$2 came the surly demand at the Laos border post before they would stamp our passports. $2 was the jovial demand at the quarantine post (a tent) just inside Cambodia where our temperatures were taken. And $2 to get our passports stamped into Cambodia. We’d been warned this was routine at the only crossing between the two countries and paid up along with all the backpackers and locals who’d piled off a bus. Fortunately we persuaded the officials to take the $12 total in redundant Laos kip before heading for customs.

Baguettes and Bombs. You could sum up Laos (or rather the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao) with these two words, perhaps inadequately, but it’s a start. We can thank the French for the baguettes and the first utterly delicious bread we have had for months.

The year is 2553 in the Buddhist Calendar used in South East Asia. We are riding on the left, because the current king Bhumibol Adulyadej was partly educated in England, and learned to drive there, so he decreed that Thailand should drive on the left.

We arrived back in KL to join the Tourist Board/WTR Magazine FAM trip. We used our own bikes: we did warn them they are not as fast as KTM950's or BMW1200's, so they gave us our own escort of two Goldwings - they called themselves the babysitters!

This blog was started by Pat in honour of the fact that her mum was born in Malaysia and her granddad spent several years out here building railways and bridges in the early part of the 20th century. It has since been extensively modified by Sho (says Pat…)