The road tracklog
From Cau Treo to Tha Kheak
From 09/12 to 14/12/2008

When I entered the border post of Laos on the 09/12 around 4:20 p.m. at Nam Phao, it was deserted. I gave voice to announce my presence. A people appeared, he was a customs officer at whom I presented the Carnet de Passage en Douane of my truck. I explained its operation; he agreed to fill it and to put stamps at the ad hoc places. The customs officer went to look for an employee of immigration to give me a VOA, visa one arrival, at a cost of $31. The truck was not visited. Out the latencies the procedure lasted around ten minutes.
I bivouacked three kilometres away from the border post at the edge of torrent.

On the 10/12 from the bivouac the road n°8 is sealed and of good quality up to Lak Sao where I arrived around 10:30 a.m. to change the VND into Lak and to do shopping in the market. Then I continued on the road n°8 always of good quality up to Ban Khoun Kham where I had to lunch in Mi Thuna Restaurant, recommended by LP. At the market I have my first smile in Laos.

 
 
First smile in Laos 
Ban Khoun Kham 
10/12/2008 

The afternoon, I walked two hours in a dense forest by a rocky track to the Tat Namsanam waterfalls. The higher part is very distant and must be very impressive during the wet season. The track is summarily equipped.
I bivouacked at the western exit of the village.

 
 

Tat Namsanam 
Ban Khoun Kham 
10/12/2008 

 
 
Tat Namsanam 
Ban Khoun Kham 
10/12/2008 

 
 

Tat Namsanam 
Ban Khoun Kham 
10/12/2008 

The 11/12/2008, thousandth day of the trip round the world, was marked by a return on the bitumen. I wished to head “the Loop” suggested by the Lp. I thus drove back to Lak Sao to head towards Nyommalat. Hardly I had done five kilometres I found a completely battered track. I persisted still two kilometres. Then I decided to give up after having read again the report of the Lp, indeed the interest was without relation with the painfulness of the track. Consequently I head again to the road 8 in Lak Sao to join the road 13 in Vieng Kham where I lunched. A few kilometres after I stopped to bivouac close to a service station, the accesses of the road hardly offered possibility of parking.

On road 8 I took some pictures. Fisrt of all in Tha Bak at the foot of the bridge over the Nam Theun River there were strange boats built in aluminium tubes. It is said that they would be American bombs from where the name of “Bomb boats”. More prosaically they would be the additional fuel tanks released during the second war of Indo-China by American planes after having emptied the contents .

 
 
Bomb boat 
Tha Bak 
11/12/2008 

After Ban Khoun Kham I stopped at Sala View Point to take a picture of the dramatic landscape, alas there was a fog darkening it.

 
 

Splendide paysage! 
Sala View Point 
11/12/2008 

The 12/12 a short driving morning led me to Tha Khaek whose origin dates to the empires of Funan, 2nd century, and Chenla, 5th century. The old quarter dates back from French colonization, 1910-11. The modern city is built along the main road 13 from Vientiane to the border of Cambodia. There is no bridge to cross the Mekong but of antique ferry boats.
Not having found a bivouac in the city I drove back over 13 kilometres northwards to take a road to the mighty Mekong where a future ferry pier is.

 
 
The French Old Quarter 
Tha Khaek 
12/12/2008 

 
 

Fountain Square 
Tha Khaek 
12/12/2008 

The site of Ban Vuen Ferry being splendid and isolated at the edge of Mekong River I decided to spend there the weekend of the 13 and December 14 to check my truck and to study the road plan until the end of January 2009. Indeed I have two constraints related to the Carnet de Passage en Douane of the truck whose expiry is the 23/01/09 and with my visa of Laos validates until the 07/01/09. I have to leave Laos to go back there to visit the north, which explains, partly, the interlude in Thailand.

The 13/12 I headed back to Tha Khaek to do shopping and to visit the monastery of Pha That Si Khottabong, located 6 kilometres away southwards of the city on a road away from the main road 13 and at the bank of the Mekong River. The stupa would date from the 6th century. It was restored in 1950 then in 1970. To visit it I looked for a monk to have access to the prayer hall where a large seated Buddha is.

 
 
Pha That Si Khottabong 
Tha Khaek 
13/12/2008