Day 78! It’s been a week of a lot of motorbiking! But that’s coming to an end as I enter Vientiane, the capital city of Laos! I’m looking forward to meeting new travelers as I’ve been to myself a lot lately. But first we have to brave a rainy day… and a run in with the Laotian police.

I started my morning off nice and early with a full family FaceTime! It was a very important call as it was my mother’s birthday!

It was a lovely call full of singing, catching up, and playing some cut throat Rumikube across the world! We love our game playing!

After we wrapped up it was time to pack up and complete my ride to Vientiane.

Before I set out, I realized I had been riding everyday for the past 7 days… now some of it was on the Thakhek Loop, but ever since I left Don Det I haven’t had a day without riding. So I was very much looking forward to spending a couple days in the city nicknamed the sleepiest capital in the world!

Unfortunately, I woke up to a rainy day. I really wanted to get on the road still and I decided it wasn’t raining hard enough to not go. Also, the radar looked like the closer I got the Vientiane the quicker the rain would stop.

So I set on the road!

At just over an hour I stopped for gas. I didn’t take too many pictures because this ride had been pretty miserable.

At the start I was enjoying the sprinkle of rain because it was a nice change from the heat I’d been experiencing… but by this point I was shivering!

Between the wind and the rain, this ride had become very unpleasant. But on the bright side I could tell the rain was lightening up!

Along with that, the roads up to this point were very nice and paved! So that made for a much nicer ride.

This is when the roads started to change… out of nowhere there would be stretches of road that were covered in gravel. And then sections of roads that were covered with potholes. This persisted for the next hour and then I had a slight emergency.

My bowels said it was TIME TO GO and thankfully I found a gas station in time and didn’t have to experience a side of the road nature adventure… all a part of the challenges and fun of eating in South East Asia!

By this point in the ride the rain had finally stopped and it was starting to warm back up, which I very much welcomed after shivering for 2 hours!

An hour later I entered into the city of Vientiane and was met with beautiful landmarks that were scattered around the city on my ride through. I wasn’t really in the mood to admire them for too long because of the rains after effects, but I still stopped to take some pictures!

I hadn’t booked a hostel yet and decided to go to one that was highly recommended but was fully booked online (sometimes they have extra beds that they don’t put on the online sites).

But I accidentally passed the hostel, so I made a u-turn and found it this time.

I got off my motorbike so happy to be done riding for now and out of nowhere there were two police officers behind me jabbering to me in Laotian.

I wasn’t very sure what they were trying to tell me and I was honestly a bit unnerved and unhappy that this was happening after a long morning. Eventually I realized they were not happy with my turn but I was so confused because EVERYONE in SE Asia (not just Laos) makes turns wherever they want to. I’ve driven long enough here to know how the roads work…

But the cops kept pressing me and I would say “I don’t know what you want” or “I don’t have time for this” and at one point when I tried to leave one even grabbed my arm to try and stop me, to which I politely told him to not touch me. They even called someone and tried to show them my face, but thankfully I was wearing my face mask so I don’t think they could see much.

I kept holding my own because I knew they were just looking for me to pay them. So after a few minutes I said I need to go in the hostel and even with their protests went around back and the owner came rushing to my aide!

She asked me what was happening and I said that I had no idea and can’t speak the language. We walked back around front and the cops were gone!

It was a very weird and sketchy situation and I’m glad I was able to hold my own and get out of it without having to pay a bribe! There are plenty of travelers who aren’t so lucky unfortunately…

And after that, I found out the hostel was fully booked. So with my tail between my legs, I motorbiked off to my second choice, a nearby hostel called Nana’s.

They did have a room available and while I waited for it to be ready I had a nice workout in their outdoor gym and ate a small meal of chicken and rice with basil! I also had a mango smoothie, which hit the spot!

I then was let into my room where I promptly took a shower and was feeling like a new person! So I grabbed my book and enjoyed the warm day by the hostel’s pool.

While sitting at the pool I met two travelers, Jacob from Germany and Kiwi from Germany as well!

We chatted for a while and eventually I got hungry so I had a plate of Malaysian fried rice with chicken while we chatted away!

Jacob needed to go do some planning, so he left and Kiwi and I grabbed a couple beers and joined two other travelers who were playing a favorite game of mine, monopoly deal! It’s been really cool seeing so many people playing a game I used to play when I was younger!

These new travelers were a married couple from Ireland, Pat and Nikola!

We played a number of games before we got hungry and wanted to grab dinner! So the four of us wandered a few minutes in the city to find a place to eat!

We found a small and cheap restaurant where I got a fried sukiyaki with chicken! A dish that I had forgotten about from my time in Thailand.

It’s very interesting eating here, lots of the dishes are from Vietnam or Thailand… I’ve yet to find many meals that are specific to Laos. But I was told, apparently papaya salad is claimed to be a Laotian dish, not sure if that’s true or not!

While eating, one of my friends I made in Vietnam came and joined us! Her name is Bahija and we met a number of weeks ago when I was in Dalat!

Also during dinner, Pat was telling us about their Vietnam visa problems and it sounded oddly familiar. So I gave him my contact for visa expedition and I think it might be a big help for their trip just like it was for mine! Glad I had the experience to help!

After dinner we dove into some more card playing and drinking! The hostel has a two hour period of free vodka or whisky… you just need to supply the drink it goes with, kinda crazy!

While we were playing, I felt a person grab my shoulder and turned around to see Sam, Bowaz, and Wannes! I wasn’t expecting to see them again so soon and it was a blast hanging with them!

I also met another couple Ryan and Tina from Ohio!

It ended up being a great night of new faces and fun! After a long, cold ride it was exactly what I needed! Laos has been pretty lonely, and as I’ve said, it’s not a bad thing… but I’m very excited to be very social the next couple of weeks as I finish up my time in Laos!

– Elie