Phou Khoun, (I pronounce it Fu kon-el) To Xieng Ngeun

Phou Khoun

After a stormy night with heavy rain that woke both of us at an ungodly hour followed by an encore a wee while after Ellen slept till nearly 8.00am due to the interlude of sleep.

It was nice when we surfaced, a cooler start than previous as we were at 1300 meters.

Xiao Lyu was covered in shit from the day prior and I washed the radiator mesh out as it was caked, while she kept her cool the fan was on for a lot of the trip.

The road was good in parts

We had done a couple of passes but the overall drop to Xieng Ngeun was 1000 meters, we decided to stop there, it was a pleasant place and my shoulders were feeling bad after the 99km trip which took just over 4 hours, yeap averaged about 25km per hour as it was rough but only partially muddy.

Typical road and ....non road.

Some descents were so steep we re down to 1^st gear and braking reasonably hard, bearing in mind this is the 13N so main road north and the trucks drive this “road”, there in no wonder every few km there is a truck with a flatty, pissing fluids out, overheating etc it is a hardarse road.   

Stunning mountain scenery was unveiled when mum nature rolled back the clouds.

We stopped for a piss and lunch, the road was deserted then as soon as Ellen dropped her tweeds 6 cars one after the other rolled passed, not sure if they saw the asian moon but it was funny.  

The village of Xieng Ngeun

The final 6 km long descent my arms/shoulders were quivering under downhill braking so needless to say when we reached the flat I was quite relieved.

The town looked nice from coming down the road looking at it so we decided to call it quits for the day.

As it would turn out, according to google, there is a café that does proper coffee, I felt inspired and conned Ellen into a walk to find the mythical café, to our surprise it existed and to our bigger surprise the lady could make a good coffee, Ellen being skeptical waited till I got mine before she ordered hers, turns out it was exactly the same machine we have at home….which does make a good coffee.

Argh...normal civilian type stuff, the seating at said Cafe, I wasn't ready for a superstar unfluenza...I mean influencer shot LOL.

Luang Probang tomorrow to do some terroruisty things.