Viet Road Trip Day 29 and Beyond
Making friends in Laos. She was part of a group of entertainers who stayed in the room next to mine.
I secured a room and got myself cleaned up. Then it was time for beer in the hotel's restaurant.
The restaurant, with the doors to the guest rooms in the back. The hotel is on a small pond.
My spirits were low because I thought that for sure my bike was dead. It was still running, but it sounded like the engine was coming apart. I had no faith that the bike would make it to Vientiane.
The guy who I'd seen in front of the hotel came into the restaurant and asked if he could join me. He said he'd wanted to give me some time to unwind because he had driven the same route across the border on the previous day. He knew how much that ride had sucked.
We commiserated over beer and his story was worse than mine. He'd gone up to a different border crossing and they tried to take his bike. He had to spend an extra day coming south to this crossing. I was lucky that I had read this website and knew not to use that other crossing.
The guy was from France and he was a real pleasure to be around. His name was Kossi and he was from France. He was so enthusiastic about his trip and about being in Laos that I couldn't help but get more enthusiastic about my own trip. I told him about the problems I was having with my bike and he told me not to worry. "There is a Vietnamese mechanic right down the road, you can tell he's good at his job just by looking at him. Trust me!".
Kossi packing up his bike.
My poor baby with her guts hanging out.
I trusted him and on the following day, Kossi took me to the mechanic who agreed to look at my bike. He said he could fix it for under $90 and the price seemed very affordable to me so I agreed. It took a whole day, but he was able to get my bike back into fighting shape.
I also wanted to give myself a little more seat room, so I had some people weld together a little luggage rack out of scrap metal. It only freed up a few inches, but the difference was like night and day. It was an investment that I wish I'd made a month earlier.
The view from a restaurant where I had chicken lap.
While there, I saw the above pizza ad on the street. As someone who doesn't like seafood, that pizza looks like a cruel and unusual punishment.
There are very small doorways in Laos. I'm standing flat-footed in front of my bathroom here.
As I made my way towards the border, I stayed in a hotel that was sketchier than most. There were two younger guys in the room next to mine. They had two women with them that I assume were prostitutes. I think the guys were pimps. They kind of nodded hello when we made eye contact, and one of them kept checking out my bike.
On the other side of my room was the group pictured above. They were a group of Thais and they mentioned coming to Laos for shopping. I'm not sure what the correct term is in your country, but I think they're called ladyboys in Thailand. I got the impression that they were an entertainment group. Either way, they were super cool and fun to hang out with. They shared their food and I shared my beer.
It's illegal for me to drive in Vietnam without a Vietnamese license, so I was afraid that he would try to take my bike or something. He kept saying things to me in Vietnamese and asking for a paper. I still had my paper for the customs that I paid to Laos, so I gave that to him. I could tell by his expression that the paper was wrong, but I figured that I could play stupid longer than he could stay patient. I gave him my biggest, stupidest, eager-to-please grin and kept shrugging my shoulders. A few minutes later he waved me through and I was back in Vietnam.
My first overnight stop back in Vietnam. Free peanuts and GIANT beers for about a dollar. It was good to be back in Vietnam! 2 SBD reward for the first person to tell me what book I was reading.
One of the things I didn't like about being back in Vietnam. I ordered rice with chicken and they included a bunch of chicken guts. Gross.
The funny thing about my situation was something I didn't know about Vietnamese culture. In Vietnam, it's common to use a hand shaking gesture to say "no". We use the same gesture to say "so-so", "kind of", or "more or less". So I would ask if they had a room and they would shake their hands. So I would stand there confused saying "sooooo..... yes?". "no." I ended up driving an extra 50 kilometers before finding a very over priced room. I was happy to pay for it, the thought of sleeping rough didn't appeal to me.
I knew Hue would be full too, so I pre booked a room. When I arrived in Hue, I found out that the hotel didn't even have a booking.com account and that I had been scammed. I got my money back, but I didn't have a room.
After an hour or two with no luck finding a room, I met a local guy. He said he'd help me find a room for a few bucks. I agreed. I ended up following him to over 10 hotels, getting rejected at each one. Finally, we found one and I paid for the room until the holiday was over. As a thank-you to the guy who helped me, I agreed to have him show me around for the next couple of days. Maybe I'll post those photos later. Until then, ride safe!
Viet Road Trip is a blog series about my solo scooter trip through Vietnam. Read about days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1, 9, 9.1, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15-17, 18, 19, 20-21, 22, 23, and 24 here.