15/5/11
Road around a bit and the bike seems good. Got everything ready for a wet ride to Hanoi (monsoon has come early in Laos this year). So i've got some of that For Sale sign plastic and got that on the wheel side of each panner, so it will be interesting to see if the wet weather covers still let in water and how wet things get.
16/5/11
Road up to Udamxai and everything went well... to start with lol. About 60km out the tappets started beating away bad, i'll have a look tomoroow I think a lock nut has come loose so should be an easy fix. Wet weather system seemed to do well, although I wasn't actually riding when the rain was the worst.
It was brilliant being able to stop at the little villages on the way again, stopped at one village early ish in the trip to tighten one of the exhurst bolts as it was a bit loose, and well there half the village kids rock up to stare which was fine by me. Got invited to help an elder lady to cut the rice in a rice paddy at another stop where I got a soda.
The roads here are nice and twisty but almost as pot holed as the dirt roads in Cambodia, i'd love to see how bad some of the dirt roads are here. Rivers, gullys and hills seem to be the thing in northern Laos not many flat valleys either so looking forward to more twisties tomorrow.
17/5/11
Walked around town and went for a ride into the hills. Bueatiful area although not to much to do in town but found this out to late to check out.
18/5/11
Set out following the GPS route to the border but it just didn't seem right, about 10km out of town it turned to a dirt road which I had heard it got bad 100km out, so ask a couple of people and went back. Meet a guy on a old Transalp he had picked up in Thailand.
Once back on the right road it was great for a while, slowly got worse along the way with ferry for river crossing and riding down a path cut along the river, almost as high as the exhaust in places which was fun, I got some great photos of it. The last part was a hugh climb up to the Border which I only just made it to in time, had to rest Gracie half way up the hill because she got so hot (Yes I was pushing it as I didn't know if I would make it there in time).
No problems at the border not even any extra charges on either side. Nice easy ride down the hill to Dien Bien Phu and finding it great to be able to read the laugage again (sort of, at least the menu).
I left my phone plugged into my laptop at the hotel as the battery was flat, came back from dinner and the phone is gone, not the laptop no money just the phone.
19/5/11
Down to the police station to file a report about the stolen phone, they said I should stay in town till they contacted me. So I got a couple of things done to the bike and road around town a bit. Then at about 8pm the lady from the hotel knocked and said the police wanted to see me, so I raced down to the cop shop and they had recovered an HTC HD2 phone and wanted me to say there was something on the outside that made it different from others, which I couldn't do because there isn't anything big. I finally got to look at the phone which had obviously been rebuild, no sim card no memory card. But i'm afraid i'm sure it wasn't mine (so tempted to say it was so I still had a phone) but it had this sticker thing on the back which they where really try hard to get me to say was there so they knew it was mine. But the buttons at the bottom where more worn than mine and I'm sure the bios was 2.66 on mine and it was 2.07 on this one.
20/5/11
Went back to see the police and say i'm heading north and to email me if they find it, also chatted to one of the local phone shop guys and asked him to keep an eye out for it and tell other phone places to. He had seen me and my bike all kitted out so explained that before you try to enter the password to unlock the phone there is a photo of me on my bike and that there is a 16Gb micro SD card in it, which I have not seen for sale in Vietnam they only seem to be upto 8Gb at the moment.
Then road out for Muong Lay which is only about 100km up the raod but does make it shorter for Sapa tomorrow. The road was bueatiful twistes in the moutains and mostly going up so had to give Gracie plenty of breaks and take it slow. It rained for a while early on so my new wet weather set up got a better test and pasted with flying colours.
Muong Lai is a small town that is going to be flooded when they finish the new dam down the river so at the moment all the houses are new because they are moving everything up the hill a bit, this means it is a bit of a mess at the moment with a hugh amount of construction going on. I just wish I could take some photos of it all, I get a great veiw of it from the hotel I'm staying in although I had to help Gracie up the dirt track to get here as it is steep and unfinished.
21/5/11
Road out early but got delayed almost straight away by a land slide which had to wait to be cleared, it is the mountains and it does rain a bit at this time of year so I expect a bit of this. Ride was bueatiful, the road in good enough state, the road nice and twisty although often up hill, the weather cool but not raining too much, and of course the scenery is amazing.
Gracie still is not running right though, the timing is off and have been unable to get it right so far.
Got to ride over a 1900m pass on the way to Sapa, awesome views. They are just filling up the rice paddies at the moment so I had to sit about half way up the pass looking down over the valley, man the photos would be good, never mind at least I got to see it lol. You'll have to get there yourself if you want to see it.
22/5/11
Unable to find a anyone willing to do the timing in town so will have to get it done in Hanoi at a guess, one guy did say the next village might so will stop there on the way out. Sapa is a nice little town though after the heat in Laos it's nice to have to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt.
23/5/11
Sleeped in and this hotel has a 9am check out, the first one so far that early closest so far was one with a 10am otherwise all have been 12. It's all good it mean I was able to do the Laos map and do this post.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=207221667466475845520.0004a3e745d4e0fd13960&ll=20.519644,101.90918&spn=2.196606,4.185791&z=8
Ejoy your life. I am
