Thailand and Laos: The unstoppable pair

And there she is, like a gift from heaven she suddenly sits with you at the breakfast table. After a brief conversation, she decides to jump at the back on your motorbike and after one day driving around you notice 24 hours together is too short. You prolongs the motorbike adventure with eleven days, become closer and wish you don't have to leave each other. But as suddenly as you become intertwined, so suddenly the angel flies away and you don't know if she is ever coming back.

Motorbike trip Thailand - Laos: 06.05.15 to 15.05.15

From the first moment Mira and I had a band, because we shared an adventurous travel style and we liked to do impulsive things. As I got to know her better I became more and more attracted to her. She is sexy, knows what she wants, is  confident and happy with herself, is creative, has a sense of humor and is grateful for all the beauty that comes to her. That makes it a pleasure to travel with her.

We were both not used to traveling with someone else. So we had to get used to be so closely with someone, though it yielded no major irritation. Mira had to get used to my naïve and chaotic behavior. I gave rapidly haggling, let me pull the money out of my hands and trusted people too quickly. Regularly we were delayed in the morning, because I had lost something. I found Mira very directly and found that she sometimes could become very irritable with other people.

Our trip on the motorbike started with the journey to the border of Laos. With her creativity Mira knew effortless how to tie our two backpacks on the bike and she proved to be a good driver. Along the way we passed one of the highest waterfalls I had seen so far and we impulsively visited Singha Park. Built by Mr. Singha, owner of the eponymous, largest beer brand in Laos, he wanted to make this park an accessible place where people could enjoy the peace of nature. I like to drink a pint of Mr. Singha in this noble action. With a group of Asian holidaymakers we were driven around in an electric car into the park. The park looked amazing with its colorful flowers, tea plantations, typical restaurants and various flowers and plants. The icing on the cake were  a group of giraffes and zebras which we could feed by hand. Along with two Thai locals we had bought a basket of fruit. The roles were clear: Mira and I went all the way to feeding the animals and the Thai ladies made photos from a safe distance.

The next day we drove toward the border of Laos where I was waiting for an unpleasant surprise. I Myanmar I renewed the visa for myself, but my motorbike appeared to have his own visa which was not renewed. I drove around for seven days without a valid visa for my bike, and they asked me to pay a fine of 30 euros a day. For that money I could buy a 500cc motorbike and ride the Grandprix of Laos. Fortunately, most fines are flexible in Laos and after a game of haggling I could take the motorbike to Laos for 60 euros.

On the way to Luang Prabang we had suffered some delay, which we unfortunately had to drive in the dark. Although I do prefer not to, I had the feeling that driving in the dark with moderate speed was safe. With a weak light that shines five meters far it turned out that I was wrong. I drove across the side lane at the highway where a low-hanging branch at knee height was dangling above the road. At the last moment I could dodge the branch, but I could not prevent that the branch hitted Mira, which was sitting slightly wider than I did. Strong that she was, she said that everything was all right, and I drove unsuspectingly to the hostel in Luang Prabang. But when Mira took a closer look at her knee, there was a deep cut on her knee that should be attached. On the advice of a fellow traveler in the hostel we could look at how the wound would heal, as long as we kept the wound clean, so we did not have to go to the hospital. I was quite shocked, especially because I was responsible for hitting the branch and someone else suffered the pain.

At night I fell into conversation with two travelers who had done a meditation retreat a short time ago. They were very positive and found it definitely worth to do not talk for 7-10 days, meditate 8 hours a day and have nothing more than water and a toothbrush with you. They inspired me to also do a retreat, and after a few calls I'm going to start on May 18 with a seven-day retreat.

We did not have a lot of time in Luang Prabang, but we wanted to visit a waterfall. The bike did not want to, because after five minutes driving we got a flat tire. We quickly went to the garage, replaced the tire and were ready for a second attempt to reach the waterfall. But 500 meters further, the tire was flat again. We went back to the garage, re-paste the band and tried a 3rd attempt. And yes, five minutes later, again a flat tire. There appeared to be a sharp point in the wheel frame that was sticking into the tire. Luckily the mechanic was able to solve this problem inventively, but it was too late to visit the waterfall. The view of the waterfall was replaced by the view of a sweaty mechanic.

In the afternoon we drove to Vang Vieng, a backpacker spot between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Along the way there was a lot of oil on the road, which was screened and visible on the right path and thus evade properly. Until, after a sudden bend a pool of oil was not screened, which I noticed too late. I could not escape in time, drove in the oil and the bike became uncontrollable. We slipped back and fell sideways on the road, in the middle of the oil. My first reaction was to impose a set of tires for the oil to prevent more accidents. Unfortunately this was too late for us, Mira her knee was open again and we both had a few scrapes. We decided to drive back to the hospital of Luang Prabang to attach Mira's knee.

Arriving at the hospital, I was stunned by the logic of the staff. About eight people took care of our abrasions, while 10 meters next to me there was a man in a coma and no one looked after him. The doctor told me that this guy had a big motorbike accident that morning and that he possible had brain damage. And now, a few hours after his accident, he was laying in an open space on a heavily outdated machine and he seemed left to its fate. I realized that this could have ended much worse and the fact that this accident and Mira's knee injury happened again because of me, did make me feel bad.

The next day was my birthday and we hoped to be in time in Vang Vieng for an afternoon of tubing; going down a river in a rubber band, where you get pulled in a pub with a rope every 200 meters. At each pub you drink a few shots so at the end of the journey you are probably not able to walk straight anymore.

To be in time in Vang Vieng we left Luang Prabang at 5:00. What we did not know was that the biggest mountains of Laos was on our route. The bike was seriously simmering on the steep sections, but we were not the only one who had a tough ride. Along the side were groups of trucks which gave their engine a moment of rest and on the road the trucks were crawling up the mountains. The worst thing we saw was a truck that felt off the road and overturned lying on the roadside. The driver walked around bloodied and he was ringing to arrange his own care.
After a while the mountain became to steep and we had to shove the bike up the mountain. Luckily a handy young man stopped and helped us. He tightened a few screws, which gave the chain  some extra stability. This was enough to reach the top of the mountain. At the top it seemed to instinctively freeze and the trees were replaced by moss; we landed on the green moon, where only a few people attended. Not the most appropriate place for a garage, yet we found in a wooden hut a man who appeared to repair motorbikes. He seemed glad to finally have a customer and he took his time. It became too late to do the tubing, so we made our drunken ride on the rubber band in our thoughts.

When we finally arrived in Vang Vieng in the evening we wanted to have a drink for my birthday. But my evening ended when I was checking the comfort of the bed at 20:00. The many hours on the bike, the setbacks and the accidents had demanded a lot of me, and my Duracell battery turned out to become a very old grandfather that stops working after 20:00.

The last part of our trip was to Vientiane. A race against the clock to bring Mira on time to the train that would take her to Bangkok where the flight back to Germany was waiting for her. The road was quite flat, the bike did a good job and it was nice to ride a few days without any problems. We won the race against the time, which unfortunately meant that Mira and I had to say goodbye. Both we really enjoyed the trip, but we also realized that we might not see each other again.