Vientiane - Laos

My next destination is to be Laos. The trip from Nong Khai to Vientiane in Laos is about 50ks. Should be simple I think. Wrong! First I drop the bike again just out of the hotel. No excuses for this one as my pride in making it this far has caused me to become a bit too cocky.

I learn later when the same thing nearly happens again in Loei to be very careful of this bike when the motor is not fully warmed up as it has a tendency to falter and then race. This is exactly what catches me here. More wounded pride but once again no serious damage. 'Lucky no-one knows me here', I think.

The trip to the border is simple but then I get turned back. They won't let me take a rented bike into Laos. I should have thought of this but didn't. My plan to ride across part of Laos and re-enter Thailand at a different crossing is now unworkable. I leave the bike at a lock-up on the border and commission a local agent to get me across. It takes two hours to get to Vientiane by bus and after the trip I am glad I'm not riding.

With Laos being a former French colony its citizens theoretically drive on the right however in practice they drive anywhere and just swerve right in moments of panic. These guys make Thai drivers look like experts! On my first night I see a motorbike smashed and in pieces left lying in the middle of the road, the traffic just swerving around it.

At the hotel, which is selected by asking the driver to just take me somewhere good, I meet a young Laotian guy who has a friend living in Wanganui, the New Zealand town where I grew up. Here is another example of just how small our world really is.

We get talking and he and his mates take me out to a couple of pubs and nightclubs. At the latter a very attractive girl is giving me the eye but my friends suddenly seem keen to move on so I'm left with my curiosity un-assuaged. They convey me back to the hotel riding pillion on one of their motorcycles and this I find most hair raising indeed.