Thursday, April 10, 2014
The road from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang was mostly ok, although there where a few sections with some very impressive potholes. It took us about 3.5 hours to cover the 140kms. Contrary to our normal routine, this time we had pre-booked accommodation at the lovely Vangsavath Hotel. The New Year Festival was coming up and we did not want to be caught out.
Luang Prabang is situated on the Mekong, so once again we were re-united with the River.
Stephen took Sterlin for a much needed car-wash. The guys did a great job, probably the best job in South east Asia.
The New Year Festival is from April 13 to 15, but here it can last up to week. The biggest thing is the ‘Water Festival’. I looked it up: “Held just before the onset of the rainy season it recognizes the importance of water in people’s lives. It is also a purification festival during which Buddha images and temples are ritually cleaned with sacred water, often scented with perfume or flowers. Water from the cleaning ceremonies is then splashed around onto other people to clean them and bring them luck for the coming year.” Ok. I get it. Seems to me though like the whole thing has ‘degenerated’ slightly into kids, snot-noses and teenagers throwing water at everyone that passes by. Getting a bucket (of the non-perfumed kind, straight from the hose) thrown over me while on our way to dinner on our first night here did not help my ‘appreciation’ for the ‘rituality’ of the ‘festival.
The Old Town of Luang Prabang has been recognized as a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site. A couple of consequences: it is well looked after, very clean (no garbage of any kind anywhere on the streets of the old town, unlike everywhere else in the country) and prices are definitely at the higher end of the spectrum. It is a very pretty town with all the beautiful French Colonial style buildings (of which just about all are restaurants or hotels or both, and some more restored than others but all very charming). So far it also looks like the old town has been kept water-throwing free (apart from some kids with water-guns).
Friday, April 11, 2014
We spent the late morning and early afternoon walking around the Old Town, sipping coffee and having lunch. The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room, before heading back into the town for dinner. This time I sat with our driver in the totally enclosed cabin of the hotel shuttle, so no ‘ceremonial or other’ water could get me 🙂
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Sterlin had developed a bit of a throaty exhaust sound which is noticeable when going up hills. So today Stephen crawled under the car to inspect the exhaust system. Looks like one of the nuts bolting the right side exhaust manifold to the catalytic converter and the rest of the exhaust system is missing. Ooooops. With the aid of the handy dandy Land Rover Forum members, it was concluded that this is the cause of the exhaust sound and a repair best left not done. More likely to cause more harm than good. We do feel much better knowing what the problem is.
Stephen headed to Kuang Si Falls for a few hours, which by the way is the number 1 local attraction. They are located about 30 kms south of town. They really are quite magnificent. Ok, a little crowded, but still very nice. At the falls car park Stephen spotted the German overland Bremach truck again. But this time we left a note and suggested a drink later in the day. Once back at the hotel we received an email from Dirk and Gaby. And later that night we met up for a very nice evening of stories, advice and conversation. They are heading south and we are heading north, so we will not likely see them on the road again, but in 2.5 years they will be in San Francisco, so you never know. They have a very ambitious plan, but they certainly have thought about their car and their trip.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
The day started well with coffee and ended really really badly. Grrrrrrrrrr.
We had a chill day with a few touristy things and avoiding the start of the water festival. The water festival starts in earnest tomorrow. But everyone was getting into the spirit already and was splashing water on anyone walking by. And for this reason, we drove into town for dinner. And we hardly ever drive at night, as it is just too dangerous. But just as well …
It was a short 2 km ride into town, but our wonderful little car had a noticeable vibration running through the chassis and steering wheel. And there was a little weird sound as well. We parked and had dinner, and we were hoping to meet Vaughan and Kim who had just arrived in town and are part of the convoy through China. Stephen was so freaked out about this vibration that we quickly finished dinner and limped Sterlin back to our hotel. The night was spent in the hotel car-park pulling off all the tires and inspecting the under-carriage for problems. We were hoping it was some weird wheel balance issue, but it wasn’t. By midnight the car was back together. And after research online it looked very much like a problem with one of the Universal Joints (UJs).
We did not get much sleep that night.
Monday, April 14, 2014
First day of the three day Laos national holiday. The number one priority for the day was to inspect Sterlin more thoroughly with the added bonus of daylight. It was not long before Stephen found a suspicious UJ on the front propellor shaft.
Our hotel manager went for a drive around town looking for open workshops, and he reported that they were all closed. We rang the manager of the Land Rover workshop in Vientiane who answered our call. And although they are also closed, he was able to check his inventory and we soon found out that they had neither replacement UJs nor a replacement propellor shaft. The main inventory is held in Thailand, and they are also on national holiday for the next 3 days. We also got hold of the workshop manager here in Luang Prabang and he confirmed the local shop is closed for the next 3 days and would remain so. This was not good. We were/are scheduled to cross into China in 3 days with others on the convoy. This was/is now not looking likely.
We had planned to move north ourselves to prepare for the border crossing. But the strong advice is never to drive on a failing UJ, as the propellor shaft can decouple and create great havoc while it spins out of control damaging all the nearby components. We extended our stay here in Luang Prabang. And believe me when I say, we were truly ready to move on.
Turned out it was approaching 3pm on the East coast of Australia, which is the deadline for placing orders for parts. Out came the credit card and a promise from the parts supplier to express ship parts to us. Unfortunately we have no idea how long it will take for them to arrive, as it is a national holiday here. We considered flying to Bangkok to get the parts faster, and even looked into flights. But then found out they are on holiday as well. The hotel manager was wonderful during this entire process.
By lunch time we were mentally drained. I put the car back together and we headed into town for food and to get completely drenched by the locals having fun with water, flour and dye.
******* By Stephen
It was pretty clear we would not make the planned date into China, and we suspected our journey through China was now in jeopardy. But there was not much we could do to control or expedite events.
The obvious question is: why weren’t we carrying a spare Universal Joint. And I do not want to be defensive, but I feel it is good to answer this. At the time the spare parts list was conceived, the theory was: we are independent travelers without a single date commitment. So, if something goes seriously wrong, we just wait for whatever part needs to be flown in and wait it out. Unfortunately this approach does not work once we committed to China, as we are longer independent. And the entry into China (and to a lesser degree the exit from China) is probably our only fixed date. The fault occurred at the start of a 3 day national holiday and 3 days before this fixed date. The timing could not have been worse. And even if we carried a spare UJ, it turns this would not have helped. In our case it appears that 2 UJ located right beside each other are failing. And with Land Rover Discovery, it could be just as likely that three would fail at the same time, as there are three on the front propellor shaft. And in an ideal world, we would not even replace the UJs, but rather replace the entire propellor assembly. A typical time line to repair this fault would be, Day 1 discover issue, Day 2 get car to nearest capable town and in parallel order replacement part, Day 3 wait for part Day 4 install new part. This would probably extend to 7 days as a weekend would be involved somewhere. We were happy to live with a lost week.
Unfortunately the only part of our journey that this doesn’t work, was this, as for the China entry and crossing we were on a set itinerary together with others and a guide. Just our luck hey….
We could only wait and see what the next day would bring…
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Only two days until our planned entry into China, and we were still dead in the water. But we made a little progress this day. Kim and Vaughan gave us a contact in Vientiane (Mike Murphy – see info with photo below) who might be able to help. After lots of phone calls, it appeared that there might be a part for us there. Well, a part we could swap for our one.
Stephen tried for several hours to get the old and broken prop shaft off Sterlin, but it was not happening. The nuts holding the prop shaft on were just too darn tight. Somehow we had to find a mechanic with better tools and skills to do this, but again, with the New Year Holiday no one wanted to open shop. Stephen went to the airport to fly down to Vientiane, but all of the flights were full. The plan was to try again at 6am the next morning.Our goal was now to get the part from Vientiane and get back to Luang Prabang so it could be fitted.There was the possibility of a little relief on the time-line; our guide confirmed we could delay our entry into China. This meant maybe we could get the part fitted on Thursday morning, drive to the border on Thursday afternoon and evening and make the crossing Friday morning, only 1 day behind schedule. We had our fingers crossed.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Sleepless night. Stressing a lot about how to get the car fixed. At 5am we decided that Caroline should fly to Vientiane to get the part while Stephen stayed back to get the broken part off Sterlin. This turned out to be the best decision we could make.
Caroline made the 7:30am flight and literally got the last standby seat. Mike picked her up at the airport. As we had hoped, Mike agreed to sell us the much needed part, but had to remove it from a car that was in his shop. As it turned out, he had great trouble getting the part off as well. Those darn nuts again.
Stephen, aided by the manager of our hotel, went in search of closed workshops with the aim of convincing them to open. Everything was still closed as part of the Laos New Year holiday. The workshop recommended by Mike would not open up, but The tow truck driver did agree to tow Sterlin to the workshop. It would save some time the next morning when things returned to normal. Once the car got there, mechanics started appearing out of the wood-work and before a repair strategy was discussed the broken part was being removed. It took some heavy work with a mini sledge hammer to get the part off, but they did it. A quick inspection revealed no obvious issues, althoughit was a little stiff. In fact the mechanics were not convinced there was even an issue. The Universal Joints appeared to be ok (albeit a little stiff). The mechanics greased them up and put everything back. It was a miracle, but Sterlin was working again. Unbelievable. The total time including the towing and the repair was a little under 2 hours. The cost was USD $100. Amazing. This had exceeded our wildest hopes.
Caroline got the good news and headed back on the next available flight, which was just after noon.
Meet Mike Murphy, who did everything in his power to help us trying to fix the issue with Sterlin. Not only did he spend a day on the phone trying to help us remotely and talking us through different scenarios and possible solutions; the next day he drove Caroline from and to the airport and spent some hours trying to sort out parts for Sterlin. You see, we are not the first ‘overlanders in a jam’ he met and helped.
If ever you are in Laos and need work done on your car, he’s the guy to call for help and/or advice. Here are his details (not only with permission; Mike was very happy for us to share them and so were we!!!)
Mike Murphy. LAO CAN-AM Int’l Auto Services Co., Ltd.
Ban Phonesinuan, Sisattanak District. P.O. Box 8587. Vientiane, 01000 Lao PDR.
mobile: 856-20-5550-3491-2
laocanam@laopdr.com
laocanam@gmail.com
When she landed, we immediately headed north to the China border. It was a long and hard 9 hour drive over the worst roads so far in Laos. And there were lots of drunk people still on the roads. But at 10pm we pulled into the hotel parking lot to find our China travel companions waiting for us with cold beer. What a wonderful way to be greeted! And we really needed that beer!! All of the tension of the last few days just started to evaporate.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Today we crossed into China, as planned.
