Tue, 23 Jan 2001 03:17:23 -0000
From: simon @ millennium-ride.com
To: sponsors @ millennium-ride.com

2k/12/21
Singapore Greetings

2k/11/29
Perth to Bali

2k/11/11
Blues in the Bush

2k/10/26
Alice headed West

2k/10/19
SE Oz, going north

2k/10/11
Flores Report & Proposal

2k/09/25
Sydney update 25.9.00

2k/09/17
Olympic mania, Sydney
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+ more

News Summary 23 January 2001, Vientiane, Laos Round the world charity motorcyclist Simon Milward has teamed up with world biker Mika Kuhn to cross some borders where trouble is expected. They have arrived together in Vientiane, the Lao capitol, having ridden across the Friendship Bridge on which motorcycles are normally banned, from Thailand. In this update Milward comments on peaceful north Thailand and its different quality of tourist, the charitable community, his latest off-road experience and his initial observations of Laos, the first Communist country he has visited on this ride. Milward has covered 52,000km since leaving Europe on 1.1.2000 and Lao is country number 23.

Friendship Bridge to Laos

"This bridge only for cars," said the Thai policeman at the Laos border. "Want to see my passport? All the papers are in order and we are riding into Laos," came the Germanic reply from Mika on his 600cc Tenere. Our bikes were conveniently blocking the road and a car behind was getting impatient. After several minutes a superior decided that the best way to handle this situation was to simply let us ride across the bridge. So we made it! Quite how many riders had ridden across it before we know, but normally riders must pay $10 to put it in a truck to cross. The bridge was donated by Australia in 1994, a simple concrete structure, the road into Laos.

Mika Kuhn in Thailand and local guy taking chicken to cock fights - photo from his Bildergalerie 06

Mika and I had worked out a bit of a plan. On entry refusal he would play the irate German and me the reasonable Englishman and we would make a whole song and dance about the absolute necessity to ride through. I don't expect things will be quite so easy on our way into Vietnam at the end of the week but at least there are no rivers to cross, just rice paddies ahem.

Since my last update I left Chiang Mai for the mountains in NW Thailand, where in fact I came across no guns nor opium! I gave Melanie, a Canadian earth, a 200km lift up the hills and found myself staying for a couple of nights at Pai, a town on the way to the Burma border. Here it was so peaceful and the atmosphere quite unlike anything I had experienced before.

Everyone seemed to be helping everyone else, particularly doing things for Burmese refugee families. Indeed a few minutes after we arrived at a Christian-run guest house we were whisked off to a small event donating some school materials and clothes to a group of them. Weekdays at the guest sees western tourists give lessons to the local Burmese kids who get no education from Thailand since they don't have the papers. I was looking forward to telling them about my ride and that in life they can do what they want, they should dream big! I wanted to say so much longer in this atmosphere of compassion.
The tourists up here are in a difference class and I had some really interesting discussions about the state of the world. Evidently many people from different spiritual backgrounds believe that the world is on the verge of big changes! It's amazing really because in the last two weeks I've met people who were at the S11 protests in Melbourne and the Seattle demo last year. You may remember that these were protests against economic globalisation because presently this does not benefit the consumer and is destroying cultures. The world's media came in for particular criticism due to its pathetic attempt at portraying the protests fairly as did the brutal police action. But those demos were really successful!

After painfully dragging myself away from Pai I rode to Mae Hong Song from where the urge to ride off-road gripped me, so off I headed West over the mountains for a few days. It was much more technical than the Australian Outback but I had less weight. The panniers helped in picking up the bike when it is down and but meant getting trapped in ruts leaving the wheel spinning in midair! I am still undecided about whether to take the panniers through Siberia next Summer or not. I was very pleased firstly at how the bike handled the deep ruts and slippery mud (I only laid it down thrice and only once did I need the assistance of locals) and secondly was completely surprised at my own ability/confidence. They say it was the thoughest of north Thailands tracks.

Back in Changmai I picked up my Vietnam visa and the new carnet des passges. The latter was kindly sent by the RAC who have again been very kind to waive various charges and got it to me in time. Just GBP945 (ouch) but much better than last year.

Thailand, N. East Laos. Late eve sun shining against mountain road. Photo by Mika Kuhn Bildergalerie 06

Mika has been on the road 20 months and is likely to spend another good few years out here - we had met earlier in Delhi. Off we rode through the lush peaceful countryside of Thailand towards Lao. The roads here are the best in the world, well-surfaced and very curvy. We came across the mighty Mekon River, which flows down from China, and stayed a few nights at a very nice spot on the south Bank, looking out over to Laos. I had a swim and got an ear infection (who knows what the Chinese chuck in there!) though it could have been from dirty earlplugs!

So we have been in Vientiane, the capitol of Laos, trying to get some sort of approval to ride the bikes into Vietnam. Impossible. The Vietnam Embassy knows nothing! So we will head north later today, hopefully visiting the Plain of Jars (giant jars of which no-one knows the origin), provided there are no land-mines about.

Vientiane, I am not joking must surely be the most peaceful capitol city in the whole world. It is more like a village. The Mekon lazily sweeps past and the main activity of the day is watching the sun set over it. We've got baguettes too Lao children seem to be the happiest ever. I was riding down some backstreets the other day, and groups of children would almost burst into song as I rode past, almost like the motorcycling pied piper! I'm going to enjoy the villages here for sure.

Laos is noticeably poorer than Thailand and basic levels of everything go down a notch. But I like it. I am also eating now like a horse - inexplicable but delicious!

Take care
Simon Milward