Day 68! Today was a LONG day! But it was full of beautiful scenery and serendipitous encounters. Today is a prime example of why I love traveling and the community it creates! I’m unfortunately a bit under the weather with a stomach bug… but all a part of the adventure!

I woke up with a jolt at 3am to my stomach screaming it was time to use the bathroom. So I ran to the outhouse and my fear from yesterday’s lunch became a reality… I’m hopeful it was just this one time though, but we’ll see!

I ended up falling back asleep for a bit but woke up to the sun in my face and decided to get up for the day at 7:30am. After showering, packing, and paying for my tent, I decided to skip breakfast and start my drive. I thought it’d be best to avoid any unwanted events while on the road… but just a part of being in SE Asia!

My first stop of the day was just down the road at the gas station. I filled up my trusty bottle of gasoline and it very much came in handy further along the drive!

My drive started with the small villages in Tad Lo and quickly become small towns, very similar to the ones I was driving through in Vietnam!

In one of the towns, I saw an ATM that looked safe enough to use! So I pulled out some Laotian Kip which eased my mind a lot since I had very little when entering the country!

Just down the road from the ATM was another stop that was necessary before I set off any further. I walked into a small market and for only 5,000 Kip, I got myself some tissue… as I said, just in case…

The next leg of the drive wove me through more of these small towns which are connected by one lane, wooden bridges. They’re not the hardest to drive over, but definitely take your full attention and cause back ups in traffic since only one car or truck can go at a time!

An hour after setting out my bottle of gasoline came in handy as I lost track of how many kilometers were left in my tank… and my bike sputtered to a halt!

Luckily I had my bottle and I filled up the tank halfway AND I was only a few minutes from the nearest gas station. So I whipped a U-turn and headed to fill up my tank and my bottle again.

I started back down the road and decided to not drive into Pakse since I would be back soon to see it.

As I was driving further south I passed by a giant industrial facility and after turning back around to read the sign again, I found out it was a brewery for Beerlao! I just found out about this beer yesterday, so it was cool to see that it was being made nearby!

I kept moving on for another hour until I saw a small convenience store and decided to test out my stomach with a bag of chips.

I was pretty hungry and was able to eat them with no problems! I could tell my stomach was still very much not 100% but I thought it was worth the risk to get some calories in on such a hot day.

I kept riding for another 30 minutes and decided to fill up my gas tank one more time before Don Det to air on the safer side!

Im not sure why Google maps doesn’t show any of these gas stations, but I’m very glad they exist!

I stopped one more time before making it to Don Det. While resting a car full of people came zooming by and I had to snag a picture of them all crammed in and hanging out the back!

Before getting to Don Det, I hit an intersection where Google maps wanted me to go to the right, but the street signs prompted me to go forward…

I asked a local and he agreed with the street sign so I decided to trust them and head the 13 km forward. Thankfully, they were right and I made it to the port that headed straight for Don Det!

I had to drive my bike in the water a little bit, up a sketchy plank, and onto this tiny flat boat.

The boat ride was quick and beautiful! It gave me a great idea of what the 4,000 islands were and why they are heavily traveled to!

The 4,000 islands are a grouping of large and small “islands” in the south of Laos on the Mekong River.

On the boat ride, I chatted with a local named Sai who told me about the islands, local food, and things to do and places to stay.

But just as I arrived to the pier, I ran into an old friend who immediately changed my plans!

I purchased a SIM card, finally, and then started chatting with my friend Charolette from Hoi An! You might remember her from my trip to My Son.

She told me her and a few friends were about to go tubing down the river and that sounded absolutely amazing after a long motorbike ride. They were nice enough to wait for me. As I drove across the island to a homestay Charolette suggested where I got a private room for 100,000 Kip ($5)!

We ended up tubing for 3-4 hours as we floated down the river and then walked back to the start to do it once more! It was a ton of fun and very relaxing and only cost 15,000 Kip for the inner tube.

We then all split ways to shower and then met back up for dinner where I tested out my motorbiking skills and drove all three of us through the dirt roads of the island to a nearby restaurant that was recommended to us!

I finally fully tested out my gut health with a fried rice with chicken and cashew nuts… and confirmed it’s still unwell.

After chatting for awhile and then dropping off my friends, I called it a night in hopes that a full nights sleep might help cure my ailment.

I love how serendipitous today ended up being! I had a blast with Charolette, Justine, and Anna! I’m looking forward to exploring the rest of the island… and also getting rid of this stomach bug!

We’ll see what tomorrow has in store!

– Elie