended in a field.  

Bzzzzzzzzt.  Four brains begin to function simeltanously, time to turn around.  

 

Hope you all are awesome!!!

 

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Sticky Rice‏

Last night we went out to fetch some grub from the dozens of street vendors who lined the streets of Luang Prabang's World Heritage district.  You name it, it was there; barbaqued baby bat, roasted chicken fetus, two foot long saugaes dripping greese from only the butcher knows what kind of animal.  Being omnivores as we are, but usually tending to opt for the 'safest' looking option rather then the 'tastiest' (the two foot long saucage was making my mouth water) we went with a few vegatable dishes.  Curied vegatables with tofu, spicy steemed greens, veggie spring rolls, two orders of sticky rice, a slice of pumpking cake and a slice of coconut cake; the total came to just two dollars.  Brought it all back to our hotel, sat down in the late evening head and dug in. Everything was amazing, the spring rolls were up there with the best ever. 
This afternoon i'm lying in bed, writing this email on a scrap of paper in the back of our Laos guide book as i'm afraid to venture more then a few meters from the toilet.  Lets just say the two dollar street food didn't sit so well, like didn't sit so well 30 trips to the bathroom.
Earlier this morning i was feeling ready to go so Rachael and I went for a little stroll.  10 blocks down the street i realized my folly and had to power waddle back to the hotel as fast as i could and only just bairly made it.  
Our last motorbike adventure in Vietnam was so incrediable we've decided to do it all over again here in Laos.  Our plan was to arrive in Vientatine (the capital of Laos) find two 125 motorbikes identical to the ones in Vietnam and head off.  Only after a morning of searching we were commin up empty handed.  It was either 100cc motorbikes that wouldn't have enough guts and wern't equiped with frames for our packs anyways or 250cc Honda Baja dirt bikes.  Will and i both loved the idea of the Bajas, a rally maching ready for highway travel, river crossing or dirt jumping.  But there was no way the ladies would be comfortable on back for an hour let alone 14 days.  
Then we found 'Jules Classic Motorbike Rentals', two Honda 223JTR's, a cross between a road and a dirt bike, with a long seet and a frame for packs and plenty of guts for the mountains.  OOOhhh Laos look out here we come.
 
The plan: be ready to leave the next day at 12pm, pick up the bikes and hit the road for a leisurly 2 hour trip north to Vang Vien.
 
Reality: Pick up the bikes at 2pm don't leave until 3pm and discover it really a 5 hour trip.  We arrived at 8 in complete darkness which in itself wouldn't have been scarry as the bikes have powerful headlights, but there just happen to be rough sections of road, water buffalo in the road and millions of marble sized bugs smashing you in the face.
We made it a little tired but safely.
 
Here are some more photos
 
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motorbiking‏

Arrrr, we just found this internet place and i was planning on just sending a heap of photos and saying, 'check these out', as i figured a picture is worth a thousand words and there is no way i could do Norther Vietnam justice by trying to explain how beautiful it is.  So instead i won't tell you how beautiful it is and i'll just tell you what we've been up to.  
The day before we rented the Honda 125 motorbikes we met a couple, our age, doing the same thing.  We hung out with them that evening and went out to dinner and they turned out to be much like us.  We decided to meat up in the morning and head out together for the first day on the motorbikes and see how it went.  Now 13 days later we just split up.  They are heading back to Hanio as their visas are about to expire and we are continuing the adventure for a few more days.  
Let me just say, if you are ever looking for an amazing adventure go to Vietnam, rent a motorbike and head out into the mountains.  It is like no where else!  Every road, every mountain, every rice paddy, every turn is unbelievable.  
In the past two weeks we havn't come across a single person who can speak a single word of english.  We've tried our best to learn what Vietnamese we can but it is damn near impossible.  Some one will tell you a word, we repeat it back to them and they just start laughing.  Then we try it on someone else and they look totally dumfounded like we are just foaming at the mouth.  
Like i said in the last email this we creating real problems when we went to resturants (none have menus, they don't exist here).  For the first few days we just ate what they brought us which was usually those not so spectular tripple fried minoes.  Then we started pointing at what other had and saying, 'same same' which for some bizare reason everyone understands, and they would bring us the duplicate dish, only this only worked if there were other people eating at the resturants, if not what were we supposed to point at.  Now we just walk in, go to the kitchen, pull out the foods we want, mime how we want them cooked and it works perfectly.  Last night the four of us went out for dinner, granted we only ate stirfried greens, eggs and rice, but the total bill was only 5 dollars.
We've named our biking possie the OREO's which stands for, Original Riders and Eaters Orginization, as all we do is Ride around on our bikes and eat when every we stop which is a lot as the bum gets quite sore and needs constant stretching.  
Every day has been an adventure for the OREO's but i think today would be up there with any the rest.  This morning we woke up in Mao Vac, it is in the very northermost part of the country, a place where you still have to get a special permit to visit.  We had been in the restricted zone for 3 days and today we were going to make the 50km trek out as our permits were up.  The road we proposed to take is said to be un passable in all the guide books as up until a few months ago it was some sort of military zone.  Just very reciently they have started allowing civillians to use it.  
Up at 6:30 and leave by 7am, as the locals told us it would take 5 hours, was the plan.  When we awoke it was raining harder then we could imagine, an hour later the rain had let up a bit and so we decided to go for it dispite rumors the road had multiple water crossings.  
The first 20km we easy, the road was paved and besides the rain nothing was slowing us down.  The second 20km were a bit different.  Can you say clay!  It was so slippery it was almost impossible to stand let alone ride a motorcycle.  Rachael and i tipped over once, Will and Rhian managed to make it crash free but we both had to stop multiple times just to clear the clay and rocks out from our wheels as they actually wouldn't spin.  Just wait until you see the pictures!!!  You are probably thinking, dirt bike, think more like moped.  So yes we did get into a slight argument with some locals about the price to use their bridge and it almost turned into a fight but in the end we all shook hands and made peace.  
OOOO i think i figured out how to attach some photos...
 
Until next time
 
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