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I pick up my Honda Baja 250 and get set to head to Tha Kaek from Vientianne for the first leg. I remember the bus took 6 hours but didn't realise it was just short of 400km. 2km after getting the bike the gears are buggared - it will change up but not down. I manage to crawl back to the shop where the guy gets the angle grinder out and 10 minutes later I'm good to go. I take it for a test spin around the block and again the gears are no good. I leave the bike with the guy and come back in 30 minutes and this time all is good. So I hit the road and almost manage to get lost on the outskirts of Vientianne with locals giving me wrong directions. Finally the traffic eases and I'm making good speed, well I think I am cos the speedo doesn't work.

Loop de loop

Gareth Penpraze
2007-04-21 19:34:03

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I pick up my Honda Baja 250 and get set to head to Tha Kaek from Vientianne for the first leg. I remember the bus took 6 hours but didn't realise it was just short of 400km. 2km after getting the bike the gears are buggared - it will change up but not down. I manage to crawl back to the shop where the guy gets the angle grinder out and 10 minutes later I'm good to go. I take it for a test spin around the block and again the gears are no good. I leave the bike with the guy and come back in 30 minutes and this time all is good. So I hit the road and almost manage to get lost on the outskirts of Vientianne with locals giving me wrong directions. Finally the traffic eases and I'm making good speed, well I think I am cos the speedo doesn't work.

3 hours later I'm still not half way to Tha Kaek so I stop in Pakxan for some food and meet a dutch couple in a random restaurant. A quick bite to eat and I'm away again. It starts to get dark with 100km to go so I stop, refuel and within 2 minutes I have 5 people around me and the bike all asking questions, asking if I want to hold their child and even if I know how to setup satellite TV. I wave the people good bye and get the lights on only to find out that low beam doesn't work, so for the next 100km I get lorries and cars blinding me with their full beam - I'd rather that than have no lights on!!

I arrive in Tha Kaek at the travellodge and the bike stops just before rolling into the guesthouse. I can't get it started again. There's a lot more life about the place this time. If you look under Tha Kaek blogs, mine was written about 6 months ago and I pretty much slated the place but with a little more life around Tha Kaek is OK. TheTravel lodge motorbikes seem to work OK now and aren't $10 anymore. There's an English couple who are doing the loop in the morning so I ask if I can join them. What I don't realise is they've never been on motorbikes ...