The weather wasn’t going to be too hot today, so I had an easy morning. I slipped on the mat outside the bathroom last night and banged my knee and another toe. Nothing broken this time though. It seems when one injury heals, I get another. I guess it’s something to complain about 😁 and you’ve gotta be happy about that !
Over breakfast, I had a great chat to Rosi from Germany who is nearing the end of her six month trip. Sounds like she has gone through similar things to me – letting go, not worrying about things, letting the future unfold and trusting your ability to work out any issues. So it was a very interesting discussion.
I almost made it out of town then decided to have a decent coffee, but I picked the slowest place in Vang Vieng. I didn’t mind though because I’ll have cloud cover today, and so timing doesn’t really matter. It was nice to relax and wait for the coffee.
Once I had cleared Vang Vieng, the road improved dramatically. What a relief ! For the first 40kms it was great and then only a few sections were potholed and dusty. The result was a pleasant ride with lots of farms, trees, rivers, a resovoir and undulations that kept it interesting.
Just past the resovoir, I stopped at a restaurant for some early lunch. When I went to walk in, the music was crazy loud, and I simply couldn’t – on to the next one. I should have been used to the music after yesterday’s tubing down the river with Maddy and David and a hundred twenty-somethings. At least this place didn’t have karaoke 😁
With 25kms to go, I stopped and had a beef Fur / Pho / Noodle soup. It was exactly what I needed, and so was the Pepsi chaser. And … there was no music ! That meant I could clearly hear the trucks rumbling past.
Refueled, I carried on, along the very quiet Highway 13. There aren’t many interesting pictures today. Having gone overboard earlier in my journey with Rice paddies and Karst photos, I felt no need to repeat it here. Suffice to say that it was a pleasant and picturesque ride
I saw a team of farm workers manually harvesting rice, then a few kms down the road, a farmer was using a harvester and making very quick work of it. There was an audience of a dozen people. It must have been a new thing for them.
With about 6kms to go, my old friend Cafe Amazon appeared. Time for a mediocre coffee and a smoothie in the aircon. It’s always good 😁
In the Cafe was a young Irish couple. Like me, they also changed their route to Vietnam after their Visa was issued. They were refused entry at the border because they had the wrong entry point on their visa. It meant they had to return to Vientiane, apply again, and then wait for the new visa to be issued. I won’t take the risk. I’ll be applying for another visa tonight 😁 good to know for sure though. At one point, I was intending to simply roll up at the border and try my luck. That would have been a disaster.
After some Amazon goodness and a great chat to the Irish people, I rolled into Phonhong which is a long town built around the main street. I found the recommended guesthouse which is very nice. (I have to thank Anne Herod and her blog on Crazyguy for this. A great recommendation.
Many of the guesthouses along the way here looked quite good and there were lots of them which is a change from a few days ago.
I went past some kids just near the guesthouse and they went crazy. As I unpacked the bike, they kept running up to the gate, shouting “Falang”, waving, then running away. A young girl at the guesthouse even practiced some english with me, and the look of pride on her face after our very short conversation was priceless.
I tried to apply for a Vietnamese visa but this time, they wouldn’t accept my credit card which was the same one as last time. I’ll get some help tomorrow to sort it out. My plan is to have a rest day in Vientiane, then it’ll be 5 days to the Vietnamese border.
Dinner was at a nice restaurant (turn left at the main road and down 300 metres) where language barriers meant that I asked for my old favourite. I should learn other words, but Pad Kapao Moo Kai Dao is so nice.
