HuskyHobo

HuskyHobo Adventure Travel & Motorcycle Tours

Laos interesting place. At some point here in Vientiane they have changed the traffic flow. But they don't appear to h...
01/01/2026

Laos interesting place. At some point here in Vientiane they have changed the traffic flow. But they don't appear to have changed all the signage. It's almost like they have switched which side of the road they drive on but are introducing it gradually..... I am constantly riding along with the rest of the traffic the wrong way. Ie against the arrows painted on the road..... but not always. What happens at traffic lights is a bit of an unknown too . Right turn on red or not bothering to stop at all appears to be usual, but not universal. It is a bit of a random set up.... The one way streets, well some of them at least, have signs. Usually a worn out no right/left turn into them, but again not all of them, and clear no entry signs are only noticeable by thier absence. The chances of making a mistake are high, and sure enough I get pulled over for running a red light. My first encounter with Lao police. I have had exchanges with roadside police in various countries over the years and I've only ever paid up when bang to rights. Where there is speed gun and video evidence and I can get official receipts. Without the proof, my patience and stubbornness normally exceeds theirs and I don't pay anything. This time, being so unsure of what the heck the seemingly variable rules were at a fairly complex junction, I meekly paid up the £10 on demand. Didn't question it..... Only when they stuffed the cash in their pocket and quickly rode off did I wake up to the fact I had just been done over.... boy am I annoyed with myself!

The beer is followed by an Eric Morcombe Dinner in town...... The right food but not necessarily in the right order! Ma...
30/12/2025

The beer is followed by an Eric Morcombe Dinner in town...... The right food but not necessarily in the right order! Main followed by soup, followed by dessert, followed by starter.... all of it very good... but chef is clearly queen and gets to decide the order of cooking.

You need to be careful how you joke out here. I asked for a large beer, in a posh sky bar (well slightly elevated, it's...
30/12/2025

You need to be careful how you joke out here. I asked for a large beer, in a posh sky bar (well slightly elevated, it's on the 10th floor) The waitress said "I'm sorry we only have one size", so I said "maybe I will need two whilst watching the sunset". Lo and behold she brought me two. As her English is clearly better than my Laoatian I felt guilty asking her to take one back so I drank them both... whilst watching the rain clouds obscure our local star. You have to own your mistakes.... Hic. Glad I did... she has now just told me that it's happy hour and the third one comes for free...... that is some recompense for the fact that the first two were double the price on the street below. Altitude clearly, has its price. Thank goodness we are only 10 floors up.....

It's Saturday and I went to book a train ticket for tomorrow. They don't have one available until Tuesday... not even fi...
29/12/2025

It's Saturday and I went to book a train ticket for tomorrow. They don't have one available until Tuesday... not even first class. So I book a flight to the capital instead. It's a turboprop and the baggage limits are a bit tight. With all the biking gear and tool kits I am bound to struggle with my checked bag limit, even after putting on my bike gear and armour and filling pockets with heavier items. On the day, the couple trying to check in in front have their cases open and are frantically trying to shed weight. I don't mean from their midrift. Although that wouldn't be a bad thing either. I am only one kg over weight on the checked bag but with the helmet I have two pieces of hand luggage, neither of which will fit in the baggage frame. The hand luggage is also significantly over the weight limit. The agent on the priority check in calls me over as the girls in front now have all their extensive underwear and half a shop spread out on the floor. The agent doesn't bat an eyelid at my checked bag and then she hesitates as she looks at my hand baggage and watches several beads of sweat trickle down my forehead. ( I am in full bike gear and it's hot) I look her directly in the eye with my best puppy dog please take pity on me look. I see her eye my bag then my helmet bag. Her eyebrows raise and I prepare for her to ask to weigh it, or worse, try to fit either into the baggage frame. I still don't blink. A flicker of sympathy flashes across her face and she hands me my boarding card and indicates I can proceed. Phew...

A while ago when my black phone case, which kept successfully hiding on our black kitchen work top, gave out I resolved ...
28/12/2025

A while ago when my black phone case, which kept successfully hiding on our black kitchen work top, gave out I resolved to buy the brightest case I could. Some weeks later later I got caught out in a heavy thunderstorm and I bought the last umbrella in the nearest shop. It happened to match the phone case. Thus accidentally, I became a walking ambassador for the LBGT community....... It doesn't normally bother me. I am using the umbrella as a sunshade and when I pull my phone out I am currently getting more knowing smiles accross the coffee shops and bars, from young Lao men than I feel comfortable with....... I've now switched the phone case and I am risking accute sunburn..... !

The cultural gap with other tourists can be quite wide. I had to remind one of the Chinese who spoke good English that i...
27/12/2025

The cultural gap with other tourists can be quite wide. I had to remind one of the Chinese who spoke good English that interrupting the waitress whilst she was trying to serve someone else (me) was considered to be extremely rude, and insulting to both the waitress and myself. He got the message and understood, but I have seen this happen all over and have to assume it is normal in those cultures. I have thus taken to pushing myself to the front and interrupting when faced with hoards of Chinese/Koreans in front of me in any melee that passes for a queue. Being 6'2" and solidly built helps. Looking at the signs, the Laoations don't have particularly high expectations of tourist behavior either........

For a race of predominantly short people , the Lao don't half have big and very steep steps/stairs. Each step is at leas...
26/12/2025

For a race of predominantly short people , the Lao don't half have big and very steep steps/stairs. Each step is at least 12-18" high and no two steps on any flight are actually the same size....

Whilst everyone has gone home, I have a few non motorcycling days in Laos and Vietnam. No diary but random thoughts will...
26/12/2025

Whilst everyone has gone home, I have a few non motorcycling days in Laos and Vietnam. No diary but random thoughts will follow....

Laos first thoughts. Confirms my bias against world heritage sites. Most of Korea and half of China have descended on Luang Prabang this weekend. (Connected by train) They are very loudly scouring the pretty big night market for souvenirs, most of which are available all over Asia and probably originate from their home towns....

21/12/2025

Five of us have decided to stop off in Bangkok and head to Kanchanaburi, to "The bridge on the river Kwai" We manage to sort accommodation but bikes are proving elusive. Most of the on line places listing proper bikes seem to be web fronts that don't actually have any, and even the few scooter places close by only have one or two available. Eventually we call someone who actually has 5 sets of two wheels across town. We jump straight in a taxi and head over. Saturday Bangkok rush hour. It takes an age, and then another age to sort the paperwork. Eventually we roll out back in to the traffic the other side of town on 5 scooters with tiny wheels well after sunset. So much for the golden rule of never riding in Asia in the dark.... We have a metropolis to cross!
The following day we head out of town. This was never going to be a motorcycling highlight of the trip and try as I might I can't really identify a sensible route that isn't a main highway. Still, it turns out to be good fun on these twitchy little beasts. Adrenalin rises as we anticipate getting pulled over by the Police as we find ourselves on a few km of highway that we can’t exit despite the glaring no motorcycle signs... The hotel turns out to be rather idyllic and it is only short walk to the bridge. Blimey it is busy. There are literally thousands of people milling around. It turns out to be the final night of a big memorial event, and we get to attend the last show, for free! Memorable, thought provoking and spectacular. The steam train, light show, drones and fireworks reenacting the wartime destruction of the bridge by the allies, whilst prisoners were tied to it as human shields, made Lewes bonfire night look a bit tame........ it was definitely worth the trip and the inevitable slog back to Bangkok to return our wheels.

The final days riding. Carefully planned to make the most of the best available roads and get back into the city in the ...
20/12/2025

The final days riding. Carefully planned to make the most of the best available roads and get back into the city in the least traffic and dust. The witches cafe is an eclectic place just over an hour from Pai that makes a great coffee stop. We arrange to regroup here only a few km before we turn off the main road to my masterplan route to make the most of the last day. We turn off and Sat indicates a problem. Puncture. No worries out come the tools, we find a few rocks to make a stand, and off comes the front wheel. Eventually. The spindle was well and truly stuck. Much, sweating, bashing and swearing finally see it removed. Off comes the tyre and in goes a new tube. Tyre back on and inflate, Except it doesn’t. Frustration in the heat has led to lack of care and I pinched the tube refitting the tyre. Rookie error! Hot sweaty and annoyed I take a breather and a cold drink. While I rehydrate, Dr google finds a bike mechanic not 10 minutes away. A much better idea. Andrew takes Sat and the wheel to the guy who sorts it in 45 seconds for next to nothing. When they get back, The wheel spindle rears its ugly head again. It definitely does not want to go back in and engage the thread… More swearing and lots of brute force finally win the day and we are eventually ready to roll. The long delay however has put a spanner in the works. The original route carefully crafted to avoid congestion is now cutting it a bit fine to return the bikes on time. We therefore have a highly entertaining dice on the main road through the hottest part of the day and some horrendous traffic and dust. We all go native and weave our way through the melee. Even our zealous instructor abandons all pretence of “advanced riding techniques”. The two second gap becomes the 20millisecond gap as per the locals and he sticks like glue with the less risk averse in their desperation to get through the traffic and out of the dust and heat….. We finish the day with a slap up meal in one of Chiang Mai's poshest restaurants. This is a very good ending to the main part of the trip.

Today is the long way round to Pai. It is by no means second best. I have ridden the road that joins up with the MHS loo...
19/12/2025

Today is the long way round to Pai. It is by no means second best. I have ridden the road that joins up with the MHS loop in Khun Yuan several times but had forgotten what a great twisty, steep and uncompromising road it can be. It is also interesting to see how much more accommodation has popped up in the past five or six years. Tourism may be booming but oversupply is going to eat potential profits for sure. We stop for coffee and refuel before heading on to a bamboo shack overlooking a small river for lunch. Quaint and tasty would be the perfect name. We are now retracing our earlier ride on the MHS loop, but with less hero blob to grind down….. before being greeted like long lost friends by our hotelier in Pai.

The following morning, much to my surprise, I am not covered in bed bug bites. The main hotel has unscrambled their c*...
18/12/2025

The following morning, much to my surprise, I am not covered in bed bug bites. The main hotel has unscrambled their c**k up and I can now stay with everyone else tonight. As it's an adventure, I have planned a route back to Pai that might not actually exist, and if it does exist it might be a bit more than the novice off roaders want to chew.... Today therefore is a recce. We will head out and see how far we can get. If all is good we will come this way again tomorrow. If not we have an alternative tarmac route that is a fun road and links up with the MHS loop again. Turning off the main road we negotiate several hairpins gain some elevation. Then the concrete disappears. We are on mud, it is slippery in parts but mainly dry and is generally firm where you can stick to the wheel tracks. It is also fairly steep in parts. There are a couple of damp and muddy sections but everyone handles them remarkably well. Sat in his off-road element has shot off ahead as I try to ensure the novices are still ok. I am thinking this terrain is at the edge of what is sensible and considering turning back. If we have to retrace we need to go down what we have just come up and that was on the edge of ability for some. We are in danger of getting sucked in to more and more difficulty with less and less daylight to overcome it in. We group up and I look at the map. We are an hour in, and only a quarter of the way to a point where I know for sure we are back on concrete. Potentially we have 3 hours of similar or worse riding before we can relax. I relay this to the others, none of whom are keen to ride down what we have just come up. We are close to the edge of a small village that seems to be relatively flat so I suggest we give it 15 minutes and then make a call regarding turning back. Lo and behold the track turns to concrete and then to tarmac and pops out onto a road I know. I have already decided we are pushing our luck and won't be coming back this way tomorrow. Rather than explore more of the route that might not exist, we now have time to divert, have a nice lunch and to ascend to the highest point in Thailand, Doi Inthanon, before returning to our accommodation.

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