And then in a especially sandy curve I decided to lay my bike down and get a scratched palm and some wrist pain instead 😇
In Luang Prabang we splurged on a nice hotel with pool. But the smog didn’t really let the sun through. Ever since entering Laos we saw the slash and burn technique used for farming. Sadly the rain washes away the fertile top soil and the land is spent after a few seasons.
There wasn’t a mountain with at least one side burned down or logged clear 😕
To us it looked like random acts of destruction 🤷♂️ There is some fire smouldering around every other corner, Lao people seem to have a passion for firestarting. So it came that ash rained down on us at the pool 😆
In the evening we headed to the night market where all kind of trinkets are sold as souvenir as well food stalls cater to the tourist crowds.
But there is also a night market frequented by the locals, way cheaper 😊
The day after we wanted to see one of the local waterfalls. We opted for the closer one as neither of us wanted to be long in the saddle again. Long story short, there was no water 🤣 Only at the entrance we were told this little detail. Neither the parking lady, the food stalls or the guy which brought us up river to the spot found it worth mentioning 😆
The rest of the day we spent looking for a ship which could take us down river to Vientiane. But sadly none were sailing that route. Only day/sunset cruises or up north to the Thai border were available. So by moto power then 🥴
On our last day we visited the Living Land Company, where we could learn about the whole process of rice farming. Which meant separating the good from the bad seeds, sowing for seedlings, tilling, planting, harvesting, threshing, cooking and finally eating sticky rice 🍚😍
As we had still time left we decided to treat our bikes to get rid of the dust they were covered in. 😊 Sadly no girls or wet T-Shirts were involved 😉