“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way…” – Carl Sagan
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| (Laos local scene, the road to the Thailand border) |
Day 07: 16 December 2015 (Wednesday)
Route: Pakse – Khon Kaen
Distance: 426 km
This morning, while riding out of town, we were again confused on the differences in the routing on our GPS and had to make a u-turn and retraced our route. In Pakse, hubby led the group out of town and at a junction a bike took a wrong turn and forced the rest to stop and wait. As two bikes were already ahead, Mat Putt the sweeper tried to catch up with us but missed the junction where we took the turn and rode in a different direction.
We waited for the rest at the junction. After a while, a policeman came and requested us to ride on as we were blocking on-coming traffic. As Tuan Shawal was with the other group and everyone has a GPS we were confident that everyone will head to the border where the group could again reconvene.
With Azhar/Illa following us closely, we rode slowly to the border which is about 40 km away. When we arrived at the border no one had arrived yet so we waited at the coffee shop and had cool drinks to quench our thirst. The group led by Tuan Shawal arrived 15 minutes later, followed by Mat Putt who rode confidently alone from Pakse after he was unable to catch up with the rest. We were jovial and thankful when everyone made it to the border safely.
Till now we were still wandering why someone had to shout angry words for no reason when the group split. As far as I know they were the ones who caused the split when they took a wrong turn in town and other people waited and did not leave them behind.
Always I remind myself. During hard times, one must have the patience and perseverance. Until you are tested, you don’t know what you’re made of.
In Khon Kaen, we had a hearty dinner at a seafood restaurant by the lake and recalled the confused routing experience we had earlier in Pakse.
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| (Getting our documents ready for border crossing) |
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| (Riding 40 km towards Pakse. What a beautiful weather) |
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| (The bright early morning sun) |
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| (Passing through the town of Pakse) |
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| (Crossing the river to find the route to the border) |
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| (Passed the Pakse International Airport) |
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| (Double checking the GPS coordinates) |
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| (The Bolaven Plateau from the other side of Pakse) |
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| (Our KTM waiting in the middle of the road for the rest) |
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| (Two bikes riding towards the Laos/Thailand border) |
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| (The road leading to Chong Mek border) |
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| (Having light refreshment while waiting for others to arrive) |
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| (Not a long wait before the rest arrived) |
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| (Border crossing once the gang regrouped) |
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| (Bikes lined up while we had our passports stamped) |
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| (The Thailand Immigration and Custom Building) |
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| (Safely crossing the Laos/Thailand border) |
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| (Nice weather for the ride to Khon Kaen) |
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| (An un-planned detour to the Two-color River) |
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| (Adjusting Tuan Shawal's GPS avoidances) |
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| (Retracing our routing to Khon Kaen) |
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| (KTM shadow in the hot sun) |
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| (Entering the main highway to Khon kaen) |
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| (The sun was setting in the horizon) |
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| (A short break to decide onwards journey) |
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| (Arriving in Khon Kaen at night with a blurry vision) |
In Khon Kaen, we had a hearty dinner at a seafood restaurant by the lake and recalled the confused routing experience we had earlier in Pakse.
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