CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Vientiane it runs 455 km to Vientiane; allow about 8 h 36 of riding. The stops in between: Phu Phrabat, The Phu Phrabat Historical Park, The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab and Ban Chiang Archaeological Site. It crosses from Laos into Thailand - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Vientiane is the quietest capital you are likely to meet, a low, tree-lined city on the northern bank of the Mekong where the river forms the border with Thailand. About two hundred thousand people live in the city proper, and the pace is so gentle that visitors often forget it is a capital at all. Monks in saffron robes walk the early streets, and in the evening the riverbank fills with people jogging, eating and watching the sunset over Thailand.
Read the complete Vientiane write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vientiane is where the day begins. Next is Phu Phrabat.
Imagine a forest of sandstone mushrooms, boulders balanced on pillars and arches sculpted by wind and rain, and you are close to the setting of Phu Phra Bat. The place lies on a low plateau in Udon Thani province, in north-east Thailand's Isan region, about eighteen kilometres from the town of Nam Som. Over millions of years, erosion has carved the rock into strange shapes, and people have used the overhangs and caves for shelter and worship since prehistoric times.
Read the complete Phu Phrabat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Phu Phrabat comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Phu Phrabat Historical Park.
The park of Phu Phra Bat holds more than its rocks, and what lies between them tells the story. Among the sandstone outcrops of this north-east Thai plateau, hundreds of stones have been set upright in the ground, flat slabs shaped like leaves, which are the sema that mark the boundary of a sacred space. This practice is typical of the Dvaravati period, between about the seventh and eleventh centuries, when Buddhism flourished in the region before the Khmer empire extended its power.
Read the complete The Phu Phrabat Historical Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach The Phu Phrabat Historical Park. Next is The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab.
A sima is a boundary stone, and in the north-east of Thailand, in the region called Isan, hundreds of them stand in fields and temple grounds, many of them more than a thousand years old. Monks placed them in rings around ordination halls, to mark the sacred space where the Buddhist community could meet, and in the Dvaravati period, between roughly the seventh and eleventh centuries, carvers began to decorate them with scenes from the life of the Buddha. The sima at the site in this listing are part of a UNESCO inscription that recognises this tradition, found nowhere else in such density.
Read the complete The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab, about halfway. Next is Ban Chiang Archaeological Site.
Ban Chiang Archaeological Site sits at 204 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab comes up about 350 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Phu Phrabat Historical Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Phu Phrabat Historical Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 370 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Phu Phrabat Historical Park. Next is back through Phu Phrabat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Phu Phrabat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Phu Phrabat, late in the day. Next is Vientiane.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vientiane write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 455 km.
Vientiane → Phu Phrabat is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Phu Phrabat Historical Park → The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab → Ban Chiang Archaeological Site is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ban Chiang Archaeological Site → back through The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab is 122 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The Sīma Cultural Site at Wat Phra Phuthab → back through The Phu Phrabat Historical Park is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Phu Phrabat → Vientiane is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.