Tucked away beside the flowing Nam Xong River, is a little place called Organic Farm. With a backdrop of mountains curling along on the opposite bank.

Located about a 5 minute Henry ride out of town.

The place has been setup by a Mr. T and is designed to grow organic farm produce as well as form a platform for teaching English to local Laoation children.

I gifted our stockpile of cheggo to their school. Secretly I wanted to play Chego with the kids but I could quite convey that and ended up just giving it to them.

The first night I was here by myself (the others were all out adventuring) and the second group of kids aged around 15 finished their class and I was sitting watching and it didn’t take them long to approach me and start asking me questions about how to speak English and some just simply enjoyed talking in English to further their skill.

The farm looks for volunteers to stay and work or teach English. They have a jobs board where they keep track of what they need with English teaching being the most critical, but jobs range to building and working on the farm as well.

August was one such volunteer. An American who had spent the last 3 months teaching at organic farm by day and living it up at night.

The first thing you realise about attempting to teach English to a non-English speaker is that you don’t know how to teach English.

With me? See not easy!

Explain what a verb is using English in a way that a non speaking English person can understand? No chance.

A lot of the time you find yourself resorting to comparing an English word to another English word, but that only helps you, not the person starring at you with a quizzical expression.

Instead I resorted to the online dictionary to help me explain the words and phrases being thrown at me by a bunch of very studious kids. It was hard, even Blake (who turned up just as they were leaving) couldn’t quite explain himself.

The next day I was more prepared. I found idiom and phrase teaching pages online and was ready to go when I was blocked out by the French!

A large group of French students had arrived that morning and were staying at the farm as part of their Laos tour. They were from what I could understand a group that tours together once a year with a guide (also from France). They had arranged to pair up with the kids and I was left tearing up at the side as I watched the French (who lets be honest, were struggling nearly as much as the students) attempted to teach English. It was fine I simply ordered more food.

Once they were finished the group that hounded me the night prior re-approached. They really are simply loverly kids. We sat and we talked for a bit but it was late, I made arrangements with some of them to come back the next day at 9:00am to spend a few decent hours.

Then we went out! August took us into town (yes we rode) to an Irish bar where we had an amazingly good shepards pie and chips. I believe it was so good due to the absence of pie in our life for about two months. Nonetheless, it satisfied.

August weaved in and out of the pub almost as if an alter ego had taken over and the quiet glassed eyed chap we met on the farm was taken and consumed by party menace. We followed suit. Pool and alcohol flowed and we moved around a bit drinking before it was time to head home.

I awoke early the next morning to fulfil my teacher obligations. They arrived on time and I spent the next 3-4 hours talking and teaching with the two students that returned, both who are now my latest Facebook friends.

I really wanted to return to this place to spend time teaching but mostly connecting with the locals, And maybe I will.

We stayed in Phonsavon for about 3 days. The town Is pretty unexciting as far as towns go. Basically a long street of modernish buildings offering all sorts.

We stayed because we needed to. After a week pushing ourselves down to the border and crossing the border we needed a place we could just stay to unwind. We took it pretty chill. It mostly rained. A constant pattering turning the landscape into misery and mud.

Phonsavon is hailed as having beautiful scenery and the fields of pots. Large stone pots that were placed in fields somewhat sporadically. They were mined from nearby mountains.

This region is also contested as the number one ranking land area for the most ordinance dropped. There are numerous international firms still working to ensure the area is cleared up and that the human casualty element is dealt with. Farmer and other civilians are still injured today by unexploded ordinance.

We met a couple of expats working for an American firm in agriculture and an Australian woman working with an aid agency.

Blake ran into a British couple who we decided to ride with the next day to Luang Prabang. Rumoured to be a very desirable place. Another 250 k day of riding and it started out as expected with mechanical issues, and of course they were with Henry.

The mechanics got him running again. Carburettor issues. They also affixed a new kick start and clutch level. The kick start is in the wrong place and stuffs up my leg position when I’m riding.

We left at nearly midday and made luang after a long stretch by about 7ish.

Luang Prabang is amazing. I simply love it. Nestled along the mighty Mekong River it’s blend of colonial French architecture, small streets and alleys and Buddhist Wats almost makes you feel like your on the frontier.

There are night markets and food alleys, and the food, oh the food! Whole sides of chicken wrapped between bamboo shoots and fried over coals… Drooling right now writing about it and I’ve had three today!!! It’s fresh untouched natural chicken and boy is it good! But the other food here is also good, unlike Vietnam which has been inundated with sugar, here we can find fresh bread and well cooked tasty food. Even western food is well cooked enough to pass for home.

We visited the famous Waterfalls which were really something else. A 40 minute ride from the town these beautiful blue cascading pools can be found flowing from one to the next. As you walk up past these turquoise pools you finally reach the main falls and can even take a brutally steep ascent to the top to find the river and more pools and a view to top it all off.
These attraction, however, is spectacular and as such attracts a hefty number of tourists of all fashions every day. You can swim in all parts of the falls which is very pleasing. There is also the hidden and unexpected delight of a black bear conservation area.

Needless to say, Pigly had a blast!!!

I’m staying in the old town but even the outskirts are not without their charm. I find though that the Laotian people are very different from Vietnamese. I am a huge fan of Vietnam it’s culture and especially it’s people who I find incredibly resourceful and friendly. I’ve never felt unsafe in either of my two trips to Vietnam and I especially love the way the people there love westerners especially considering that they were effectively fighting us not too long ago, it amazes and perplexes me. The Laotian’s however are not nearly as friendly or welcoming.

However, that being said, I have spoken with many people who argue the opposite with me, it may simply be individual experience, or that Laotians don’t like me.

The biggest and most noticeable difference is that they use the old script language, which unlike Vietnamese which has been converted to the Roman alphabet, is simply unrecognisable or derivable.

We have been here now in Luang Prabang for 3 days and tomorrow I think we shall be moving on to the notorious town of Vang Vien. I need to keep moving but I may return here it has certainly captured my imagination.

We’d made it to the border town Nam Can and decided to tackle the crossing in the morning.

We rose early and set out for the border, it was a brutal ride, all of 30kms on perfect roads. It was a terrific struggle… Not.

We made the border in good time and went to meet our fate at the hands of the Vietnamese immigration officials.

They stamped us out of the country no issue, but then we had to tackle the bikes. They directed us to move our bikes to the vehicle checking area and then redirected us back to the customs agent. At first the agent simply said no. And Blake was getting worried. Checked out of Vietnam the bikes would have to be left where they were if we couldn’t convince our agent.

It was time to turn on our now world famous charm!

Through rephrasing and pleading We managed to ascertain through broken English that it was in fact allowed for bikes to cross, but the issue lay in the Vietnamese officials believing that the Laos officials would simply confiscate our bikes and therefore were trying to protect us.

We managed to explain that we would take the responsibility and deal with Laos officials ourselves if we made progress across the border. We finally got an agreement and started receiving the paper work. Our customs agent explained it would be $50 USD for the bikes. After the formalities were done we were asked for $100,000 VND (approximately $5 USD) and nothing more was said. Nothing was said about our overextension of our visas either. We were feeling lucky!

We went back to our bikes to find that the whole border crossing on the Viet side shut down for lunch. So we had one last meal in Vietnam and when we finally grew impatient enough found and woke an official who cleared us through.

No mans land, all 100 meters of it…brutal!

Upon arriving at the Laos side it became clear that they endorsed the principle of a 2-3 hour lunch/sleep break as the border had a mass of people waiting and 0 officials present.

With nothing to do but wait we, slept. About an hour and a half later the officials all came down the hill from their break out area to resume work. I will be negotiating for Sth East Asia hours in my next contract!

We were prepared for everything, bribes, arguments, returning to Vietnam, we were not ,however, prepared for a simple hassle free quick process where we paid for our visa ($31 USD each) had our passports stamped and simply road off into Laos.

After the issues in Dien and the ridiculous journey to get here the process could not have been simpler and we could hardly believe it.

Gleeful and ecstatically ready for Laos we rode off…