So day 11 brought me back from Nkng Khiaw to Luang Prabang. Not much to report with some nice scenery again.

Stayed at Cold River hotel, good parking and breakfast but poor wifi.

Day 12 and the drama started. 15c start to the day so cold on the bike. Would be my last cold day of the trip!

I again chose to go via Kasi mountain view to avoid as much of road 13 as possible.

The better road and views are worth the challenge of the mountains. A brief stop at the lookout and time to hit the road again.

Out of the lookout I joined the queue to descend through the roadworks. That’s when disaster struck. Unable to maintain any speed due to trucks and front braking due to incline I eventually lost control at walking pace in the rocky mud and over I went!

You can find the full video here if keen to see me fall over! It doesn’t really show the incline but you can see the road conditions and traffic.

I was fine, motorbike gear did its job. Bike lost a hand guard and indicator. The hand guard did its job and protected my clutch lever. Losing that on top on a mountain would indeed has been a disaster!

I got the bike upright again and noted that is probably something I should have trained to do previously! But it wasn’t a problem for a first timer!

I pulled over after about 20m and once I had turned the hairpin corner, just to give the bike a once over. Hard Pannier had some minor damage but everything else was good to go.

I hoped that would be the worst of the day but Road 13 had other ideas! I have never ridden a worse road and I have been on some bad ones. Even this road northbound was not as bad.

On multiple occasions I hit air, sometimes it was like descending a dry waterfall. I absolutely smashed the bike at times and spent most of the next 4 hours on the pegs. Sitting was simply not an option despite my poor knee conditions. I would certainly have been thrown from the bike if seated.

I rested when I could, and not helped that the temperature had now reached 34 degrees, further testing my rapidly aging body!

I felt like a hospital case as both the bike and I limped into Vang Vieng for a few days rest and recovery.

Hopefully that would be the worst day of the trip.

Adventurer