Table of contents
- Out and about with a motorcycle in Laos A bit of chaos is part of it
- Pulling the gas hand and chugging humbly
- Potholes the size of pools
- Overtaking becomes a test of courage
- Go somewhere else!
Dentges
23 pictures
Dentges
1/23
At the end of the tour, everyone is completely flattened.
Dentges
2/23
The Dane group in front of the Patuxay Monument, Vientianes “Arc de Triomphe”.
Dentges
3/23
Buddha is with you, almost on every corner.
Dentges
4/23
The king resided in Luang Prabang until 1975, and French colonial buildings shape the image of the busy city.
Dentges
5/23
Motorcycle tour in Laos.
Dentges
6/23
Fresh fruit smoothies – handmade for a handful of kip, the equivalent of one euro.
Dentges
7/23
Chasing corners in Laos? D rather not. Slow down and enjoy is more advisable.
Dentges
8/23
Permissible total weight Kawasaki Versys: 389 kilos. There are a few more for the pachyderm on the left.
Dentges
9/23
Out and about in a pack at the Dane Trophy in Laos. Anyone who dares can join the Dane Trophy. Reasonably experienced motorcyclists can book one of the twelve places for the Laos tour and experience the Southeast Asian country in a quick run.
Dentges
10/23
Tour director Kay Kaesler is always in a good mood.
Dentges
11/23
as for a brawl! Fortunately, the peaceful people don’t get caught up with each other like the scooters.
Dentges
12/23
Hard work, meager life, but always relaxed through the day.
Dentges
13/23
On the lower reaches of the Mekong in northwest Laos, shipping and road traffic compete with each other. The meandering strip of asphalt is easy to tour.
Dentges
14/23
MOTORRAD editor Thorsten Dentges took part in the Dane Trophy and brought back these great pictures from his motorcycle trip in Laos.
Dentges
15/23
In the gold rush: hidden Buddhist temples carved into the rock.
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16/23
Also gold: Grandiose sunsets on the Mekong.
Dentges
17/23
Lao freight transport: mopeds with sidecars can deliver entire refrigerators.
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18/23
Germany fan meets Laos enthusiasts – one likes football, the other driving.
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19/23
In the land of countless curves, most of them drive publicly – in the truest sense of the word.
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20/23
Like a bottle empty: be careful not to get stuck! Because on secondary routes there are only opportunities to refuel at very irregular intervals.
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21/23
In the vicinity of the Golden Triangle, remote places are difficult to reach.
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22/23
Night markets are considered culinary Eldorados – there is something for every stomach. Rice always works.
Dentges
23/23
Dane boss Jens Fohl (with a bottle of water).
to travel
Motorcycle tour in Laos
Out and about with a motorcycle in Laos
A bit of chaos is part of it
Many travel destinations on earth are suitable for motorcycling in a hurry. Not Laos. It makes you lame, but that’s not a problem.
Thorsten Dentges
06/25/2015
Was it only the second bottle of 40 percent mineral water that was half empty on the table? Later you will not and will not remember so exactly, exact wording is twisted, revoked and spun into shape. No matter, the fact is that late at night tour guide Kay, next to the pool of a well-tended northern Thai hotel complex near the border with Laos, had a heated debate with Dane Trophy inventor Jens Fohl and other fellow travelers about what travel and what lawn is. Kay had probably got a few bubbles of carbonic acid to his head when he exclaimed: “Hey, honestly, do you want to be a Pussyrider?”
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A bit of chaos is part of it
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The day before. On Highway 1148, famous for its thousand curves, north of the provincial metropolis of Chiang Mai, the German who emigrated to Thailand tears across the asphalt in a 250cc supermoto as if there was no tomorrow. Kay organizes trips and is tasked with guiding the 2015 Dane Trophy participants through Laos. Such a tour through the communist country is quite exclusive, because in Laos only a good ten percent of the roads are asphalted, it goes up to over 1500 meters high in the mountains, and there are hardly any or no rental companies who offer larger machines than rickety mopeds . And Thai big bike rental companies usually do a devil to let their machines into the somewhat ailing neighboring country. If you have your own motorcycle with you, great, have a good trip! But there’s a lot of annoying paperwork waiting at the border, and Laotian officials can be a little, shall we say, exhausting at times. Kay, however, knows the pitfalls, speaks the local language and was therefore assigned the tour guide. Oh yes, completely forgotten to mention: Kay was already pounding motocross tracks in the GDR as a teenager. And still has a lot of fun driving. Especially when driving fast. Unfortunately, his little sheep, which he should be protecting as a guide, cannot always follow him. The Dane Trophy (see page 108 for details) aims to be a real challenge, but is not only intended for Dakar professionals and Isle of Man maniacs. Now that the bottle of high-percentage sparkling water is finally empty, the Laos candidates take them to bed with them: “Step on the gas or be a Pussyrider?”
Pulling the gas hand and chugging humbly
The morning after. The tropical sun is already frying unbearably – over 30 degrees. Mouth dry, face wrinkled, stomach full of a Europe-America-Far East breakfast mix of toast, muesli, fried rice, chilli, tofu. Another coffee in hi-awake strength, the ignition key of a Kawasaki Versys in the hand. Groaning, squeeze the Omme into the helmet, open the flap, and put everything on the rest of the clothes on full opening. Just one wish: please, please drive! Because standing means sweating, and sweating badly.
The engines are finally running. The resolution to take it easy is quickly obsolete, it is fired again. But okay, the faster the cooler – airflow as an effective air conditioning system. When, however, an Australian motorcycle tourist slips on devious gravel inside the curve directly in front of the Dane group and the machine ends up in the guardrail as scrap metal, everyone curbs the gas hand and humbly chugs on to the Laotian border.
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Potholes the size of pools
The Honda driver who is waiting for his immigration papers at the Huai Kon crossing is convinced that one cannot drive fast on the roads in Laos. The skinny man fumbled a hand-rolled and grinned while lighting it with brown-discolored teeth in need of renovation. German solo traveler, probably a freak by profession. Wrapped in a strange arrangement of bulging plastic protectors, it looks like a weird doll figure from the Muppet Show with its wildly protruding lint mane. “Always just give it a go, you can forget there are potholes, man and man disappear away from the whole car that believes
IhrnichtechtHellleMannomann “- a torrent of words without periods and commas gushes out of the freak, and he describes himself, without being asked, as a connoisseur of the country who has been there umpteen times by motorcycle. The side road through the mountains is great. But without asphalt – and often closed or only passable with a light enduro. The main route is also great, lots of curves and so on, and in Hongsa you absolutely have to stop by Monika, the Austrian landlady, who has the best coffee far and wide, and in general, watch out for elephants at all times and drink a lot because it’s hot outside. Phew, thanks for the talk. The ear is bleeding, but this crude mix of highly condensed travel information at least made the long standstill due to the immigration formalities almost forgotten. The freak now has his papers and rattles away on the 250 single-cylinder, waving wildly.
Funny bird, but he was right about the potholes: With some you just need to fill in water and the pool is ready. It is already getting dark and the group rolls along the Mekong at a moderate pace and crosses over on a dilapidated ferry that would make any test engineer shudder. Night camp in Pak Beng, an inconspicuous village near the Golden Triangle with a few inns. Bright neon lights from shops with colorfully displayed general goods illuminate the dusty main street. Teenagers in love stroll past food stalls with freshly cooked local specialties, while soft music can be heard from the few bars and restaurants. A mild evening, relaxed atmosphere, lots of smiles, tongue-burning hot curries, refreshingly cold beer and lemonade. And a good bed to give your bones some rest before the next stage.
Overtaking becomes a test of courage
The Versys proves to be an uncomplicated companion and multifunctional tool for Laotian streets. At some times of the day, the main routes seem almost deserted, and then it goes ahead with smack, until trucks and buses lined up again, so that overtaking on sometimes rugged and alarmingly narrow mountain stretches becomes a test of courage. Sandy slopes lead up and down to small settlements in the hinterland, where isolated mountain tribes live in the simplest of conditions. Lots of pedestrians on the asphalt, protecting themselves against the tropical sun with colorful umbrellas. Others are waiting with heavy luggage to be hitchhiked onto flatbed trucks. Small and farm animals along the way, sometimes also large animals – i.e. cargo elephants – in the middle of the road. Countless town crossings force you to slow down. But it never gets boring.
There is a day of rest in the lively former royal city of Luang Prabang. Bars, street cafes, massage parlors as well as temples, cultural sites and handicraft markets are available. Motor rickshaws cart tourists from all over the world and of all ages through the streets, excursions to surrounding villages on the Mekong are possible with taxi boats or your own motorcycle. At night after curfew, the global party crowd meets in a bowling hall outside the city gates. Bizarre. Loud techno music is buzzing, beer and schnapps flow in rivers. Brightly colored Asian ladies in high heels with skirts that are a little too short and – oh boy! – Somewhat too dark voices as well as pronounced Adam’s apples and upper arm muscles woo backpackers who stagger about to throw and almost tumble after the bowling ball. Rusted army trucks, produced in communist brother countries, and every kind of roadworthy vehicle bring the celebrated back to the hotels at dawn.
Go somewhere else!
During a lunchtime walk on the riverside or at the sunset whitewashing everything in golden light, one encounters Chinese tour groups whose mobile phone camera selfie sticks hook into each other, US college boys hung over at street stalls with finger food dripping with grease and extremely relaxed locals watching the hustle and bustle of the city in the shade of trees hide a game of cardboard box crown cap chess.
It’s a shame that the motorcycles have to be saddled. We continue to Vang Vieng and the capital Vientiane. But also nice again, because the tropical warm wind feels good, the gently rushing impressions of rice fields, palm groves and glittering rivers have an invigorating effect. You flow lively down a curve slide, glide freshly over pleasant asphalt dunes, and roll excitedly from one high-gloss panorama to the next.
You love stokers, curve scrapers, gas knees and all other high-speed drivers, it is advised to you: go somewhere else! In Oschersleben or the Eifel it is also nice, many travel destinations on this earth are suitable for motorcycling at high speed. Not Laos. It makes you lame, but that’s not a problem. So do you want to be a Pussyrider? Sure, of course! Otherwise you will miss half of this wonderfully colorful country.
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