Tuesday, May 8, 2007

four is the magic number

Four flat tires in one day. Can you believe it?
Ok let's start from the beginning. I woke up in Pakse raring to go, but for one small itty bitty problem. It was raining. Hard. I decided that if it didn't let up by 7:00 am I would stay in Pakse for one more day. By 6:30 it had quit. By 7:30 it started again. I kept stopping for coffee and letting the rain ease up, but by 10 I had enough and got the cutest little guesthouse near the airport. (I paid an extra dollar for T.V. because it was rainy and I thought I'd be bored. Unfortunately it had CNN in English, and Discovery and Animal Planet dubbed in Lao. Sigh.)
The next day was cloudy, but no rain until I got to Kongshedone (where I planed to stop anyway) My guesthouse was not the cutest. But it was ok, and as it started to rain the rest of the day.....
I went on to Paksong. The next town with a guesthouse. The road was nice and it was overcast for most of the day. A bonus because it meant that it wasn't too hot. Paksong was 100 km from Kongshedone. Whew. I was so tired when I got there. My guest house however had a mouse. It was in my bathroom, and I really had to pee. I looked at the mouse. The mouse looked at me. I really had to pee so I threw a soap at the mouse. The mouse left. I woke up and noticed that my front tire was flat. Again. I was very lucky because there was a repair shop right next door to my guesthouse, and the guy was open, and he was cute. I had him change my inter tube. I now don't have any spares left, and I don't know if I can find one in my size. Then, about 20 km away, I had another flat on my front tire. I am upset to say the least. Plus it is only open road. I don't see any villages on my map, and I kinda lost a bit of hope. Fortunately there was a tire repair shop ( in the middle of nowhere). I got my tire fixed and was feeling good, plus I thought I've been very lucky, as my back tire has been good. Then my back tire gets a flat. I get it fixed by a cute kid who spoke a bit of English. I'm only 20km away from Savanahket, so I think if all else fails I can walk there. As soon as I got into town, guess what happened. If you guessed that my back tire had a flat, you would win the prize. Sheese. Lao, land of mellow, land of smiles, land of relaxation, land of hidden charm, land of flat tires.
Till I post again, be good, be happy, and have fun

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