Monday Mar 30th – Today we took a ferry across the Mekong to head due west out to Hogsa, a remote town close to the Thai border. The road was no more than a forest track but the forest was stupendous, think jungle growth that kept us from the heat of the day and as […]
Over 9 years America dropped more bombs over Northern Laos than were dropped in Germany and Japan over the whole of World War 2. For that 9 years every 8 minutes a bomb fell. Yet Laos was declared a “neutral” zone during the Vietnam War. Central to that activity was an airbase at Long Tieng […]
The team ride over forest tracks, back roads and rock hop through the jungle of North West Laos. Gareth gives us his take on the subject of colonialism while they service their motorcycles in Laos’s capital city and explains why the economy is seemingly so strong. Also the adventurers are hoping to ride down a […]
Day 7, Thursday Mar 26th – it’s rained heavily overnight and that puts my route rescheduling of last night under question. We need to find whether the backroad to Muang Sing will actually be passable. But nobody knows so we set off anyway. Not long into it and we hit the dirt. Pretty rutty and […]
Day One – Friday Mar 20th – arrived in Chiang Mai at 8 pm, having left Wellington at 7 am that morning – so in elapsed time that’s 19 hours. Only drama was me having severe stomach cramps in the airport at Bangkok which thankfully passed so I could make it to the flight for […]
Watch the Up the Andes Documentary. This time Jo, Gareth and their mates transverse the Andes from North to South and from top to bottom. Taking the back roads, they discover the unique and wonderful land that is South America.
The adventurers can add another 8000 km to their World by Bike journey but are reminded on the last day just how dangerous the roads can be. Also their short burst on the Thailand tarmac was not what they expected. Gareth wraps up another fantastic leg of motorcycling through Kiplings Asia.
The first leg of this jaunt from Karachi, Pakistan was about 8000km and with two new DR650 Suzukis plus Dave’s older Dakar 650 having had a thorough going over, everything was up to scratch. This first leg began in pretty extreme heat conditions in Pakistan deserts and temperatures were as high as 53 degrees Celsius. […]
Gareth gives us a glimpse of life in Myanmar. We folks in the west would like to believe that reform is happening in Myanmar but, as Gareth explains, it is a false impression. The military still has a strong hold on daily life, child labour is everywhere and corruption in endemic. He explains how Coca […]
What is the Road to Mandalay really like and Jo and Gareth give us an insight into an area where very few tourists ever get to.
