Attapeu, Laos is a good-sized town that sits next to the Bolaven Plateau. It was a fairly modern looking town and seemed more prosperous than many of the other places that I stayed in. It was also one of the first places where I really think I was the only person in the whole town that spoke English.
The ride from Tad Lo was a nice one. There were some clouds in the sky that kept the temperature from getting too high. I skirted the side of the Bolaven Plateau for the majority of the day.
My photo folder is pretty sparse for this day. I think I was just enjoying the riding. I stopped a few times to take random photos of shacks and other buildings and nature.
I kept some emergency gasoline in a water bottle in my front basket. After riding over a few potholes, I ended up moving the bottle to a more secure location. In both Laos and Vietnam, I always rode with at least one bottle of gasoline. In Vietnam, it seemed easy to find gas, but in Laos it could be tricky to find places to fill up the scooter. In different countries, they use different colors for the gasoline and diesel. I didn't notice it until Cambodia where the colors were different.
While driving through a town, I spotted this truck in the corner of my eye and I had to turn around to get a photo. I was like "Wait! Did I just see what I think I saw?"
Yes indeed! First off, I'm pretty sure this truck wasn't made in the USA. In a country that is frequently decorated with the hammer and sickle, I loved seeing someone represent the USA on their truck. Then there was the sticker of the Easy Rider himself on the tailgate! I would never expect to see a Peter Fonda sticker anywhere, but especially not in Laos. Plus the word "Hi-Speed". I loved it! I want one of these stickers for myself.
The gate on the house was also pretty cool. I like how they used two colors for the iron bars.
Later, I went to a little waterfall. It was kind of cool to see, but after spending the night close to a waterfall it wasn't super impressive.
At the waterfall was a tourist area, but it was almost completely empty. It looked like it would be a fun place to spend the afternoon.
Much of the day was spent on this long, empty highway with the plateau on my right.
The sun broke through the clouds and I got this photo. A little while later I got the photo at the top of the page.
Eventually I made it to Attapeu and found a hotel. I learned pretty early on in my trip that you don't have to share a language with someone to get things accomplished. Even though I didn't speak the language, the lady at the hotel knew that I was there for a room. I held up 1 finger and pointed to myself to indicate that I needed a room for 1 person, myself. She punched in the cost into a calculator and showed it to me. I paid the number displayed. Then I pointed at my scooter and shrugged my shoulders. She indicated that she would bring the bike inside at night to secure it.
For dinner I wandered around and found a restaurant. Luckily there were other people eating there so I rudely looked at what everyone was eating and pointed at a dish that I wanted. The guy at the restaurant gave a thumbs-up and soon I had my own dish to eat.
At the store I said "BeerLao" and purchased some beer without much fuss.
I had read posts from other travelers online. They said that South America was difficult to travel in because not much English is spoken. I figured that South America would be a breeze because at least I know a few Spanish words. In Laos, I only knew about 4 words and I was getting by without much trouble. One thing that I found to be really helpful is google image search. Later in my trip I would need a welder and a photo of someone welding was all I needed to get some work done.
That's going to do it for this day's ride. Tomorrow's post will have more photos than this one. I took more photos as I ventured onto the Bolaven plateau itself and checked out what it had to offer. Hope to see you there!
