Day 73! Today was a doozy… a long hot ride, an overbooked homestay, and then an amazing evening filled with spontaneous encounters and a fantastic city festival! Couldn’t have asked for a better day by the end of it!

Well Pakse, I was planning on spending another day with you, but there wouldn’t be much for me to do… so it’s time to head on!

I woke up early, this time not on my own accord. The dorm room wall shared the lobby and every noise from the morning ran loud and clear. So by 7am I was up and moving!

As I was cutting my fingernails, the front desk employee of the hostel, Mr Son, sat down and started chatting with me! Asking me the usual questions, where I was from, where I was going, my plans, etc. He was a very nice man and we chatted for at least half an hour (no I was not cutting my fingernails that entire time).

I then decided to ask him if he knew anything about crossing the border between Laos and Thailand on motorbike… and his reasoning was “if you can cross Vietnam into Laos on a Vietnamese motorbike, why not Thailand as well?” I’m not sure how much weight I can put on this advice, but I like it and I appreciate his vote of confidence after being told the night before how impossible it was.

By 8:30am I was setting on the road for my adventure today… but first, I needed to stop by an ATM!

It took me THREE attempts to finally find an ATM that would work. The first, which had the best rating on Google, wouldn’t accept my card… the second I got all the way through the process and it had no cash. The third finally gave me cash but it unfortunately had a 3% fee which is quite frustrating. But at least I was stocked up for my ride and my next city!

I set off on my 240 kilometer ride. 203 km of the ride were down a single “highway” Route 9W.

Riding in Laos is much different than riding in Vietnam. First off the roads are filled with bumps, potholes, and dust. Second off, the scenery is a lot different! The south so far has been very flat and very dry. All the fields are barren and there’s a ton of cattle, goats, dogs, and chickens roaming around. So I’m having to stay very alert.

Nonetheless, this country is gorgeous and I’ve been enamored by the scenery!

I’m specifically in love with a specific type of tree that I’ve seen all over the south. If you happen to be able to identify it from this picture, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Out of nowhere, the dryness suddenly turned into a bright hydrated green of a thriving field! It took me by surprise and I had to take a picture of it… because right on the other side was completely dry!

An hour in I stopped for a break. The heat was starting to ramp up and take its toll on me. So I guzzled down some water and relaxed under the shade of a tree and next to some grazing cows.

Another hour passed of grinding down the highway in the intense heat. I was about halfway through my drive. So this time I stopped at a gas station to top up! Another thing that is different from Vietnam, a lot of gas stations have convenience stores, like the US!

So I snagged some cold water and a pack of EURO Ellse Chocolate Cookies which I snacked on periodically and energized me for the rest of my trip.

After leaving the gas station and heading further down the road, I hit a bump hard and was nervous I might’ve popped a flat tire. So I pulled over to check it out. Luckily, the bike seemed alright and I headed on!

An hour after, I stopped for my last gas fill up of the ride. I was getting pretty mentally drained at this point and was ready for the ride to be over… but I had one more hour to go!

At 1:30pm I rolled into my homestay for the night and was so overjoyed to get off my motorbike for the time being! The heat and exhaustion had taken their toll on me and I was ready to get my room and take a nap.

But… this excitement didn’t last long as I found out the homestay had overbooked for the night! This lovely place didn’t have a bed for me which wasn’t the end of the world, because their friend’s homestay was cheaper and they already got me a room!

So back on the motorbike I went, following the women checking me in to the new accommodation. And when we arrived, the place looked nothing like where I was originally going to stay. AND the door was locked.

After waiting an extra 10 minutes, the door was finally unlocked and I was able to see my room for the night.

Here’s where I was supposed to stay:

Here’s my new place:

For $10 I can’t really complain, however after the long day and the exhaustion that had set in, I was a bit irritated. But I rolled with the punches and thanked my host! I was only planning on being here one night and I could tough it out for that for sure!

I took a nice shower, the bathroom was pretty gross but the shower pressure was amazing! Then took a 30 minute Power Nap to energize me to go find some real food!

I set back out on my motorbike and headed towards a restaurant I found on Google maps. But I couldn’t find it and the locals didn’t know it either. I was prepared for this though and I went to my backup choice… which was closed. So in my hunger, I decided to ride around aimlessly following my gut to see if I could find a place to eat!

This led me down a road and I saw a man walking by himself so I rolled up next to him and asked him if he had any recommendations.

Turns out he was from Ontario, Canada and him and his wife were just about to head towards a restaurant recommended to them! So after chit chatting a bit and getting to know each other I asked if I could tag along and they said yes!

Cam and Mia both recently retired and were traveling the world together for the next year and a half! They are literally traveling to every continent on this journey, except Antarctica this time, and it sounds like such a wonderful adventure!

We kept chatting as we walked to the restaurant and when we arrived… it was also closed. But we passed by a food cart which I decided to grab food at. They however wanted to keep exploring the town which was just setting up a festival and night market! So we said see you later and parted ways.

I was very excited to finally have food and I got a crispy noodle with chicken! I also had a nice view of one of the churches that is well known in Savannakhet.

Just around the corner from where I was eating was the SavanFunFest! Where I was eating was a live music stage, starting at 6pm. Then there was a full market that reminded me of a Thailand night market because it was full of tasty foods! And at the end was another stage for traditional singing and dancing!

I also ran into Cam and Mia again and took a picture for the blog!

I wandered around a bit more and got some more snacks because I was still very hungry. After eating my snacks I walked to a clothing stand I had been eyeing and I bought a shirt, which turned out to be a more traditional Laos style shirt (I’ll show it at the end of the post).

I then wandered to the riverside where a gorgeous sunset was happening and plopped down on a park bench to enjoy reading along with the sunset! Laos has really had some spectacular sunsets so far and I’m loving that I’ve been able to soak up every one of them!

While I was sitting, reading, and enjoying the sunset, a man walked by and we made eye contact. He made comment that he was shocked to see me reading and not on my phone. To which I responded saying that I don’t really have social media to use and all my friends and family are back home and sleeping so there’s no need for it at the moment!

I then invited him to join me and we instantly dove into conversation. His name is Guy and he’s an older traveler from Israel, but he hasn’t lived in Israel for years. We talked about why we were traveling and how we both travel. Then dove into deeper topics like societal structures, starting families and having kids, the beauty of SE Asia, etc.

We chatted for a really long time and I was thoroughly enjoying but eventually we decided to part ways to go enjoy the festival some more.

The festival after the sun went down was in full swing! There were 10 times the amount of people as before and many more food stands and clothing stands open as well!

I of course got a mango smoothie, which was nice and cold on the steamy evening. And when I was standing at the traditional music stage I ran back into Guy!

We wandered the festival a bit more together and made our way back to the live music stage.

At this point my phone was close to dying and I was also getting very tired. So I said my see you later to Guy and wandered back to my motorbike for the short ride to the “guest house” I was now staying at.

I thought my night of meeting new people was over, but sure enough sitting outside the room next to me was another solo traveler! His name is Bryce and he had just hitch hiked from the Vietnam border all the way to Savannakhet (which was around 5 hours)! Apparently he was told there was a bus but it didn’t end up existing.

He was also supposed to stay in the other guest house but fate brought us to meeting at this one instead! He’s heading to Thakhek tomorrow too and we talked about potentially doing the loop together which would be fun!

Alright, I promised I’d show off the shirt! So here it is:

It’s of course green! I’m a big fan of it and for only 250,000 Kip, it was quite the steal. Can’t wait to rock it through the rest of Laos and on the beaches of Thailand (and wherever else it joins me on the trip)!

I called it a night because I plan on waking up early and going to the gym before setting out on the road again!

I don’t think I can put into words just how surprised I am with this town. I was totally expecting a night of being by myself, not much to do, and going to bed early. But instead I met a number of lovely travelers and was thrown into a lively cultural festival! I’m very glad I didn’t let my frustration towards my room for the night turn into anything more than a minor blip, because today was incredible!

I will say, I’m looking forward to settling down in a place for more than 24 hours again and not just riding my motorbike. But that’ll be a few days as I head towards a motorbike loop, hah!

– Elie