21/4/25
We left at 7am and headed to Café Amor to get a western coffee. It wasn’t to be. They told us it would be 20 minutes before the machine would be ready. Time we weren’t prepared to give them. We cracked on and crossed the Xe Don. Pakse marks the confluence with the Mekong. We stopped at a little roadside stall to buy fried dough sticks.
A few kilometres down the road there was a petrol station, with a Café Amazon. We drank our coffee, dipping our Thai like snack. We missed the stalls that had been mysteriously absent after we’d got 50km into Cambodia.
It was another day of simple navigation. Straight north up the 13. We applied suncream. There was no doubt we’d be exposed to high levels of UV light. We’d found ourselves in Laos at the hottest possible month of the year. Despite there being beautiful waterfalls, and jungles to hike in, we didn’t feel like we had the witherall to try.
The road soon turned from concrete to tarmac. They’ve never heard of road markings here. The road was covered in a patchwork of repairs to weave around. The traffic was sympathetic. We could see smoggy mountains looming in front.
We felt much stronger today. We attributed it to our hearty meal the day before. We hate to obsess about protein. It’s not as important as society currently believes. But it’s hard to get enough from solely peanuts. Soya is a much more reliable source.
We climbed a small hill onto a little plateau. We stopped to buy a safer fruit, Marian plum. They were also selling dried insects, including dried beetles. Some were quite large. We didn’t buy those. The next time we stopped was to buy some orange juice and water. We stirred half a teaspoon of salt into some diluted orange juice to make an electrolyte drink. It tastes a bit like medicine, but it was medicine. When we continued we dropped off the plateau. The Xe Don was to our east and the Mekong to our west.
There were numerous police checkpoints. They all ignored us. Waved us through but didn’t make eye contact and acknowledge our existence. We stopped to buy some peanuts. They had bags of nicely roasted peanuts in almost every shop. A big difference from Cambodia.
It was getting hot. We passed a couple of towns. We definitely had a tailwind of some kind. We weren’t complaining. Young children always smiled and waved. The older they were the more likely they were to shoot us a churlish grin. Especially when they were scooting. They obviously thought they had achieved the holy grail. An internal combustion engine to sit on. Occasionally some would go past giving us the middle finger.
We went through a large town with a big market. We didn’t stop. They’re overwhelming places and we always felt compelled to walk around and check everything out. Less choice was better for us. It was appallingly hot now. The intensity of the Sun was reaching new heights. We’d already reapplied suncream twice.
We pelted it to Napong. Hopeful there would be food to eat. Nothing but meat stalls for hundreds of metres. The fly deterring fans are always a dead giveaway. Just before we reached the Keobouasay Xokpaseuth Guest House, yes it’s a mouthful and we don’t know how to pronounce it, there was a vegetable stall. We’d be back for that.
A hundred metres on gravel and we were rolling through the regal gates of the resort. A U-shape of rooms ahead of us. We had incorrectly assumed that Laos would be harder than Cambodia to find lodgings. It was far more like Thailand. But even cheaper. The room was 200k Kip. We and the bikes took refuge from the Sun.
We didn’t wait too long to find our dinner. As always we drew more attention than we’d like. Along the main road were some restaurants where we thought we could try our luck at getting some rice. To our pleasant surprise we managed to translate our way to a fishless papaya salad. The first vegetable stall holder left her produce in direct Sun. They didn’t fare well. We got luckier at the second, especially after we spotted the fridge. Carrots, mint and long green beans. Two mango and a dragonfruit. Fairly priced too.
We prepared a mighty feast. Then we lay on the bed watching television. We could feel the coils through the mattress but it wasn’t bad when our weight was spread out. It was unusual. To be in Laos. The other side of the world. In an air conditioned box binge watching. But the conditions outside made it feel like we were on Mars. There was nothing else we could do.
Mango sticky rice was back on the menu. We initially assumed the influence of Thailand had infiltrated Laos. It was the other way around. The ancient kingdom of Lan Xang encompassed what is now northeastern Thailand. An area called Isan that we hadn’t visited. Relations between the countries have a frosty veneer but their cultural connections run deep. The Emerald Buddha, that we’d seen in the Grand Palace, had previously spent over 200 years in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Five Friendship Bridges, there will be six soon, span the Mekong. Healing their divides.
Surly They Won't Make It 