ajgaines - Part Time Pilot

Lao Bao Border Crossing by Motorbike- The People and Food Lose Their Flavor

I started this morning about 2 or 3 hours from the Lao Boa border with Laos on the Vietnamese side. I woke up to more pouring rain and was expecting it to stay that way all day.

Saying goodbye to the greenery of Vietnam

Surprisingly the rain stopped around 8 am and I headed out around 9 am. I took a few drone videos today and kids gathered around me in awe at what the hell they were looking at. The roads were a little wet and windy so it was slow going for the first half of the day.

There was an old war museum and runway left over from the war that wasn’t too far out of the way so I headed there and spent a good hour and a half there.

I then shot to the border where it took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to get through, the visa was $35 and it consisted of, “okay now go over there” various times without knowing where the hell there was but since I was really the only one there it didn’t take too long and I was on my way right after one of the immigration officers waved me down. I was terrified I was not going to be able to take the motorcycle through, but he pointed at my raybans and I quickly realized he just wanted to try them on. He put them on, him and his buddy laughed, then he smiled and handed them back to me.

My first glimpse of Laos. Blue sky and brown plants.

After crossing the border I was expecting everything to be about the same as Vietnam but it could not have been more different. The houses looked totally different, the people didn’t smile and wave, the clouds weren’t there – it was bright blue sky, and the earth and plants were all brown. It felt like I was more like in a savannah than a jungle. The saddest part is that the people just seem so disinterested. No one smiles, jokes, or even seem to talk to each other. It is difficult to get help because the people turn the other way. I ordered barbeque, beer and some noodles. The barbeque had no flavor or seasoning and the noodles were just noodles in boiled water. I am afraid that both the food and the people lost their flavor on this border crossing. I will journey on and try to understand the Laos people better.

Most people got around by foot. Cars and buses were just passing through.

I rode until the sun dipped beneath the horizon and the bugs poured out in droves. I got hit by such enormous bugs at such fast speed that it hurt worse than paintballs. One hit my eyeball and for a solid minute I couldn’t see out of that eye.

I was so unfamiliar with the area and electricity seemed to be so sparse that I could not find a place to sleep for the night. I drove through the black hole getting pelted by bugs until I was so tired I could hardly move. I found a house and they had a bed and this is where I settled for the night.

Laos Day 2. Wet, Rainy Ride to the Border.

The whole day was full of wet. I woke up around 6 am and heard it pouring on the roof, I lazied around hoping for it to stop but it didn’t change one bit. So around 0930 I finally made the decision the just do it.

From the moment I left water creeped into all my clothes. I had a plastic cover but the big holes for the mirrors and the intensity of the rain made sure it got into everything no matter what.

Brown muddy river complemented the gorgeous green jungle.

I wanted to make it as close to the Laos border as possible but because of the rain I couldn’t drive nearly as fast and only made it about 2/3 of the way there. I stopped at a restaurant on the way where I got a coffee and relaxed for a moment. It seemed the only moment the rain stopped was when I was there enjoying my coffee, the only moment where it didn’t matter.

My guest. Threw his some bones and he thanked me profusely.

I went on and on and the rain got worse and worse. The water was warm and cleansing but after countless hours of flying through it on the motorbike I started to shake and get hypothermic.

There was a stretch of road though about 50 km long that winded around mountains and was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Then in the low straight parts there would be villages with chickens, cows, dogs, goats and lots of farms. I just started to see some rice farms. Surely a place I wouldn’t mind retiring to.

Day 1. Da Nang to Laos Border

Day 1! I got started around 9 am this morning after a little breakfast and alone time with Steff. We went downstairs to the bike just to see that the bike had leaked fuel out all over the ground again so I knew there was still some enormous issue with it. I bought this bike from some rando in Da Nang selling it for about $100.

So at 9 the first thing I did was drive to the mechanic. I had had a similar issue with a bike before where I could fix it by shooting some compressed air up the little drip thing from the carb. I have yet to really know if it is fixed or not. There is a shutoff switch so I will use that from now on. I started driving straight west as it seemed there was a border crossing there for me. By going straight west I would be going through gorgeous lush rain forest rather than passing through the beach cities that I have driven through countless times now.

Quick stop to eat a snack. This shows all my gear I carried.

It really only took about 20 minutes of driving west of Da Nang for the driving to seem pretty rural. As I journeyed further and further the roads steadily got narrower, there were more pot holes and tons more animals around the roads. Much of the drive followed a windy brown river that subsisted on the waterfalls that splashed their diamond clear water across the roads. The jungle was so lush it was bursting out into the road . The trees were tall and enveloped in vines. As I got further and further from Da Nang I could see more and more surprise on peoples faces as I passed. It was obvious that I was one of the veeeery few foreigners that had journeyed down that road. I should have seen that as a sure sign that at the end of that road would not be a border crossing, but I chose to ignore those thoughts on the way.

The brown river beautifully contrasted the green trees

About halfway to the border I stopped at a gas station where the attendant spoke pretty good english, I filled it with gas as an old lady walked by with a big sack of little round brown fruits. I had never tried them before so I ordered a sack that’s about 2 kilos for 85 cents. They are now one of my favorite fruits. When I passed kids that seemed in awe of how weird I looked to them I offered them some of these fruits and they were always excited to get some.

Little fruits. They were super sweet and sour on the inside.

Next to the gas station I stopped for lunch, ordered some Bahn Xeo and sat down. I stood up to plug in my phone and this man ran up to me and stood weirdly right next to me. There was another guy he was talking to and laughing with and I figured out pretty quickly that the one that ran up to me thought he was taller than me and ran up to me to prove it. His buddy who was a very silly small guy was laughing and making fun of him because he was still a good 4 inches shorter than me. I sat back down, ordered a beer, and 2 beers for those guys who already seemed to have had quite a few. They invited me over to eat with them so I did.

A little drunk..

They knew very little English and my Vietnamese is rough at best. I tried using google translator but the guys just couldn’t understand how to use it, so we just stumbled through some conversations about things. I finished lunch and headed for the border, another 2 hours of driving and I was there. It was such a magical place on the way there. All the people seemed so happy and the all smiled or yelled HELLO!! As I rode by them. Right at the border there was a lot of construction going on and I realized almost instantly I wasn’t going to get through. There was one guard and when I approached him he looked sad. He told me it was only a border for Laos and Vietnamese people so I had to drive another 10 hours out of the way to get to the international border. I was a little pissed but realized there was nothing I could do so I started driving back, It would waste about 5 hours of driving having not planned better, but that is the story of my life. It started getting dark and I started getting hit will little spurts of rain, nothing bad though. I found a local hotel where I am now. The family offered me dinner and I ate with them. The 7 year old son knows some English but no one else does. The dinner was great, their chili sauce was soooo f*cking good. When I asked for the recipe they said it’s just chili, garlic, and lemon but that’s hard to believe.