Yesterday, when I was reading by the Mekong, I felt something bite my toe. I looked down to see a small ant on top of “this little piggy stayed home,” but didn't think much of it. This morning I woke up before the alarm went off to a painful itching in the same toe. Having been bitten by fire ants in the States, I recognized the feeling. I tried to fall back asleep, but basically just dozed until the alarm went off. For Re's sake, I hit the snooze a few times before getting up and dragging her out of bed. While we drank coffee, we put together a shopping list of things we would need in the next week or so. Before we took a shower, we decided to get a little hot and sweaty...working on the bikes.

Re had mentioned that her chain was making noise on yesterday's ride, so I wanted to remove her chain case and check the sprocket bolts. Once the chain case was removed, I found that all the bolts were still tight, but Re's chain was a little loose. We adjusted her chain and lubed it, then checked mine and lubed it too. The other bike issue that needed some attention today was our batteries. For the past couple of days, I've had to kick start my bike since the battery seems to be dead. Re's is still starting, but not very vigorously. We pulled off the side covers, and sure enough, just like in Goa, our batteries were nearly dry. And again, since we didn't have any distilled water, we refilled them with purified water, which goes against every recommendation, but it worked last time! We may run into a sulfiting problem in the future, but for now, it's the best we've got. When we uncrated our bikes in Bangkok, we saw that Re's rack was cracking again, so after the 50 miles of dirt road on our way to Tad Lo, we decided to check the progress of the cracks. Well, they aren't cracks anymore, they've graduated to breaks. Sigh. We are going to need to get the rack welded again, but I think we'll wait until after we see how rough the roads in Cambodia are.

With the work done and tools put away, we hopped in the shower to get cleaned up. We then walked out to the “shopping center” and looked for the items on our list. We were able to get most things, but we weren't able to find any cotton boxer shorts in our sizes. Both of us have been having problems with what I assume is prickly heat on our butts in this hot weather, and since all of our clothes are quick-dry, man made materials, we thought some cotton pants might help with the problem. We did find some cotton boxers in the market, but the Lao idea of “Large” and America's idea of “Large” are very different sizes. We consoled ourselves with lunch at the market. After lunch, we went to a motorcycle shop I had seen when walking around yesterday and bought some oil to replace the semi-synthetic oil I put in in Bangkok. The other day I was thinking we were probably about due for an oil change and checked my notebook to see when the last one was. I was surprised to see that we've covered over 2,800 miles since Bangkok. I have been trying to change the oil around the 2,000 mile mark (and have missed a couple of times), but I really can't believe that we've ridden 2,800 miles in 28 days. We stopped to buy a watermelon, and then went back to the room to work on some more writing and do more research on possible future plans. After taking a break for some watermelon, Re worked on more writing, while I chatted with many other guests in the common area. Later, we went out for Indian food, but found that the recommended restaurant was no longer in business. So instead, we had dinner at a different Vietnamese place.

Our plan for today was to ride south to Champasak to see the Khmer-era Wat Phu Champasak and then continue south to Don Khong, an island in the Four Thousand Islands region. Wat Phu is supposed to be one of the most impressive archaeological sites in Laos, located adjacent to a mountain, with excellent views of the Mekong valley. To reach Champasak, we would ride south on Highway 13, then take a ferry across the Mekong to the Wat. After taking a ferry ride back to 13, we would continue south to another ferry crossing for the island of Don Khong. The total distance should only be about 100 miles, but we wanted to get an early start in order to have time to see the Wat and get to Don Khong at a reasonable hour.

With this in mind, we woke up early, had coffee and watermelon for breakfast, and then hit the road at 8:15 am. After an hour or so, we arrived at the ferry crossing for Champasak and were greeted by a long, sandy hill to the water's edge. There was a large vehicle ferry at the dock that didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. A local worker pointed across the river, we nodded, and he pointed to an area further up the riverbank, where small, motorcycle ferries were docked. Since we were facing 300 to 400 yards of sand to get there, I left Re with the bikes and walked there to get the info. The ferries consisted of three narrow canoe hulls, topped with an open-sided, wood platform approximately ten ft square. A small motor, similar to those on our boat in Kong Lor Cave was attached to the center hull. One of the boatmen told me it would be 20,000 kip per bike to cross. The price seemed a little high, but they have a boat, and we don't. The other bit of good news was that there was a firmer looking sand road that came directly down to this launch area from the main road. As I turned to walk away, I heard another of the boat men yelling at the man I spoke with, but I just kept walking. I came back and told Re about the other road, so we turned around and made our way back to the main road, and then down to the ferry. When we got to the bottom of the ramp, we were stopped by a different man, who now said the price would be 30,000 kip. I shook my head and said 20, but he insisted on 30. I know that tourists are often charged more than locals pay, but considering this should have been a 10,000 kip ride, I wasn't paying 30,000. The 120,000 kip that it would have cost us to cross the river would be 15 USD, and that's just too much. Re and I talked it over for a second and decided against Wat Phu Champasak. We turned our bikes around and started up the hill to the road. In my mirror, I could see our ferry driver run off his boat and begin yelling at the man who tried to overcharge us. For many years, Laos has had the reputation of treating tourists fairly when it comes to prices, but maybe that's beginning to change.

We rode back to Highway 13 and continued south. A couple hours later, we pulled up to the ferry for Don Khong. The large vehicle ferry had left recently and was part way across the river when we arrived. Further along the shoreline, I could see the pilot of another of the three hulled, open platform ferries motioning us down to the shoreline. I left Re on higher (and firmer) ground and rode down to check the price. 20,000 per bike was the price we agreed upon after a series of hand gestures. I motioned Re to come on down, and the pilot pulled his boat closer to the shore. He grabbed a wooden ramp, approximately three ft wide and five ft long, and put it between the shore and the side of the boat. While he steadied the boat, I rode up the ramp and onto the deck. He then moved over the ramp, so Re could ride on next to me. She looked a little nervous coming up the ramp, but then broke into a big smile when she made it safely. There was only about a foot of deck between our wheels and the water on either end, and the pilot was thoughtful enough to block our front wheels with a rock, so at least we wouldn't roll forward off the boat. He then cranked up the motor, and we rode the half mile or so across the river to the island.






We tried to snap a couple of photos on the way, but since we were sitting on our bikes right next to each other, they didn't come out very well. At the far shore, the pilot pulled the boat as close as he could and again, bridged the gap with the wooden ramp. You would think that the dismount onto the shore would be less nervous than riding onto an open-sided platform in the water, except that once we reached the end of the ramp on the island, we were riding into deep sand. I was the first to go, so I revved the mighty Symba, crossed the ramp, powered through the sand, and ten feet later, found firmer ground. Re followed me and fortunately, stayed on the power, too. Our little bikes and their lack of power certainly do make some otherwise mundane maneuvers seem exciting!

We then rode up the sandy hill to the paved road and continued two miles or so north into the town of Muang Khong. Because we skipped Wat Phu, it was only about noon when we arrived, so Re took the time to check out a few guesthouses before settling on the Done Khong Guesthouse. We got and A/C room at the front of the building, and our balcony looks out on the Mekong. Once we got our gear unloaded into the room, we checked the menus at many of the restaurants that are built on decks on the edge of the river. We chose our favorite and had a delicious and lazy lunch, watching the fishermen throw their cast nets. It was another stupefyingly hot day, so we went back to cool off in the A/C for a while before going out again for a walk. We stopped in to see the pretty, old Wat that was located on the edge of “town” and then went back to the guesthouse to sit on the balcony and do some reading. We plan to spend our time on Don Khong doing as little as possible, and today was a good start.

Later in the evening, we walked across the street to our guesthouse's restaurant on the river's edge. We enjoyed a Beer Lao while we waited for our meals to arrive and were treated to a bizarre spectacle swirling around the overhead lights. Since the sun was going down when we arrived, they switched on the overhead lights, and almost immediately, they were surrounded by a whirlwind of thousands and thousands of small, white moth-like insects. For the next 15 minutes or so, these bugs created a small tornado around each of the lights. More bizarre, was that after a few minutes the bugs began to fall out of the air and died shortly after landing. The waiter asked if we wanted to move inside the main building, but we declined since this was pretty fascinating to see. Most of the activity had “died” down before our meal arrived, so we were able to eat in relative peace. Before heading up to the room, we grabbed a couple more Beer Lao and continued with our reading.


100 miles in about 3.5 hours, including a short boat ride.

From our walk yesterday, it seems that the town of Muang Khong is made up almost exclusively of guesthouses and their associated restaurants. We didn't see a market or any kind of general store. Yesterday afternoon, Re asked our hostess if there was a market and was told that there is, but only a very early market. Re wanted to head there this morning, so when the alarm went off at 6:30 am, I stayed awake long enough to make sure Re got out of bed and then I rolled over to doze some more. About 45 minutes later, she returned with a watermelon but was apparently unable to find the market. She had asked several people along the way and walked quite a distance, but to no avail. So we had coffee and watermelon on the verandah overlooking the Mekong before heading downstairs to do an oil change on both bikes.

We wheeled the bikes to a shady, ant-free workspace a few hundred feet up the road. We unrolled the tarp, got out the tools, and got to work on Re's bike first. After removing the drain bolt, the sight of some fine, metallic bits stuck to the magnetic bolt made me a little nervous. Re then commented that the draining oil didn't look right to her. It did seem very thin and the color was slightly reddish brown. The red color made me worry that the oil was contaminated with gasoline, since the gasoline in Laos is the color of cherry cough syrup, but it didn't smell of gasoline. Maybe it's just due to the fact that it's a semi-synthetic oil, which I have never used in these bikes. I then removed the oil screen to clean it, and fortunately, there was no metal to be found here. After the oil finished draining, we refilled the sump with the Honda-branded, MA standard oil we purchased in Pakse. I also took the opportunity to check all the fasteners in the frame and engine, and all were tight. With Re's bike finished, we repeated the whole process with my bike. Again, there was a little swarf on the metallic drain plug, but in addition, when I wiped the oil off the drain bolt, it left a silver discoloration on the cloth. Hmmm. Again, the oil didn't look right and seemed thin. I have read accounts of counterfeit oil being sold in southeast Asia, but I bought this oil at a big name gas station and checked to make sure the seals on the bottles were intact. After my bike was buttoned back up and refilled, we drained the oil from the one gallon Ziploc back into the oil bottles for disposal. When the bottles were refilled, we seemed to be short a couple tenths of a liter in what we had drained from the bikes. I'm unsure what is going on here (if anything) but I will have to keep a closer eye on these developments.

We wheeled the bikes back to the guesthouse and then went upstairs to get cleaned up. We spent the remainder of the morning lounging on the verandah and reading our books. Our goal for today was to take it easy, and we seemed to be succeeding. Soon enough it was lunch time, so we walked along the river to the spot we ate yesterday. While we waited for our food, we watched a man spearfishing in the water directly below us. After a decent lunch, we returned to our spots on the verandah and continued our lazy ways.

Around 5:00 pm, we put on our helmets and went for a ride around the island. For being an island in the river, Don Khong is fairly large, at about 12 miles long and 5 miles wide. We rode north along the east side of the island as far as we could and then returned down the west to see the sunset over the Mekong.



The area we rode through was agricultural, with surprisingly large areas of rice paddy and many water buffaloes. Re stopped to take a picture of what must have been a very young buffalo.



His feet seemed two sizes too big for his body, and he walked rather unsteadily. We rode further south and came to a surprisingly large town with many stores and restaurants and a large market area.



We rode through the town to the river's edge, where we watched the sun set. After it dipped below the horizon, we cut through the center of the island and back to our guesthouse for dinner.

On our way north, I had spied a large motorcycle with aluminum bags and German plates, so we walked up to check it out. It was an Africa Twin covered in Touratech and Zega, and Re and I just smiled at each other. The more we ride our little bikes, the more we chuckle about this kind of “Charlie and Ewan” special. When you consider that the accessories alone on this motorcycle cost more than our motorcycles, it is kind of funny. We have now been through thirteen countries and ridden nearly 19,000 miles, and although it might take us a little longer, there's almost no place that these big bikes can go that we can't (and there are plenty of places we can go that they can't). To each his own, but I think that too many people spend a lot of money on their bikes and gear that they could instead spend on traveling and ! We walked back to our guesthouse, had another good dinner. Later, we grabbed a couple of Beer Laos and headed to the room and drank a toast to our last Beer Lao in Laos.


25 miles in about 1.5 hours. My clutch is much happier with the new oil.

Hey! What happened to you guys? I've been barely hanging on waiting for another installment for what seems like months. Oh wait, it HAS been months! Hope you guys are okay and that you post soon!

They have continued posting on ADVrider.com, and in fact are in northern California right now, heading for Oregon.

They stopped posting here because they weren't getting nearly as much feedback as they do over on ADV.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

Perhaps that's because they responded to only one person who posted in their thread, and that was in response to a question about whether they had a map. Never to anyone else. That's why I stopped following them about halfway through their thread. Seemed a bit full of themselves.

Nice.

Sorry for not keeping up here. We ended up spending too much time online and not enough time enjoying ourselves, so this fell by the wayside. If people are still interested, I will keep posting!