My First Piece...

My friends and I quite literally ‘gave back on the road’ last year, whilst we were travelling around the famous loop in central Laos. At the end of day one, which had involved numerous breakdowns and accidents, we were exhausted. We had spent the morning and early afternoon travelling on tarmacked roads, however the second half of the journey took us up a mountain through a thunderstorm, a village with no petrol (when our tanks were all empty) and an endless amount of rocky tracks. So it was no surprise that by the time we stopped at the Sabaidee Guesthouse in Tha Lang that both our bodies and poor 50cc mopeds were aching.

We arrived to find a collection of small huts alongside a larger building, which was merely a roof held up by pillars, and a very enthusiastic host. He came running out in a brightly coloured shirt, beaming a toothy grin and speaking very excitedly in both English and French. It quickly became apparent that we were the largest group of customers he had seen in a long time, being in a group of eleven. Within minutes he had us inside, relaxing on wooden benches with beers and menus in our hands, watching the sun set in the distance.

As the evening went on our host continued to give us free food and drinks and he even ran off to fetch his karaoke machine and treat us to a beautiful rendition of Celine Dion’s classic ‘my heart will go on.’ Due to there being too many of us to fit into his small number of bungalows, he set up a couple of tents, the use of which being free of charge, which we sat in by a campfire all night long.

His hospitality touched us all and as we set off the following morning for another day’s riding, after a complimentary breakfast of bacon and eggs, we all agreed to round up our bill to a million kip, from 700,000 or so, to say thank you. His reaction was nothing short of ecstatic and in return he provided us with some jerry cans of petrol for the rest of the journey. This was an encounter that I know I shall never forget.