I spent couple of days in Houay Xai there is not a whole lot to do there, I did find one Gem and old French fort (Fort Carnot) which I was able to get into and have a look around, for me the gun room was magic along with the views from the look out posts. It seems like there is a restoration job going on but nobody seemed to know about it.
The Views over the border to Thailand.
It's a beautiful day.
The Gun room.
Some great toys!
I could spend all day in here, some of this stuff was really old, makes you wonder what went on in here?
Boys and their toys.
It had been a good day, I love the war stuff. I headed back to my Hotel to prepare for the off tomorrow.
Saturday morning came and I got an early start to head of to Luang Nam Tha, I decided to go the long way which would take me up near the borders of Myanmar and China about 200 k's of Jungle tracks and mountain tops with a couple of river crossings thrown in, nothing to hard. Once I was off the main road this was the scene...
Nobody about, got the place to myself.
On my route I was able to visit another Lima site, LS1 nothing really to see but my imagination fills in the blanks, it's in there somewhere.
I plodded on for a few more hrs and then I hit the jungle, the trails where undulating and great fun to ride.
This a a blast, nobody around.
Only a few river crossing and no wet feet, I was having a ball.
There was a few boggy bits and one of them caught me out and threw me of fortunately my back pack got caught in the handle bars and I did not end up going down a steep slope, however something in the bushes was a bit upset with me coming crashing through his house and bit me, never had a reaction to a bite like that before, my forearm is swollen and there's a lot of heat and itching, other than that I'm fine. The bike didn't come of so well, bent handle bars and mangled gear lever both need replacing.
Good job I didn't go down there. :helpsmilie:
I straightened the lever out best I could and decided to have lunch, by now my arm was swelling a bit, later it got a lot worse.
After my off I had Banana sandwiches for Lunch you can buy bread here, guess we can thank the French for that.. The scenery is stunning and remote is the word lots Banana plantations and nobody around, peaceful just me and the bike.
On one section I found this guy broken down, he had the whole engine apart with the big bearings had gone, makes you appreciate the AA nothing of the sort here your on your own, I wished him luck and pressed on.
He had made camp, guess he was going to be there a while.
That's some fix in the jungle.
Some more great views.
Arriving at Luang Nam Tha about 5 Pm it had been a 10hr 200k ride and I was ready for a rest, found a Hotel got cleaned up and went for dinner, steak with blue cheese cost me more than the hotel but was worth it along with a couple of beers.
Wifi didn't work...Damn!
I went back to my room and sorted all my kit ready for the next day which would be an easy day after today, so a little lay in would be in order and I fell asleep watching TV, a great day.