I'm riding the bike around Vientiane in a T-shirt, and no gloves or lid. The max traffic speed here is about 25mph, and it's mostly slower. Saves a lot of carrying stuff around as well.Vientiane is technically a city, but it's a small town really - smaller than Reading; population 133,000. Not surprising it was closed for the Asean summit. Everyone knows everyone else. The entire town knows that I'm the Englishwoman on a bike who's staying with Olivier (he employs 600 people at his factory).

Yesterday morning I met a Dutchman on a Yamaha TDM850. he came the southerly route through Iran and Pakistan, and we exchanged stories about the desert fuel dump in Pakistan, at Dalbandin between the Iranian border and Quetta. Then a bit later I was riding along and heard hooting behind me. It was a Belgian on a BMW R1100R. He's Thierry, who's the Chef de Mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Laos; and, of course, he knows Olivier. He competed in (and finished) the Paris-Dakar in 1989 riding for the Honda team on an Africa Twin.

The further I get from home the smaller the world becomes.