My elephant is called Meehan

Location: Mekong
Miles: 950

My elephant is called Meehan and is 40 years old.  She lumbers slowly through the jungle, large ears wafting and she is a slow lolloping ride.  Kevin is behind me on his elephant, who never catches me up as it seems too interested in stopping to eat.  The river is on our left and although it’s only nine o’clock, the heat is starting to rise.  We watch the elephants bathe, with their mahouts scrubbing their backs.  It’s a calm and peaceful scene.  By eleven we’re back on the bikes and joined by Thai rider, Mr Pe O, who has a home in Chiang Mai where he keeps his R1200GSA.  He and Kevin speed off, whilst I meander through the hills.  We are heading north again to the Golden Triangle.  This is the area where you can see the three countries, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, from the banks of the Mekong River.  And as the sun sets over the huge Golden Buddha that watches over the borders, we eat more local delicacies at a riverside restaurant. 

Next day, we take some time out to visit the Hall of Opium, a spectacular modern interactive museum, then turn south to the small town of Nan.  Yet again, Thailand delivers some awesome riding through breathtaking scenery.  We take some of the smaller back roads – they are endlessly twisty, with steep gradients through spectacular national parks.  Nan is our last night in Thailand and we have both been blown away by the friendship and hospitality, as well as some truly not-to-be-missed landscapes.  We look forward to coming back next year and sharing this with the 20 riders we will be taking on the final leg of Discover our Earth.

It’s border day and an early start to cover the 100 miles to the tiny northern border with Laos.  It’s a Sunday and it’s delightfully quiet, with the usual flurry of paperwork and one man and his computer that we are used to seeing in Central America.  We wave good-bye to Kai, Eak and Mr Bee who has also joined us on this final ride to the border and then it’s a new country.

There is nothing quite like the buzz of riding your bike in a brand new country, with no idea of what lies ahead, what the roads will be like, what challenges await.  Unfortunately for us, our visit to Laos will only be a short transit as our gateway to China.  There is a new road about 2 kms from the border to the Mekong River.  It already has been impacted by landslides and we slip our way over patches of thick red clay mud.  The new tarmac surface is littered with rocks and stones that have tumbled down from the steep hillsides and we weave in and out, as more torrential rain falls from the sky.

By the time we get to the Mekong, it’s dried out again already and we take the ancient, small house boat barge for the 5 minute crossing – it takes one car and two bikes and it’s full. That’s going to be fun with twenty riders!  On the other side, the road winds its way through small villages, busy bringing in the harvest.  There is a real happy innocent feel to this place, as naked kids splash around in the rain gullies bursting with water at the sides of the road, people wave and smile at us and whenever we stop there’s the buzz and clicks of the jungle life.  The riding here is laid back, through lush surroundings and it would be easy to just forget the journey, stay a while longer and munch on freshly baked baguettes (remnants of French colonialism!).  But it’s only a few hundred miles to the Chinese border and entering China has to be done to a strict pre-organised schedule.  Our guide will be waiting there on Wednesday 25 August and it’s a date we can’t break.