Rough day again today. Starting in Pak Beng I left around 11 am. I’m not sure why I keep starting so late, I think I just BS around before breakfast.
Anyways, as I got near Muang Xai I pulled off to the side of the road once to relax a little bit. There were some old abandoned selling booths for fruits or market days or something and I lay down on one and tried to relax a little.
Within a minute I heard a motorbike and looked up to see some dude on his motorbike. I thought it was just a guy dying to practice some English so I was a little excited at first. We were talking about what I was doing here and where I was driving. When we hit the end of the road of his English he asked “if I want to” and then made a blowjob symbol. I was blown away. Not in a million years would I have guessed that was coming. I laughed and said no and lay back down. Then he kept asking me and would say, “sir,” “just a little,” “you’re handsome.” I got angry and yelled no and pointed at the road. When he still wouldn’t leave I stood up holding the helmet aggressively and started walking towards my machete.. I thought I had heard him say something when he was driving up the little hill and I was suddenly worried there was someone else and I was about to get nabbed. He finally jumped on his motorbike as I grabbed the machete.
I rode off too and kept watching my back as I made the long ride. I messaged my visa letter guy about trying to get a visa on arrival when I got to the border with Vietnam and thank god that I did because he warned me that that was not possible. This was a huge hit to my journey. I realized that instead of going straight and into Vietnam tomorrow morning I would have to drive all the way to Luang Prabang again to get a visa at the consulate. This is about a 200km drive out of the way.
Instead of thinking too hard about it I just started driving as apparently the best time to go is Monday morning and it was Saturday night. I had remembered a guesthouse that actually had wifi and seemed nice on my way up from Luang Prabang so I set my sights on that. After driving in the pitch black for 2 hours and eating 10000 flies I finally made it. I am here now and it looks as if they had a wedding here today which is kind of nice. I’m 1.5 hours out of Luang Prabang. I want to get there before the consulate opens at 8am so I guess I will leave here around 530 to be sure. If all goes smoothly I can ride a lot tomorrow and maybe take a break near the border of Vietnam!