Tag Archives: Xayaboury

Northern Laos Loop – 5. Journey Day 2 (Xayaboury to Luang Prabang)

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Day 2 (Xayaboury – Luang Prabang)

I overslept. I had planned to start the ride at sunrise and try to reach Hongsa in the afternoon to join day 2 of the elephant festival. I found out about the festival only after I had booked my air tickets. If I had known, I would have flown in 1 or 2 days earlier. With yesterday’s delay, I was not sure if I could still make it to the festival on time.

You would have noticed that despite the doubts I had yesterday, I had decided to continue with the motorcycle tour. Returning to Vientiane via the same route did not sound attractive to me. I would try to be more careful from now on. I would look for a spare tube and before then, stick to better roads if possible.

I moved off at 730am. Along the way to Xanamkhan, I noticed logging activities. Illegal logging is a problem in Laos. For the promise of good money, locals have turned to chopping down trees and selling them to Thailand and Vietnam. Maybe to them, what’s the environment when you are hungry?


Logs aplenty

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Northern Laos Loop – 4. Journey Day 1 (Vientiane to Xayaboury)

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Day 1 (Vientiane – Xayaboury)

Because there are no direct (and cheap) flights from Singapore to Laos, I took a Tigerairways flight to Udon Thani, a city in northeast Thailand. Udon Thani is located one hour by road to the friendship bridge, the Thailand-Laos border close to Vientiane. At the Laos side, Vientiane is about another hour by road. Many people have asked about the logistics of getting from Udon Thani to Vientiane. Here’s the gist of it:

  1. Mini bus (150Baht) direct from Udon Thani airport to Friendship Bridge. The bus can drop and wait for you at a photo shop if you need photos for visa application at the borders.
  2. Shuttle bus (15Baht) to cross the bridge. Currency exchange is available at the borders.
  3. TukTuk/Taxi (200Baht for the whole vehicle) from bridge to Vientiane. I shared a Tuktuk with four other travelers, so we ended paying 40Baht each.

My plane landed at Udon Thani airport just after 8am and I managed to clear the customs only at 910am.  After the transports described above, I reached PVO motorcycle rental at 12pm. At PVO, the Honda Baja 250 scrambler I had selected was cleaned, serviced and adjusted. After loading up my pack and attaching my Garmin GPS receiver, I was finally ready to start my motorcycle tour at 2pm.

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