I’m now used to early starts. I never thought I’d say that, but today’s 7am start after an early breakfast was fine.
The morning colours as we left the guesthouse were stunning and we dodged potholes on our way into the local village where we turned right and tracked the Mekong for the rest of the day with (unfortunately) only rare glimpses of the mighty river.
It was your usual Laos day full of friendly people waving and saying hello as we went by. It wasn’t stunning countryside and it felt more rustic than Thailand. The roadwork didn’t help anyone. I felt sorry for the villagers who hosed down the roads outside their shops in the forlorn hope of keeping the dust away. And there was no actual work happening on these roads, so these poor people will be putting up with lots of dust for a while. I hope it’s finished before the rains arrive.
The day certainly dragged on. It was hot, 35 degrees and there wasn’t much to see. Regardless, we were both a little jaded by the time we arrived in town and had a regrettable noodle soup for lunch. We’ve been lucky with lunch time noodle soup (Kway Teow) in Thailand. It’s been superb. Today’s however, was nothing to blog about.
It was a 2-3km ride to the hotel we booked and it was a relief to get inside and out of the 35 degrees heat too.
My friend Martin who lives north of Chiang Rai and knows this region intimately, suggested that I head out of town and visit the giant walls close to the Mekong. I’m so glad he did. I hired a motorbike and went this afternoon. These walls are amazingly perpendicular, very high and seem out of place where they are. I walked around there for a while But unfortunately, the mosquitoes drove me crazy and I headed back to Thakek.
Dinner was at a little place around the corner, and was delicious.
I’ve been using the Saily esim app on my phone. It was fine in Thailand but less than woeful, here in Laos. They couldn’t solve the problem this afternoon, but tonight after I told them I was going to deinstall and shout about their pathetic-ness, they came up with a solution. That was ok-ish, but I think I’ll use a different company in Vietnam. Saily don’t have the right Telco partners here in Laos and I don’t want to be stranded in rural Vietnam looking for directions.