February 28th – Day 22 – Nan, Thailand to Vientiane, Laos

Before posting about today’s drive, I want to update everyone on the plight of the Andrew & Sheila Marshall. Their Landrover Defender had an oil leak which meant they could not drive at more than 50mph. The replacement part they needed had to be flown out from the UK, and amazingly, it arrived yesterday, just 36 hours after being dispatched. A local dealer fitted it and they left Chiang Mai in the afternoon, arriving in Nan at about 8pm. It is another example of what you need to do, to ensure you complete an event.

Now, to today’s drive. It was a case of another day, another country. This time it is was Laos, the fifth country of the tour. When we went to our car in the hotel car park we saw Bert & Stefan Diebel’s car wrapped in pink ribbons, with a great big sign on the window saying, ‘Happy Birthday, Stefan’. This had been done yesterday evening by Simon Dedman and his co-driver, Andrew.


It was a long drive from Nan to Vientiane, just under 600kms. This meant a 6.30am start. With sunrise at 6.15am we were able to leave Nan in the light and watch the sun rise into the hazy sky due to the forest fires that are burning all over this part of Thailand.

A a bit later we came up behind Alan Crisp and John Faulkner while driving through a national park.

As we headed south, close to the Laos border our views of the hills were restricted by the smoke filled skies.

It was a sombre reminder of the cost Thailand, and the world, is paying for the clearing of the forests by farmers, turning it into arable land.

Road works on one of the minor mountain roads.


On either side of the road beautiful clumps of pampas grass were growing with their long stems often bending over the road.


We were now driving alongside a river which was the border between Thailand and Laos. At one point we came across this market which was at a border crossing. We still had over 300kms to go before we reached the Friendship Bridge crossing to Vientiane.


About 200kms from our destination we reached the banks of the mighty Mekong River. The Mekong is the third longest river in Asia after the Yangtze and the Yellow river. The car by the Mekong


We stopped by the side of the river for a short break and just as we were about to drive off, a police car with three cars following it, drove past. The police car was escorting a car, with two security cars following. When I tried to overtake, the last car pulled out to block my way. We were stuck behind them for over 70kms, before we stopped for diesel.


At one point this giant wasp attached itself to the windscreen as we were driving along at 70mph!

About 40kms from the border the route took us along the Mekong, with views of Vientiane on the opposite bank.

We had just been joined by Bob and Thelma and I took this photo of Wendy and them in front of the Mekong and with Laos in the background.


Just along the road we came across these examples of topiary with, as it turned out, our hotel in Vientiane the white building on the left.

We arrived at the Thai border crossing on the south side of the Mekong and cleared their immigration and customs quickly. We then drove across the Friendship Bridge, which has both Lao and Thai flags flying on both sides of the bridge.

When you have crossed the bridge; you have to do something which doesn’t happen very often: switch from the left to the right, as Laos drives on the right.
Clearing customs in Laos took a bit longer than leaving Thailand and Wendy took this photo of Don & Paul looking at their watches as we waited for the Lao customs to issue our visas. John Brown looks pretty pleased with himself!

The drive to the hotel was only about 20 kms.

In the evening we went to a Lao restaurant on the banks of the Mekong, for a meal that had been arranged by a friend of Felicity and Jeremy, who lives in Vientiane. A lovely way to end the day.