My world walk blog - Laos 3

Another day I walked 32-kilometres and it threatened to rain all day, but it didn't. It ended up being slightly overcast and was pretty much ideal walking conditions. Near Nongkeun and a half-hour before dusk, I got to a remote restaurant with a long covered deck which must be over 100-metres long. Should I push on and look for somewhere to stay? Unsurprisingly my tummy won out and I figured there was a decent chance that I would be allowed to camp there.
After I finished my dinner the owner whose name sounds like Ham Pie said that I could pitch my pop-up tent on a large bed/table. That was a stroke of luck as just then the weather which kindly held out for me broke, it rained torrentially, and lasted all night long.

I wanted to sing, so I grabbed a pen and soon it was my microphone. I pretended I understood the Lao karaoke script!

Then a microphone was tossed in my direction and I have no idea what kind of crap was coming out of my mouth Hey, Lao rock stars make some great music. And as we know music is the language that everyone understands and we are having great fun. I miss live music so much

Just as I was getting ready to go the waitress pulls up a picture of me from my world walk page and I have no idea how she knew as I never said anything about it! 

Oh and that day I walked 31-kilometres to get to near Pakxan and the Suvanthong guesthouse. After a scrub up I plunked myself in the adjoining karaoke bar. Most of that day's effort was in the rain. Six-Euro a night which was discounted to five, I planned a rest day the following day as I had a big chaffing issue going on. I needed to find a big tin of Vaseline. This always happens to me with serious humidity. 

My Vietnam E-visa was being processed at that moment. I applied only that night and there is a Vietnamese holiday weekend coming up, but I should still be okay. I had to download a selfie passport photo, so the process was interrupted for a shower, a shave and a change of clothes!

 I planned to cross at Cau Treo border post on the 27th August. That was about 225-kilometres away. It's a 30-day visa, so that will be a nice ramble on up to Mong Kai and cross into the Peoples Republic. Slow boot to China, part-two, a further 625-kilometres away. Last time I walked through the middle of.China. From Mongolia to Vietnam. This time I will meet up with my old route and continue on towards Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Earlier that day, I walked down to the Indochina market. I sat down for a chat and ate a sandwich and drank a coffee at a stall where a camera-shy woman told me that she is married to a Canadian man. They met twenty-five years ago and have three children aged 21, 17 and 6-years old. He is in Canada now and she prefers to sell snacks here at the side of the road rather  than to battle cold Canadian winters.