23
November, Pakmong to Ban Nammiang*, 46km
Hour Nam Nga Guest House 60,000LAK
Her small
home doubles as her place of business. The floor is uneven compacted dirt, the
walls are wood planks, the roof asbestos without ceiling. She has electricity
but no running water. Her business comprises a single low wooden table covered
in plastic at which she serves her clients noodle soup. The table stands in the
open doorway visible to passersby and it succeeded in luring us off the street
to be seated on low blue plastic chairs. She supplied us with something to
drink by calling our order to her friend who has a small store across the road.
The soup is prepared over an open flame between bricks on the floor, the smoke
blackening the walls and roof before escaping through the gaps in the planks. She
washes the dishes in a bucket on the floor. The family bed is on a platform in
one corner of the hut and is screened by a curtain, her mattress, a reed mat,
peeking beneath the fabric. Not an easy life... The road from Pakmong sentenced
us to seven hours of hard labour. It climbed for the best part of 30km, then
dropped. But it was the appalling condition of the road that exhausted us more
than the gradient and dropped our average speed to just 5km per hour on the
long climb. Essentially the road is falling apart so alternates tar with
potholed tar with rough stony compacted dirt with loose gravel and choking
dust. Not an easy ride so we were very thankful to come across an unexpected
guest house and call it a day.
* We are
not in fact sure in which town we spent the night nor the exact distance
travelled from Pakmong as there were few route markers on today’s road. The
town and guest house are located in the dip before the second big climb toward
the city of Udomxai.
Between Pakmong and Ban Nammiang
Between Pakmong and Ban Nammiang
Between Pakmong and Ban Nammiang
Between Pakmong and Ban Nammiang
Between Pakmong and Ban Nammiang