I woke up early, saw the room next door was empty and went in to take a quick photo :)
Downstairs, people were eating. I said “khìn khao”, meaning to eat a meal. I thought the owner said there was no rice. Then she brought glass noodles with an egg and a bit of seasoning. It wasn’t very good, and it was expensive. Some of the workers looked over and asked about me. I managed “con Việt Nam”, meaning Vietnamese. The full phrase I knew was “con Việt Nam, mê con Lào đơ”, meaning I’m Vietnamese, not Lao :)))
The long ride hadn’t tired me out yet. What worried me was being stopped by the police again.I still had five provinces to go through. At 50,000 kip a stop, I might not make it back to Vietnam :)))
Google Maps showed two routes to the old capital. One passed the Plain of Jars in Phonsavan but was 100 kilometres longer, so I took the other. Only then did I find out how bad the road was. I rode and rode, and it was dark by the time I got there. I’d rather hoped for that, since there were no police out at night 👮♂️
Most of the ride was in the mountains. There had been lots of landslides and in one spot I had to wait for a crew to clear the road. While I waited I met a Vietnamese driver going the other way towards Sam Nuea. If he’d been heading my way, I’d have asked him to put my bike in the back and give me a lift :) Near the end the clouds came in fast and it poured. I had a raincoat, but both backpacks were soaked through.
I got to Luang Prabang around seven. It was pitch dark and the rain hadn’t let up. I looked up room prices on Booking.com, then went to reception and booked directly. I remember it being about 50,000 kip for the night.
Before leaving I’d gone to say goodbye to my uncle. Two days later he called to check on me. That was when my parents found out I was in Laos.
I walked to the night market to eat at eight. The rain had stopped and only this stall was open. A few skewers and a bowl of rice came to nearly 120,000 đồng 🙈 The Lao kip was worth more that year. One kip was 2.7 đồng.
There were lots of Western tourists and bars in the old capital. I went back to my room and lay down after dinner.
From the trip Laos. Read the Vietnamese original on Blogger
