Today was the absolute worst day of driving. The decision to drive through the boonies was a terrible one for my body and the bike. The road conditions could not have been shittier. It started okay, got worse, then got worse, then got more worser. From driving on some shit roads before I was terrified the bike would not make it. At one point she ran dry of oil and I could hear the valve tapping metal on metal, heat radiating on my shins and ankles, the burning oil smoke wafting into my face.
I had a quarter of a quart of oil left, put that in and that stopped the noise until I could find a little shack where I saw a full quart of oil. I was so far in the boonies that few people were wearing clothes. The naked attendant dude came up to me and it took about 10 minutes and the entire village showing up for me to sign language him into understanding that I needed some oil.
I threw the whole thing in. As I got deeper into nowhere the people became veryyyyyyy different. They were extremely friendly in the villages but they looked at me like I was an alien. I’m probably one of the very few white people that drove that road in history. Much of the road was being used my enormous Chinese trucks that threw fine dust into the air that settled inches thick where it fell. My whole body was covered in dust and as the day went on it was more and more uncomfortable. Everything itched, stung, and hurt.
I’m not sure how nothing went wrong during the trip but as it got dark I was still about 2 hours from the main road and the driving got so steep downhill and so difficult. Enormous rocks in the road everywhere. The road just fell off of cliffs in some areas and sunk and spun in every direction.
At the very top though I saw some of the greatest views of my life. These villages were built along the spines of some enormous mountains that looked down on vast ranges.
I screamed out in joy when I finally found the main road. Driving has never felt so easy than those ten minutes driving to find a guesthouse in the pitch black. The stars shined so bright above me. I drove to Pak Beng and found a guesthouse with hot water for 70,000. The guy immediately tried to sell me weed. I walked around the town just a little. There were a few “happy” bars. I stopped at the indian food place, checked out a bar but going by yourself sucks so I left after a few minutes, sat down at a bar and my eyes immediately began to close. So I walked back to the guesthouse for some much needed rest.
