Riding 2Up

January 30, 2009

Dong Kralor / Dong Kalaw border crossing from Cambodia to Laos. Apart from an annoying customs agent in Cambodia who tried to insist that I go back to O'Smach to get an entry stamp into Cambodia so he would stamp me out, and who finally settled for US$5, the crossing was quite straight forward. The Laos side was no problem at all, the passport control officer required US$1 pp for the stamp and we were merrily on our way into beautiful southern Laos. After 8kms we came to the Laos Customs checkpoint where we waited for a while as the customs officer consulted with his superior before stamping and signing our Carnet – this made it all legitimate for Francois and might help our cause when entering into China, well we can only hope.

Our first stop after the border was the beautiful waterfall of Khone Phapheng, known to the locals as the pearl of the Mekong.

When we arrived at the boat crossing for Khong Island, part of the 4,000 island archipelago of the Mekong, we soon realised that Francois would cause an issue with the small passenger boats carting tourists and locals across the Mekong. Just at this point a local boat driver came out to talk to us and as he uttered the words "Hello, vous parlez francais?" I answered "Oui". He proceded to talk in French and I quickly gathered that he was ernestly trying to help as he told me I was better off going back down south to Ban Hat in the direction we came from to take a vehicle ferry which would be cheaper and more certain. I thanked him for his help and explained this to Arja and we agreed to backtrack the 5kms to Ban Hat and take the ferry to Khong Island.

At the ferry terminal there was a vehicle ferry and several long wooden boats hitched together with makeshift platforms over the boats to create individual ferry boats to take motos and pedestrians. This looked passable except for the small flimsy wooden ramps and sandy passage to the boat along the waters edge. Given the option of a large vehicle ferry we went for the more sound passage. It took quite some time as just when the ferry hoisted the vehicle ramp and the diesel enging cluncked into gear two more vehicles pulled up wanting to board for the crossing. The ferry boad driver had a very difficult time negotiating the sand bars just metres away from the shore and as he pulled and pushed the barge doubt crept into my thoughts whether this ferry was in fact the more sound option given its rusting hull and the difficulties negotiating sand bars. This toing and froing took a good 15min, more than enough tome to board and cross on one of the wooden ferry platforms. As we pomdered this a full load of 5 motos and passengers was pulling up along side us to unload on the sandy shore of the Mekong. We finally managed to pick up the van and truck and cross over to the opposite shore onto Khong Island.

January 31, 2009

Our attempt at an early morning rise to visit the fish market was a non event, possibly because of the cooler morning air or at our knowledge that the day ahead would be very long.

Breakfast was a matter of jumping out of bed and heading upstairs for Kan Khong guesthouse scrambled eggs and bread. The eggs were bland but at least the bread was nice. We waited for Mr. Phoumy to arrive and tell us that the boat was ready to leave then we wandered down to the waters edge with 10 other tourists and boarded the long boat. It was a slow ride downstream but it would be even slower on the return due to the strong current in parts. We arrived at Done Kone island next to Don Det and as we had to wait for the other tourists to see the 'big' waterfall (Khone Phapeng which Laos like to call Niagra of the Mekong) which we saw yesterday we just wandered around and pondered whether we would've liked to stay on Done Khone give the amount of tourists who made it their temporary home. After lunch we all walked 4kms to the small waterfall called Som Pha Mit and past the french railway bridge constucted in 1910. A formidable construction for these parts and lasting a century, something even Napoleon would've been proud of, although there is nothing but rusting remains of the locomotive and torn up railway track.

Returning up the Mekong was slow and arse numbing due to the uncomfortable wooden benches in the long boat. I think at this point we were glad not to be backpackers cramped and crammed into various forms of transport day-in and day-out. The boat trip gave us an opportunity to view Loatians in a perspective we couldn't usually see by motorcycle. It was nice to see locals going about their lives which are so very Mekong-centric with fishing, bathing, washing, playing and swimming. We also made an acquaintance with Roland from La Provence in France.

Whilst waiting for dinner we played Pascal's newly invented motorcycling card game adapted to a standard deck of cards. Our conversation was cheerful and positive with thoughs of our time in Europe and the places we might stay given the acquaintances we've made thus far. The ever present and now all too real issue of China came up as we were day dreaming of Europe. This brought our feet back down to ground in the form of a reality check about how might 'smuggle' Francois into China. We agreed that we would need someone in the know on Border crossings who spoke Chinese and who we could trust. This was not all because getting past the border guards is only the first step, we would need to negotiate countless police and provential check points throughout the 7,000 odd kms to cross China. I suggested buying a chinese numberplate and getting the paperwork dodged up somehow. This would possibly draw less attention to us in the fisrt instance but it might also draw more attention if a Chinese policeman got curious. I think that we would also need a letter (possibly falsified) with the letter head of a reputable tour company to endorse our travel and itinerary. For this we would definitely need a Chinese translation service. The trouble with breaking the law anywhere is that you must always be one step ahead of the authorities, and to do this you need to know the law so we agreed that a Chinese lawyer would be very helpful in this regard.

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