Community: Real Life

The rebel road


Ants and Jo

Taxi for two from Bangkok to Brighton? Ants Bolingbroke-Kent and Jo Huxter aim to cross 12 countries by tuk-tuk, and raise £50,000 for Mind.
Entry: 5
Date: 08/06/2006

Unfazed, the girls and TT take the daunting road from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang.

Sayo River Guest House, Luang Prabang

Ants writes...

We made it! Another hurdle was crossed today by the three-wheeled trio - Jo, TT and I are now in Luang Prabang, in three whole pieces. We packed up Ting Tong in blistering heat this morning and at 10am hit Route 13 north. Jo bravely tackled the daunting slope out of our guest house (while I filmed her from a safe distance) and off we went.

The road from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang is, as we have mentioned before, notorious for a number of reasons. Namely hairpin bends, armed bandits and landslides. The public bus takes eight hours to climb the 230 km to Luang Prabang, so we banked on taking about the same time. TT may be supersonic, but we weren't quite sure how she'd handle them there mountains.

Spiffingly, is the answer.

The fear of something is so often worse than the actual reality, and today was a perfect example. After all that we had been told, Jo and I really had no idea what to expect, and set off this morning feeling very unsure of whether we would make it here or not. The road was indeed incredibly windy and steep and as we rounded each bend yet another alarming incline appeared ahead of us. For three hours we climbed and climbed, until stopping in a random town for Coke and foe (noodle soup with many unidentifiable things lurking in its depths). We had read that the road after this was particularly dangerous and a favourite haunt of Hmong rebels. So I took over the driving, put my foot down and headed further into the mountains.

"We were not jumped by the Hmong Rebels, although we saw about three different men with rifles."

All the way here, I was struck by the fact that this was Laos' main road; the superhighway linking Laos, Thailand and China. Yet all along its route are tiny hill villages, populated by scruffy children, goats, piglets, chickens, wandering water buffalo, cows and bent old women. As we tukked through each settlement, gangs of children screeched in delight at the site of the peculiar pink vision whizzing past, and livestock scattered from the road. However, I am now convinced that the average age in Laos is about 5 years old as the number of tiny children far outnumbered adults. Where have all the oldies gone? Maybe they were all watching TV - many of the rickety bamboo huts sported vast, incongruous satellite dishes.

So at 5.30 pm, we made it to Luang Prabang. Phew. No rebels, no mudslides and no toppling off the edge of the mountain. We did see several people wandering along with rifles slung their backs though, and some bored policeman decided to pull us over simply to see who we were.

Tomorrow we've got a day off (yes, another one) and then we head for China on Friday. Strange to think we are so nearly through our second country. Poor Jo is missing her ferrets terribly and shed a few ferrety tears last night. That's it for now.

Jo writes...

The roads were mountainous and bendy, but they were also a lot wider than I thought. At all times there was easily enough room for two vehicles to safely pass. The precipitous drops I had imagined were few and far between. There was no rain and the road was fully tarmacked over 98% of the time. We were not jumped by the Hmong Rebels, although we saw about three different men with rifles. The pot holes were navigable, although I probably looked rather funny driving - perched right on the edge of my seat to gain maximum visibility and see the potholes before we ended up planting TT's front wheel in one. The gear of the day was third and what a great gear it is. Our brakes are not too sharp, but by using 3rd gear most of the journey, there were few times where we actually needed to use the breaks.

TT performed like a true superstar and her engine never got too hot - rising over 25% only a couple of times. Towards the end of the journey, her backside started to make a noise (not Ants', but TT's). We thought it might be the rear suspension, but after pulling over and getting down on the ground we have concluded that she probably has a small hole in her exhaust, which we will get checked out fully tomorrow. It possibly happened when I sent her shooting up the drive to our guesthouse this morning.


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