Back to the incident of the WC GS. We had to use the elastic cord to secure the broken pannier. Well, it is really good stuff to bring along your adventure trip - as well as duck tape.
We back on road again. The road still bad, from bad to very terribly bad...!!
It was darker and darker. We still rode on the bumpy road with all the dust around. Three of us, the WC GS at front, then the KLR, and the last was myself and the GS.
I had to ride on the left side of the road, to avoid dust from the bikes at front, and help myself to see the road clearer.
I was really terrible road, I have to hold the handle bar pretty tight as I may fall into a big pothole at anytime. I almost had no time to look around - anyway, no point to look around in such dark night, isn't it?
At a very dark part of the road, I noticed the KLR ran slowly and stayed just behind me for some meters. It was no pothole but loose stone on the road. And the WC GS was a bit far at front.
Suddenly, I realized there were some dogs kept howling and running toward me. Looked like they tried to stay close to me and bite me. I had to raise my legs and threaten them away from me.
Just in some second, they passed my bike and within that moment, I realized something not wright with the KLR. I turned my head back, and sh*t... I saw the KLR headlight stayed still, and on the ground.
I carefully turned my bike back to get the KLR visible.
Unwanted scenery - the KLR was on the ground, the friend still under the bike. Dog still howling around...
We came in and get the bike upright. Very soon the locals started gather around us. The KLR rider seemed hurt and bleeding on his knee (I have no idea how the knee could be hurt while he's wearing knee guards).
There was a black dog still on the ground. That guy could not move and kept howling. My KLR friend said he was startled by the dogs and in the moment he tried to avoid crashing with them, he could not handle the bike on the loose stones, still hit the dog and the bike felt off like that.
KLR fairing was damaged. Handle bar was bent. Bike still started, but my friend did not dare to ride it. He asked if we could pulled over to someone 's house and repair the handle bar. I wanted to roll immediately without any delay, as I did not want to get involve with any issue with locals as we hit their dog. I got on the KLR and did a trial ride. It is really weird to ride with a bent handle bar - one hand need to put closer than the other. However, it did not take too long time to get used to it. Told to the friend and got him back on saddle.
Finally we got out of the mess without any issue. I said sorry to the locals in both Vietnamese and English, as well as body language, and I think they showed their understanding... "ok, ok, ok..." like that.
We leave that place around 09 PM.
The road still bad like that for another one hour...
We reached the town (Stung Treng) around 10PM. We was thinking that there will be good hotel room and good dinner so we can relax after the long and hard day.
But....
We rode directly to the hotel where we had stayed during the trip last year. The hotel was full.
We went to other hotel near the market. Full.
Asked some more hotels nearby. All full.
...
Damn... wtf with this town. We asked and were told that it was sort of wedding anniversary day of the town, so many couples, families gathered at the town to celebrate, so all the hotel there was full.
We could not do anything than pulled over for a dinner then plan for the next:
So tired of the road, fed up with the hotels, but still smile when seeing the flash
We asked the locals for helps. A moto-taxi driver he rode around to find a place for us.
Finally, after more than one hour, we got a news that there was a place where we can sleep.
We hurry to go to that place, dealt the price, thru all the stuff in the room, then having bath: