Day 68 - Phou Koune to Plain of Jars - Thurs 2 May

Day 68 - Phou Koune to Plain of Jars - Thurs 2 May

Woken during night by storm, spectacular sheet lightening and booming thundershow immediately overhead. The shanty children across the way must have huddled together with their mother under the one blanket on their precipice. Our quarry was a quagmire, but we'd chosen a gravel area so had no trouble getting away early. Beautiful birdsong, have missed sound and sight of different birds since we left the national parks behind. 

The day became sunny and clear during the middle of the day, and we met Guy and Miles on their way back to the turnoff for Luang Prabang. Pigs, dogs, cattle, chickens and toddlers wandered the narrow streets of villages along the ridge line. Some villagers have little white paper/plaster/ paint in triangle shape with one rounded edge on face (why?)  

Extensive project digging thin trenches and laying cable (not electricity – telecommunications?) as we head towards Phonsavan. Came down from mountains in light rain to rolling green hills with cattle terrace trails coiling around, and plots of gum trees – you could believe you were in southern Victoria or New Zealand. Rural communities, steady pace, peaceful; agricultural valleys/ plains, rice terraces, vegetable gardens, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, cattle/ buffalo grazing, most animals with young. Shops and service stations appeared - more obviously affluent towards Phonsavan. More trenches, laying large poly water pipe this time. We wondered what industry supported the increased development (hydropower? mining/coal?). We saw cement works, timber yards and logging trucks. Arrived Phonsavan midday, over 4 hours to drive approx 120kms. Ozzie travelled OK in spite of mountainous terrain, BoyRob ensuring revs under 2000rpm. 

We found Jars site #1, and immediately saw term "Plain" was misleading – it’s really a plateau on hill – the Xiangkhoang Plateau, with native pine forest. The 334 rock jars have been painstakingly chiseled outside and in, but not all way to bottom (for balance). They have few lids, are weathered, some filled with dirt or split by trees. There are a variety of sizes, some more elongated than the others, very few with lips. History Mystery - are they funerary jars? (People today still like to be buried high with a view!) The largest is 2.57m in length with a 2.5m diameter. 

Like most of central and northern Laos, the area was heavily bombed during the Secret War, and craters and trenches remain. There is also evidence of clearance by MAG Mines Advisory Group, responsible for unexplored mine ordinance identification, detonation/removal. We had seen one of their teams in a field today with metal detectors.

Drove east towards Vietnam border, through Ping Pet, saw bomb casings in yards, made into cooking pots and planters (people around here collect ordinance like trophies). Noted an impressive teacher training college and students walking home for day. Back into Phonsavan for fuel, dinner at expat restaurant Bamboozled who support education in Phonsavan. We chose a campsite on patch of grass among gumtrees, between two new yet-to-be-bitumened roads with no nearby farms (although could hear cow bells). Ahhh, no smog, smoke or heat haze, minimum humidity, crisp air, rather than a sweatbox. We appreciated the rare clear starry sky and cool evening. Just as we were dozing off, music started up, several people walked on the unlit roads with flashlights, but no one came near. During the night an electrical storm blew up with enough rain to zip up window covers. 

Day 67 - Vientiane to outskirts of Phou Koune - Wed 1 May

Day 67 - Vientiane to outskirts of Phou Koune - Wed 1 May

Departed the city debating whether to follow the paper map along a “back road” to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars, or to believe Pocket Earth, which showed roads were not connected from the south to north of the reservoir. It looked as though the road was planned but not completed when the map was produced in 2010 - but alas taking the fork in the road (the philosophy of our mate Rick), led to a 40km trip to a new dam (which more than likely had flooded the old road!) Oh well, it was a pleasant drive, and we bought vegies from an old couple who were happy to see us. We had a nice view over Naoi Ngum reservoir for our morning tea cuppa.  

It’s the Labour Day holiday in Laos too today, and as we negotiated the roads we added our observations to the email sent by Miles’ mate stationed here: “Driving in Lao is not too bad. They are all hopeless drivers, so expect them to do the wrong thing at all times, but they are generally slow and not fast and dangerous! They also think the mirrors on their scooters/cars are for checking their appearance and never use them to check behind or beside themselves..” So true! We have lost count of the number of drivers who turn into a road without checking, who drive on the wrong side because it’s convenient to what they want to do (buy food, pick-ups etc), or who stop in middle of road with traffic piling up behind, like the girl on motorbike plucking her eyebrows in compact mirror! We hear it said often that Laos people are laid back – well they must have undying patience as well because they don’t seem to get mad or use the horn much, just go around. In observing subsistence life in the rural areas, it appears many drivers in Laos must be first generation drivers, and obviously kids who once shared roads as playgrounds with wagons, bicycles and bikes are having to become street smart very quickly now there is so much car and truck traffic.

The correct road up through Vang Vieng was fascinating, both in scenery and in life being lived on the roadway itself. The shantytowns came right to the edge of the roads, everyone walks purposefully somewhere - young children carry babies, women have loaded packs with bands around heads (mounds of leafy green salad, hands of bananas, bundles of sticks) or a pole with a basket each end balanced on shoulders, men carry guns, shovels, picks, long sticks with loops at end, machetes or guns. Everyone carries water containers. As the afternoon progressed, it became communal wash time, at village wells, in weirs (tops off everyone!) in the streams, in buckets or barrels. 

The switchback turns in the mountains kept us wide awake as we passed utterly spectacular karsts, three layers of blue mountains against vivid green dense foliage, huge boulders, rivers with shallow rapids, mini waterfalls from recent rain. People here live life on edge - literally - on the mountain ridges (how do toddlers and livestock not fall over the cliffs?) 
With relief at the end of our vigilance we pulled into a quarry with a spectacular view - just as an enveloping mist came down over mountains and all became prematurely dark. We rushed dinner to beat the mist coming into house through fly screens, and a light rain. So nice to be cool enough to snuggle into a cotton blanket for a good read.

Days 60 to 66 – 7 Days in Vientiane - Wed 24 to Tues 30 Apr

Days 60 to 66 – 7 Days in Vientiane - Wed 24 to Tues 30 Apr

7 unexpected days in the capital of Laos, investigating Fuso overheating problem – highlights:

• No Fuso dealer in Laos, started at Isuzu – their diagnosis bubbles in radiator, replace head (expensive-delays importing from Oz) or head gasket (less expensive-delays)
• Pressure re meeting rest of group in time to enter China together
• Conversations with and between Zupps in Brisbane and Fuso-Daimler in Melbourne (no warranty outside Oz), John M’s mechanic in Tamworth, expat Canadian in Vientiane, with a few suggestions from our fellow drivers and their mechanic mates
• Tests on gauges, sensors, ERG cooler, radiator pressure in top and bottom hoses, motor temperatures, driving/observing…
• Stripping/cleaning earth points
• Packing silicon on viscous coupling
• Agreement radiator core probably insufficient for weight/load and mountainous terrain – potential to increase capacity in China/Mongolia
• Decision to keep on with trip but watch/manage heating, whilst having head gasket, and VDO temp sender unit shipped to China

In and around vehicle over-nighting in workshops, explored a little of Vientiane, highlights:

• Visited COPE museum, shocked by ongoing damage caused by residual unexploded ordinance throughout Laos from US bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail (every 8 minutes, 24hrs day for 9 years) numbers of amputees, particularly children affected when farming, searching for scrap metal

 

• Wat Sisaket, spoke to visiting monk, chief of abbots, Prakrou Woradith Chaiyawat from Wat Meechai Ta, Nongkhai Thailand who had visited St Johns Park NSW, near where GirlRob grew up. Saw wall of miniature Buddhas in cloister, Hang Hod water trough in form of naga water spirit (during New Year/Water Festival pour perfumed water in to flow onto heads of monks or Buddha statues), ancient brush murals on walls. Toddler earnestly helping mother to sweep around drink stall

Met up with 4, then all 5 couples over dinner before rest of party departed without us; highlights:

• Roof top bar watching sunset over Mekong, and lights go on in Thailand on the other side (but SpiritHouse makes best pina coladas)
• Makphet international restaurant run by Jon and Jude’s friends where they teach hospitality to street kids, and sell products made by village women in an effort to provide them with an income so they can send their children to school
• Walking through night markets. Toast to Anzac Day
• Voted to continue with China pending NAVOs advice on bird flu and earthquake in Chendu region. Given their demonstrated skills, voted Jon spokesperson for group for tour, and Cheryl/Marina purse holders
• Kerfuffle over Miles’ passport and wallet missing – he and Marina watched all hotel CCTV footage, turned out he had left it on hotel table in lobby and staff picked it up and put under counter without telling anyone
• Learning how to “bump” photos from one phone to another from a proud Mongolian waiter in an Italian restaurant in Laos who wants us to visit his grandfather a herdsman, and to stay for the festival in Ulaanbaatar 10- 13 July (he says he hasn't touched up the photo!)

Well, the new fan is fitted, all boxes, lockers, cupboards and plastic crates have been gone through and repacked, and (a little!) gear thrown out, the vehicle has had an internal and external clean (including the dusty fly screens), and the consumables topped up. The old maps and Lonely Planet books have been replaced with the ones covering the next leg, and the digital/ electronic items have been moved to a more discreet location. The laundry is up to date, the hair cut or coloured, and the smelly sandals washed. Onwards to the Plain of Jars tomorrow….

Day 59 - Paksane to Vientiane - Tues 23 Apr

Day 59 - Paksane to Vientiane - Tues 23 Apr

Hazy moon last night, haze over river this morning. Light rain, enough to cake sandals in mud before takeoff. Heading south west towards Vientiane. Laos is a notably much slower pace than rest of South East Asia - and a welcome break after the chaos of Cambodia. People seem shyer, less likely to approach, almost diffident about serving you in shops (although we pulled into side road near a military post to wait for Guy to catch up, and man in uniform with a weapon over his shoulder had no problems gesturing for us to move on).  The capital Vientiane was a pleasant surprise - not the usual crowded small roads and alleys full of markets, stalls, people and vehicles, but wide streets, huge stately buildings, and traffic actually obeying road rules.

Found visitors centre and helpful English speaking man marked a city map with hotels with parking, garages for vehicle repairs, central post office, and freight depots - should keep us busy for awhile. Booked into Riverside hotel with balcony overlooking the Mekong.

Lunched (“sorry not have burgers”). Changed to Travel Sim to call Thailand about our repaired camera (delays in sending parcels through post due to customs/import tax mean it may not arrive before we leave ) then found that the Laos sim locked me out... no more phone or emails until resolved. I recalled the fellow in Savannakhet had ended up selling me the sim out of his own phone during the frustrating explanations and demonstrations, not a new one with pin/ puk numbers on a card. Next hour and half spent trying to find Unitel dealer in city to unlock phone, finally gave up and bought new sim from Beeline. Went on to post office where we were expecting a parcel from Australia. Surprised by number of people looking at us and beaming - then discovered an enlarged photo of us was attached to the address label - we were well and truly authorised to pick it up!! Amazed to find our chairs and fans had arrived from Australia intact although they'd been opened/ inspected by customs (and a more circumspect bathing suit for GirlRob!) Bless good friends like the Maxwells! Located freight companies and checked the prices/ procedure for shipping items home... the camp ovens etc can cost anything up to $AU650, more than they are worth. Enough for one day, on to find mechanics tomorrow.