Tourist slut

Hmm. Haven't moved Far(net distance north that is) since the last post(2 days ago). Spent a day in Vientiane in the end but wasn't planing to. Ended up sorting some insurance stuff and then meet up with some Spanish dudes (chile, mexico, catalunia) from the night before and walked(very slowly) about the city checking some of the sites in the sweltering heat. Left Vientiane late yesterday morning, with the spoils from a very nice french shop (it had the best brownies!), and headed north aiming to cut of the main highway just before the tourist capital Vang Vieng and head up the back roads to the Plain of Jars. the Main road made for great riding with all the ups, downs and tight corners a motorbike loves though far to many pot holes to let really loose. My first mistake once off the main road was missing a turn off and riding a brand new(incomplete) road, which wasn't actually on my map, until i reached a checkpoint which i just blapped through only to hear a whistle squeeling behind me. So politely, i turned around and the security guards told me I was in a 'Special Area' and had to turn around. I showed/told them where I wanted to go and they told me there was no problem so i made my way back15 odd km. On the right road this time i was very disappointed. It was really rough and rocky I knew i could ride it but it would be slow and punishing on the Cub(bike). I was pretty annoyed cos the guy i asked at the travel place said the road was good. I bumped around for the rest of the afternoon until it was starting to get dark when I approached a couple of guys eating dinner on the side of the road. They gestured to me if I wanted to join them so I pulled up and filled my face with sticky rice, spicy vegetable stuff and a few shots of rice moonshine. The men were friendly and helpful and tried to use the tiny bit of English they knew while also trying to teach me some Lao. I set my tent up next to their truck for the night and woke to the sound of cooking. After packing up more workers came from the town with some more food and bottles of water so I had breakfast well sorted! After saying goodbye I headed north to Longcheng and by midday i had arrived, been stopped, and told to turn around by the "special area' security. Grrr i was so close to where i needed to be, why didn't anyone tell me I couldn't get through!! At least he told me the other way through was also impassable so i accepted my unpleasant journey backtracking and heading to Vang Vieng. I dropped the pressure in my tyres to racing levels and fanged it back to vang vieng trying fiercely to avoid a pinch flat. Knowing the way back and giving full juice when i could i retraced all the previous days effort and more and arrived in vang vieng by 5pm. Sore. Tubing anyone?