On the Road Again

Here are some more of the wonderful roads of Lao PDR. They are wonderful more for the views and for the excitement of the journey than for the ease of travel along them.

In my last post I mentioned the beauty of the mountain road that leads to Xam Nuea and on to Vieng Xay. When we were in Vieng Xay a very helpful man in the Caves Visitor Centre recommended a round trip along dirt roads that would take us through several Tai Dam villages. He even drew a map for us. We met these Tai Dam children on their way home from school.

A little further along we came across a group of Tai Dam women and Pensri had a nice conversation with them. The Tai Dam are mostly found in Vietnam and Laos and there are a few in Thailand and a few in China. Unlike most of the mionority groups they speak a form of Lao-Thai and are culturally very similar to the Thai, but they are not Buddhist, believing in spirits of various kinds.

Soon after meeting them, we found ourselves confronted by this bridge. It was wholly constructed of bamboo, with rattan strips binding it together. If you look at the right hand side of the photo, halfway up, you can see the remains of a previous bridge. This was not very encouraging. Pensri would not sit in the car for the crossing, claiming she wanted to photograph me driving. I suspect she was hoping for a disaster picture as the car and I tumbled into the river. I was very happy to disappoint her.

 

We set off down this road, enjoying the scenery and the good feeling of not having to cross that bridge again. Unfortunately, the good feeling didn't last very long. We saw a real concrete bridge up ahead, with a track on a high, winding embankment leading to it. Only when we had crossed the embankment and reached the bridge did we realise that entry onto the bridge was blocked for anything as wide as a car, though a motorbike or iron buffalo would make it. That meant reversing about 75 metres on the embankment, which was itself only just wide enough for a car. I gave up trying to do this, but a young man, a boy really, volunteered to do it for me. And he succeeded, with considerable panache. He refused to accept any payment for his service. I think the esteem his friends now held him in was enough. Like me, they had all expected to have to pull the car out of the paddy field alongside the embankment. Actually, at one point they had suggested that they lift the car and turn it round for me.

These boys were also good at reading maps, and they were able to point out that the one I had been given showed me turning left soon after passing the schoolchildren, when I should have turned right.  So, naturally, what we had to do was drive back to THAT bridge and re-cross it. And now we knew that the bamboo bridge wasn't meant to take vehicles like mine.

 

Before I attempted to cross it for a second time, I made sure that I took a picture of the remains of the previous bridge alongside it.

We made a big curve around to the river again and found a proper bridge about 4 km above the village where our rescuer and his friends were still hanging around, waving to us as we went by. It was a good drive though, and we got back to our guest house feeling we had had a bit of an adventure.

 

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence quite and adventure. Wish I had done the same although I might have had second thoughts about the bridge.

I think these "off road" treks are great for exploring, even here some of the back roads to the border reveal a few gems. Interestingly the Thai/Myanmar border is not well defined in many places and you could easily stray.

[malcolm]

Lawrence, what an adventure and great photos, and like Pensri, Ciejay would have been walkinf across too, , I love driving "off road " , but Ciejay is a scarey cat and also afraid to damage the truck we saved sooo long for . I do jump on the Honda Wave sometime and ride down soon country roads, did you ever read my real older post called "COUNTRY ROADS" you might like it , wish I were there with you on a couple of your trips , keep us posted and we love hearing about your adventures . Malcolm

I showed Ciejay the bridge crossing pic and she said "NO WAY " ha ha

[Lawrence]

Hi Mike and Malcolm. Catching up.

Thanks for these comments. Pensri thinks we have done enough (or more than enough) off-road driving in Laos but I still have one more route in mind. We shall see.

Mike, I should think straying into Myanmar is not a great idea.

Malcolm, I'll be checking out your 'country roads' post. Were you singing the song as you rode along?