15th December – Paxse, Laos

It was a great relief to get across the Laos border yesterday, WITH my motorbike.  The border was quite a long ordeal with lots of forms to fill out and small fees for this and that, most of which I didn’t understand.  The bureaucracy of developing countries.  After a long rigmarole with the Vietnamese authorities who said that Laos would not let my bike through, they then allowed me to ride my bike the kilometre of no-man’s land (which of course belonging to nobody is just a pot-holed dirt track, whereas there are roads on either side).  The Laotians frowned at first but I kept smiling deferentially and eventually they told me that I needed papers of transit for the bike from the Vietnamese side.  So back I trundled through the dust, avoiding huge logging trucks that were trying to get through, and eventually got the grumpy Vietnamese lot to give me the form I needed (for another small fee).  Back I went to the Laotian side where they finally issued me with a 30 day visa. I still had to get it stamped by about five people and get it checked at two further checkpoints but I was through!  I was immediately struck with what a much poorer country Laos is compared with Vietnam.  People mostly live in wooden shacks on stilts with walls made of woven bamboo.   Arrived in Attapeu about 4, pretty shattered.

Today started well, though having gone to bed at 10, I was surprised how hard it was to wake up at 6.45.  Was on the road by 8.10 and made good progress on excellent road, thinking I was taking the southern route to Champasak but after 20k or so found I was on the northern Pakxe road.  No matter, I was not turning back.  The road continued to be smooth and free of potholes and I was averaging about 60kph when I saw a left had turn to Pakxe.  I consulted the map and this indeed was the turn off, only there was clearly some road building going on because it was dirt, potholed and dusty.  I assumed that this would stop after a kilometre but it continued for 50k a least, until I got to Paksong.  Very rough indeed and for most of the 50k I was going about 15 to 20 kph.  Beautiful mountains but I was having to concentrate so hard to avoid pot holes, or to brake as I went through them, that I couldn’t take in too much.  I did stop by a pretty spectacular waterfall that I later discovered on the map.  At one point I was trying to negotiate a huge very muddy bit.  I didn’t know how deep the mud went so was trying to find a way round it but in doing so the bike went over and I got a shoe covered in mud; happily the bike fell onto dry mud.  The bike with all my stuff was very heavy to right but having done so I still had to take the plunge and drive straight into the mud bath.  I was worried I would slip in it and everything would fall into deep very wet mud.  It was weirdly nerve-racking.  Fortunately I stayed on and kept going.   

The track began to improve as I approached Paksong but then there was a weird sound, the engine revved and I had lost power.  I stopped the bike and saw that the chain had come off; I assumed it had broken given what I had just put it through.  There were no houses about and precious little traffic.  Before long however a motorbike with two women and a little girl came into view from where I’d just come.  I opened my arms and pointed at the bike, whereupon they stopped, the older woman had a look at the bike, crouched down and promptly put the chain back on the bike.  I felt such an idiot.  She then proceeded to tighten a nut that controls the chain tension since it was still very floppy.  And then shook her head.  A few moments later a man stopped his van and fortunately  spoke a smattering of English.  He suggested I try the bike and see if it would get to Paksong where I would find a mechanic. The women and the girl and the man then followed me for another two kilometres into the edge of Paksong where the chain came off again.  This time I was able to put it back on, a greasy business, and get across the street to a mechanic.  His wife was hovering around with her daughter and came to look at the bike.  She immediately noticed that the front tire was also flat which I hadn’t been aware of.  So in addition to the chain being shortened and reset, a new front inner tube was installed.  The mechanic checked everything over and gave me a lot of confidence that he’d done a thorough job.  I was there for about 45 minutes and it only cost me 60,000kip which is about £5. 

From Paksong the road improved considerably, quickly becoming a tarmac again and a very smooth road at that.  I fairly sped along until I reached Pakxe at about 3.30.  Found an ATM that worked which was a relief (I’d tried others that hadn’t) and then came across a completely over-the-top looking hotel called the Champasak Palace which is very much built in traditional Laotian style.  It was actually built in 1969 to be a palace for the very last king of Laos who fled to France in 1975.  So I'm staying there tonight for the princely sum of about £18.  I arrived truly filthy and dusty and had to apologise to the gracious and friendly staff.  Having checked in I handed over all the laundry I could find that needs doing and they promised it would be returned within two hours which indeed it was.  Meanwhile I went out for a walk around Pakxe.  It turned out that the hotel is very much in the centre.  I stopped in a café almost across the road and was surprised to see several westerners sitting there.  There was a woman on her own whom I spontaneously began talking to.  She turned out to be Sophie Rodriguez from France, of Portuguese parents and delightful.  She was travelling alone and by bus.  Aged 31 she was in insurance back in France but, finding it boring, was looking to change careers so was planning to go to southern India to learn massage (presumably Ayervedic methods from what she was saying).  Anyway we had a lovely chat.  I may have seemed a bit full on because it was the first conversation I have had with anyone for several days I realised.  After a very good (almost Western) HOT coffee, we walked further into town where she was meeting friends.  We then said goodbye and I continued to a bookshop where I bought a decent map of Laos.  The one I’d bought in Bristol appears to be Russian and none of the names conform to what is on the ground. 

I walked further along the waterfront (to the Mekong) and was impressed with what a pleasant town this is.  From the apparent poverty of the country, here were cafés and shops which didn’t look so impoverished.  Monks wandering around everywhere of course, as there were in Attapeu last night.  Went back to the hotel where I picked up my laundry, had a shower and went to the top of the palace to admire the amazing view and watch the sun go down.  Then I was off to the restaurant that Sophie recommended and had a delicious supper of baked fish (from the Mekong) and a noodle salad which had vegetables and peanuts in it (probably a Thai dish).  Another nice chat for quite a while after the meal with a German woman.  She was more my age, a paediatrician and has two grown up daughters.  Quite a day.