January 27, 2025

Mind Blowing: An epic 5000km ride through land-locked, bomb-scarred Laos.



By Stu Lloyd.

Imagine a flight of US bombers zooming in low over your village and dropping their payload of devastating 500lb bombs. Now imagine one of those lands right on your whole extended family -- your brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, your grandparents -- and obliterates them and your family home.

Mr Si Pan doesn’t have to imagine it, because he watched the entire drama unfold from behind the protection of a large tree, through his 9-year-old eyes. The same eyes that now well with moisture as he relates that event in far north-eastern Laos from 50 years ago. 

“ZooooooOOOOOMMMM! BAM!!!” he chokes on his words. “I still feel it same like yesterday.”

Which is why 23,000 Lao villagers, and indeed the whole Pathet Lao politburo, moved into the limestone karst caves from 1964-73 in Vieng Xay. Si Pan’s classroom was in one such cave. And so was President Kaysone’s spartan bedroom. Hospitals. Bakeries. All cleverly secreted from the cross-hairs of the anti-communist bombers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Between 1964 and 1973, the Americans flew 580,000 bombing runs over Laos, dropping more than 2 million tons of explosives 

A tour of this cave complex, with its knowledgeable guide and richly-produced English audio tours, is possibly the only reason to visit this area. It is a punishing 7-hour 266km mist-bound ride from Ponsavan, in turn a 7-hour ride from Luang Prabang or Vientiane. In places, the visibility was no more than 10m, with gaping holes in the road suddenly threatening to deposit you on the valley floor hundreds of metres below. 

But the bombs cannot be blamed for the state of the roads in this landlocked country. Blame Chinese construction trucks for that. 

Think of the worst road you’ve ever ridden on. Now double that. More jagged potholes than tarmac. Tanker trucks tipped upside down. Are you beginning to get the picture? Welcome to Laos’ major National Road R13.

Sadly, there’s not much you can do to avoid it if you’re going to do a west-to-east, north-to-south traverse like we did, starting and finishing in Chiang Mai 4386.1km later.

Indo-China aficionado, David Unkovich of GT-Rider, had told me that a couple of French guys had recently taken about 7 hours (everywhere takes 7 hours in Laos!) to cover the 40km stretch from Huai Xay to Pak Beng recently. So, our first day saw me negotiating a clay bank and gangway plank on the V-Strom 650 to park my bike aboard the slow boat to Pak Beng. It was a scenic, restful day on the mighty Mekong River, lined with soaring primary jungle and banana plantations.

Unloading the bike from the boat at Pak Beng required 10 hilltribe guys to lug it up the stairs

At the other end, things got interesting. The captain had parked us at the base of a rocky outcrop, with a steep zig-zagging set of stairs. Hurried negotiations (thanks to the linguistic skills of my pillion, Thai wife, Mam) and 10 stocky Hmong hill-tribe men manhandled it up under my “strategic supervision”. $20 well spent.

The 176km to the charming town of Xayaboury clocked nearly 5 hours as we hair-pinned our way up and over several 1000m peaks on a variety of rubble, some of which contained trace amounts of tarmac. Two trucks were overturned in the treacherous conditions. 

We ploughed on to Luang Prabang, often described as Asia’s most charming city. It is time-warped in French colonial times thanks to a UNESCO listing. For me, the main appeal is its quiet civilization, which includes excellent coffee and baguettes. French accents abound and, as we enjoyed fine dining and al fresco vino drinking in retro-chic Sakkaline Road, Mam said: “Feels like Paris.” Well, except for the hundreds of ancient temples and saffron-robed monks walking the streets for alms. 

Breakfast stop at Huay Xai

The road to Ponsavan might just make you homesick for Australia, because it flattens out with eucalypts and red soil as you head east to the enigmatic Plain of Jars. No one has quite nailed where these ancient artifacts came from or what their purpose is. But that’s not really the focus of John, a former Navy clearance diver from West Australia, who’s now responsible for clearing UXO from the area. He and his colleagues hold court rowdily at Bamboozle restaurant over a liberal quantity of Beer Laos celebrating another day of not being blown up by one of the 54,000,000 cluster bombs and mines remaining.  

Steve, an English moto-crosser on a KTM based in Cambodia, has a theory about off-roading here. “As long as the buffalo have been through first, you’re OK,” he grins unconvincingly.

The money shot in Laos is the Thakhek Loop, a 450km corridor through endless limestone karsts and lakes, and our stop at bucolic Kong Lor proves to be the highlight. Seluded Spring River Resort nestles near the pristine Blue Lagoon swimming hole, a short pump-boat ride upstream from the famous 7km Kong Lor Cave. The food is surprisingly excellent for such a remote and tranquil location and the manager/ waitress/ concierge Miss Ni is an absolute delight. 

More homesickness-inducing scenes as we pass through what looks like Menindee in western NSW. It’s the Nam Theun 2 Dam. Here, our host Noi jumps on her scooter and leads us to the waterfront where she’s buying up land to stop it falling into the hands of over-zealous Chinese developers. “We must keep it for us to enjoy, simple and peaceful.” On the other side of the dam the sun makes a stunning curtain call.

Li Pi Falls is a series of formidable cascades on the Mekong in the very south of Laos

If the Thakhek Loop is about caves and karsts, then the Pakse Loop is about waterfalls, the highest being Tad Fane which plunges 120m. At Tad Lo Lodge we wake up to the pinch-me sight of elephants bathing in the river, so close we can touch them. I was tempted to join them for a dip because while we’d experienced 10-degree days (minus wind chill factor) up north, we were sweltering in 36 down south here in December. 

UNESCO listed the 12th century Wat Phou Khmer Hindu temple complex undergoing restoration at Champasak, a quaint post-colonial enclave on the banks of the wide and whispering Mekong. From here, we ride onto a tiny pontoon of two canoes nailed together, and putter across. 

Gladly the R13 here is a different animal all together. Flat, smooth and wide as an aircraft carrier with the Mekong drifting in and out of sight on our right.

We clapped on the after-burners, safe in the knowledge we’d not seen one police car on the entire trip.

Far south as you can go in Laos - the border with Cambodia where we turned around

Southern-most Laos is given over to Si Pan Don (Four Thousand Islands). Don Khong is the biggest, Done Khone the most touristy. We chose Khong because you can ride right onto the island. Here we gorged on curried fish in riverside eateries. From Khone you can take a long-tail boat to Li Pi, a rugged series of cascades which frustrated the French colonial efforts to open up a trade route from Vietnam into China. Undaunted, they built a colossal crane system which lifted their vessels from the water onto rail bogeys, which then steamed them around the 10km rapids, and dropped them back in the water on the other side at Don Det after the mini-Niagara of Khone Phapeng. Ingenious engineering and derring-do.

A road sign indicated Phnom Penh was just 537km away. Temping, but we’d reached the Cambodian border. Next time, I thought, as we turned around and reflected on what a variety of experiences we’d enjoyed and endured here. As I scanned the deep blue sky I felt, Good - there’d be no low-flying bombers today.

Photos: Stu Lloyd and Nonthapun Chonkeeree

DOING IT:

Ride reports and information: 

Bike Rental:

Accommodation: 
Luang Prabang - www.mekongcharm.com
Ponsavan – Pukyo guesthouse
Don Khong - ssx-hotel.com


Stu Lloyd has been described as ‘The Perfect Storyteller!’ by The Telegraph, UK, and writes travel, military history, and creative psychology books. 
website: Stulloyd.com
twitter: @RealStuLloyd.


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