bkk - nong khai - vientine

officially the first leg of this silly bike trip.
I dragged my bike to the train station with out much time to spare, and of course I go all the way across the train staiton carrying the bike taken apart to be told to go to the opiate side to pay a bike fee (90b) then have to go to the exact opiate side I was just at to board the train, by the time i got to the correct car I was a sweaty frazzled mess. (had some old honkys look at me weird and ask if i was lost)
at first i was amazed how very light the bike is, and how light i'm traveling, by the time i got to my seat i felt like i drag a boat anchor the whole fucking way!
anyways got on the train, bunggied my bike into a lugae rack and fell asleep rather early. in the morning me pulled into nong khai, this time I was a bit less than gracefully getting the bike off the train, but finaly got it out, together and started peddling myself the 25k or so across the thai lao friendship bridge to Vientiane. it was an ass long hot ride but not unpleasant, I was trying to take it easy still need to used to riding again, and didn't want to make myself too sore.
navigating is easy enough so far (though i didn't get a chance to pick up a map in Thailand) but it's easy enough to say the next city's name and point in a questioning way.
it seemed my tires had gotten quite low on air, and my bike pump is ass tiny, really only for emergency's, got a tiny one that would fit into the rear racks support tube. but there are many motorcycle shops that are kind enough to add air.
I tryed to get to the Laos geograpical instuatue, or some such place but think i missed it by about 5min so now i have to wait till after the weekend to get a map.
probably ok, seems like theres a storm rolling in anyways.
I've got a new sim card for my phone seems my last Lao sim is dead, unluckily that meant i missed meeting my friend at his folks house which is the opiate way from Vientiane from the bridge that enters the country. got set up in the guesthouse i normally stay here (wow it's pouring down rain, glad I decided to bring my rain jacket to laos) next I need to go get water bottles, cut the tops off and put the feet of my bed into them with some water to try and keep out the bed bugs.
eek, ok pooped out.. that's all for now, going to go try and get music on my newly restored iPhone.