Wow, what a day. Today was definitely the most intense day of my trip so far - one of those days where you can’t just muddle through, and need to be fully focused.

Early morning on the Mekong

It started at the Thai-Laos border, where the Thai customs agent refused to stamp out my Carnet. I tried to be nice and patient, and used ChatGPT’s help to plead with them, but it was no use; her boss was the one who gave the order not to stamp.

Border agent inspecting Carnet

This was not a good sign, as it can put my deposit with the UAE Automotive Club in danger. The Carnet De Pasaje acts as a guarantee/bond at customs that a vehicle is just passing through, so that it is exempt from customs duties or deposits. The “give” for this, is that i need to make a deposit/guarantee at the automotive club of my resident country, that will be forfeited if i violate any customs laws in any given country.

Not every country recognises the Carnet (including Thailand, which has its own temporary import process), but i was advised (by ChatGPT) that it would be prudent to get it stamped at all countries, including the ones which do not recognise it, so that there is an unbroken record of the vehicle entering and exiting countries along the route.

When i entered Thailand at the Sadao border, the nice customs agent was happy to stamp it. This ended up causing more harm than good, as it has now left me with an incomplete page in my Carnet - which I think is less ideal than not having had it stamped in the first place. There is one mitigating factor fortunately; I have a photo of the completed Thai vehicle export slip, that hopefully can be accepted as proof back in the UAE.

My bike has a visitor!

And so i left Thailand, and proceeded on to Laos…where i had forgotten to obtain a visa in advance.

While Laos does offer Australian citizens visas on arrival, these facilities are not available at every border, so that was enough to give me the “oh no…” sinking feeling while frantically researching my options. To my luck, this was one of the few borders with a visa on arrival facility, and it was staffed during my entry time!

Today’s route in blue

It was then time to bid farewell to Kiat, who would be travelling separately to Boten, as he had arranged for a car to take his bike to Boten. After the last time we rode in Laos, he had vowed never again to ride here due to the awful road conditions, and was keeping good to his promise. It was quite comical when we actually saw the car; it was a Toyota Hilux, they had 3 people, and no equipment to get the bike (which is reasonably large) onto the back of the truck!

I was definitely a doubter as we waited for them to come up with a solution. They beckoned us to follow, and they led us to a grassy field with a few natural dirt banks. After hunting around the field for the best bank, they reversed the Hilux with the trunk door down to the bank, and voila, a perfect ramp had been found.

Then, after measuring the bike length with a loose length of bamboo on the ground, they proceeded to assess that “she’ll be right” and gave Kiat the go ahead to make the pass.

Mission accomplished…very impressed with Laotian ingenuity

And to both our surprise, the bike fit, and they were able to securely tie down the bike.

I then jettisoned my luggage, and left it with the truck, and we parted ways.

The first section of the ride was surprisingly pleasant. While i was sharing the road with trucks that were transporting goods to/from China to Thailand, they weren’t too frequent, and there really wasn’t much else in the way of traffic. An odd pothole here or there was easy to dodge.

Nice roads on section 1

“Piece of cake” i thought. After 50 out of the 200+ odd kilometres, i thought i’d stop for some food. There would be plenty of time of course; roads were nice and it was barely 2pm.

Tapped rubber trees along the roadside

The Laotian countryside really lays bare the country’s economic development (or lack thereof). Most buildings were built out of rotting wood or thatched straw, wood was the main means of cooking fuel, and there is not much else besides rice fields in the reddish clay sediment, and the odd rubber plantation.

Durian tree?

There are also so many children, that look far too young (toddlers) that can barely walk, wandering the street while their parents presumably are busy at work in the fields. Groups of primary school children played on the road with big smiles, and i even saw a few riding on a scooter together!

Kids on e-bikes…riding through the mud

I really hope these children can get a decent education, and adequate economic opportunity to lead fulfilling lives. If there can be adequate telecom infrastructure built up, this seems achievable, as i believe with the pace of recent advancements in AI, it should be possible to deliver high quality education to all corners of the world.

Lunch stop…Kiat stopped to say hello

Lunch was at one of these shacks, attended by two sisters, one of whom had a young baby. I wasn’t quite sure whether or not they actually could serve food, but through a few gestures, they seemed confident enough, and started preparing a meal.

Lunch getting cooked

The meal turned out to be rice noodles with some strips of meat and beef (?) balls. Not bad! A truck driver came and also had a meal while i was dining.

Proprietor of the store’s baby

Then when it was time to go, i felt a pang of emotion, and gave a small red packet to the baby with some of the spare USD i had. We took a few photos, and then parted ways!

The next portion of the journey became progressively more intense as the road surface worsened. Deep, gaping potholes were hard to see until the last moment, and it was too late to avoid.

Pure mud!

For one section, the road melted into mud and wet clay, and was extremely slippery. Then, tarmac returned, but only barely; soon there were more potholes than road service to ride, and this continued for 100km.

Non-stop potholes and cracks

It was so bad that my gps mount twisted and broke apart from all the heavy impacts…another thing i will need to replace.

After what felt like far too long a beating, i decided to air down my tyres with the help of the air compressor i brought with me. This helped greatly, and it felt much better riding the rough surface.

Then, about 50km from Boten, the road surface vanished and was replaced by dirt and mud, and the truck traffic intensified.

Mud got through the vents in my pants, and a reddish layer coated the bottom half of there bike.

Then suddenly, concrete high rises emerged from the dirt hills; i had arrived in Boten.

Boten cityscape

Boten is an interesting place. It is a special economic zone on the border with China, features the only buildings I’ve seen greater than one storey high, and has actual paved roads. It looks like a few blocks of a Chinese city were teleported to the middle of nowhere, and then staffed with Laotians. It is also a rather seedy place; the ratio of KTV venues to actual buildings is off the charts and probably approaches 0.5-1. This place is probably run/owned by some Chinese mafia lord, but at least doesn’t seem like one of those scam call centre towns.

Sandeep, pre-wash

The evening was spent washing my riding gear, my boots, and the motorcycle.

Tomorrow; Mengla!

Some stats:

• 240 KMs traveled
• 16.8L fuel added
• 2 unique interactions

At the edge of China