Change in Plans (or the Road to Paksan)

We set off in the morning to finally get to Phonsavan and visit the 'Plain of Jars' before heading back to Vang Vieng.

The 'Plain of Jars' is pretty cool and worth a visit if you're in the area but not necessary a de-tour to get here just for that. Phonsavan is a strange city with rice fields right in the middle and quite a few Vietnamese coffee shops and restaurants.

During breakfast and while looking at the map, we found a road that leads to Paksan and from there to Vientiane while saving quite a bit of time and distance. So instead of heading to Vang Vieng, we decided to head for Vientiane or at least Paksan.

The road looked very new, it was nice and easy to drive without too much traffic so we were on track to make it not only to Paksan but also to Vientiane before it got dark.

Well, this being Laos there are always surprises and we had one after a nice coffee break. The road so far has been great and we made progress faster than expected. At this pace we would have had enough time to get to Vientiane comfortably.

The road suddenly stopped being good, or a road at all, and we were left with a soon to become road under construction.
This wasn't too bad since it was still relatively easy to drive on it, until this came to a complete stop. We were stuck at complete road closure for about 45 minutes, this meant there was no way to get to Vientiane before it got dark and even Paksan wouldn't be possible before it got dark.

Needless to say even after we made it past the road closure, the last 80km took a lot longer and we made it to Paksan in the evening in time for dinner and some drinks.

Worryingly, my motorbike developed a very loud exhaust noise for some reason but there was no time to look at it or fix it today.

The Longest Drive to Phonsavan

We got up early for a long 350km ride over mountain roads from Nong Khiaw to Phonsavan. This was always going to be the longest (not in km though) and most difficult leg of the whole road trip.

Getting up early was good but since not everybody had planned to get up early, it took a while to get breakfast.

Once we finished our breakfast and filled up the bikes it was time to brave the road and what a road it was.

The road is fantastic, lots of corners, ups and downs, great views and it passes through many nice villages.

We knew we couldn't waste much time so the coffee breaks and even photo breaks were kept to a minimum.

Unfortunately, a wrong turn meant we lost 1h in backtracking and a Ricoh GR camera got crushed underneath a truck.

The roads were all quite bumpy and narrow so the average speed was around 25km/h and this wasn't going to get us to Phonsavan before it got dark.

Having to overtake what looked like the same truck 5 times didn't help either.

It was a challenging ride and it seemed like it would never finish.
I almost ran out of petrol, it got pretty cold up in in the mountains, visibility was very bad but on the upside seeing a burning mountain in the dark was pretty cool.

While riding in the dark we came across another guy trying to make it to Phonsavan in the dark. Since his headlights were not very good, we decided to all go together in a sort of convoy.

This meant it would take longer to get there but it would make for a nice conversation over a beer.

All three of us almost managed to fall while slipping on gravel in the same corner and one of us did fall just a corner after but fortunately nothing serious happened.

Long story short, we didn't quite make it to Phonsavan and instead decided to stay in a guesthouse some 60km before Phonsavan.

This was and would most likely remain the most difficult but also most memorable ride in quite a while.

(Oh yes, don't take photos while riding at night on difficult mountain roads.)