To my left…the dirt bikes…to my right…cloudtopped limestone peaks leading off northwards over mountains and hills and on to Luang Probang. A day’s planning had informed me we would be looking at 135 km each way and we had a time frame of two days in which to do it. Our party consisted of three - myself, my fiancé Georgie and our good friend Toby. Toby owned his own dirt bike back in the UK and was no stranger to offroad biking. Georgie was a very eager passenger, which just left me – and my limited motor-biking experience. But what’s an adventure without a challenge? The sun was blazing down on the sleepy streets of Vang Vieng which seemed to be roasting us alive, so we bought a map, saddled up and set off with a roar. We passed through rice fields and small villages, along winding roads and rivers - all idyllic and stunningly beautiful. We made our way over the hills that surround Vang Vieng and back down the other side. The road was smooth enough and any serious potholes were scoffed up by our trusty steeds with ease. We found a small cafe
down by the river as it meandered between the last of the hills and pulled over for coffee and a refreshing dip it was stunning! The limestone peaks stretched high into the sky and scratched the bellies of the low-lying clouds. Completely rural and silent, at that moment I realized, that was what I left home for. Mixed with the excitement of the journey ahead, a sense of sadness washed over me. It was a sense that all my travels before had been done the wrong way. If I were on a bus I would’ve breezed past the river, and its beautiful setting would’ve been nothing more than a fleeting glimpse. All the places I may have missed started racing through my head and all I could do was hope that this time I would make up for it. The journey wound up mountains and back down again, we stayed a night in a tiny town called Phou Khoun, far away from anywhere. We woke at 5 am and drove through clouds and we stopped at countless villages along the way. I could write about the hard bits, about the miles, the hills and sore bums, but it doesn’t really seem fair. Not when we passed so many warm continued on page 96 To read more from Aaron Bradford and Georgina Pearson visit HappytimeBlog.co.uk 47