This would hopefully be our last night in Vietnam until we return for Hanoi in two weeks by way of a more Northern Laos border.
Tomorrow we go cave exploring and see what this place looks like in the daylight!
A Vietnam coffee then a quick run through the village market for a handful of road bananas/oranges & we were heading West for the Cao Trio border crossing into Laos.
We met a Canadian traveler yesterday who told us that Laos didn't allow Vietnam bikes in and that they would surely confiscate them at the border if we tried.
We passed through some gorgeous mountain ranges enroute and about 40 Kms from the border my cousin's rear tire blew out. 
After pushing it by hand for an hour we were able to find a sweet local guy to fix it as we drank beer and spoke Englimese with his family.
We were back on the road after just a couple beer leaving lifetime friends behind as we headed west for Laos.
We made it to the exit point of Vietnam's border and what happened next we are still trying to figure out.
I wish we had pictures but it was to precarious to whip out my phone and start shooting.
The Vietnam border patrol officers wouldn't let us go through with our bikes. They kept insisting Laos did not permit Viet bikes to enter. We were held up for a good hour as full buses, trucks as well as cars and people came through, had their passports stamped for exit and left.
They finally took our money after we shoved it through the glass at them but took no more than was required (20vmd/ea) but then held off on stamping our passports until all the crowds had thinned to empty.
At that point the one guard stamped us out and we immediately made our way to the bikes. Both guards walked behind us and followed us to them insisting we could not take them over the border. I invented a story that all we intended to do was ride up to the Laos border, get the stamp on our passport and turn around and come back to Vietnam.
" It is all about getting a Laos stamp", I told them, thinking a white lie would convince them to lay off.
They stayed insistent and told us to take our bags off, leave the bikes with them and walk the 1 km to the border crossing.
The big plus and our saving grace was that we had a multi-entry Vietnam visa with 6 days validity still on it. In addition all Smiles, a whole bunch of humility and nothin to loose.
I explained, "our bags are sooo heavy" and that we will surely see them again in just a few minutes when they turn us around at the crossing.
I quickly recognized it was a loosing battle as these guys weren't budging. They wanted our bikes and my approach was not working.
I dropped down on both knees in the middle of the street and cried, "please please let us get a Laos stamp!!!".
My cousin and I agreed later that this was something they had definitely never witnessed before this moment.
Both men cracked smiles immediately! It appeared as though I touched something (humility?) in him because the one turned & looked at the other with a gaze of "who the hell are these guys!" Just before turn to me, still on my knees, & said "ok" as he pointed to the bikes and waved his hands onward.
I jumped to my feet, hugged the one guy and don't even remember starting the bike I moved so fast outa there!
Humility Prevails:)!
We still had to make our way into Laos but won this first battle and were feelin strong.
When we rode up to the crossing we noticed 6-8 guards playing a game of Laos Bacci in the dirt off to the side of the gate. We parked our bikes and quickly made our presence known by cheering them on with claps, yelps and high fives. Now we had friends at the gate!
Ten minutes & $2/ea later we were over the border and riding our bikes as fast as they would move into the mountains while looking over our shoulders for flashing lights.
We made it 40 Kms to the first busy town we saw and ducked into a bar after hiding the bikes from the road. The only license plates we saw were Laos and we were taking no chances of being deported at this point.
The bar had 8 Israelis in it who had rented bikes in the south and were surprised we were able to get Viet bikes in. They gave us a map to help us stay invisible.
After our adrenaline calmed to a reasonable level and a couple beers (which helped( we gased up and were back heading West.
It was starting to get late and we still had 100+ kms to travel before dark. All was good and other than us being the only non-Laos licence plates on the road we were moving back into the mountains and on to our destination.
That is until our 2nd flat tire of the day;(!
This time not only were we in a country with less than legal bikes/plates, we were in a remote point in the mountains with 37 Kms to go to the closest town.
We flagged down the first truck we saw and had the bike and Pete in it before I I could say "I need a beer"!
I kept thinking about how fortunate we are despite it all as I remembered the snow/ice storm currently hitting my home in the US Northeast.
I followed behind as Cuz's unofficial photographer.
We found a roadside garage with a nice Laos family sitting out front. The dad pulled apart the bike only to find that it was not a Laos bike and the tires/tubes he had were the wrong size and wouldn't fit.
After an hour of McGivering it he had us back on the road just before sunset.
Now we are riding in the dark looking for a hotel near the Khong Lor river caves.
It's pitch dark on the last 40 Km ride down the country road toward Khong Lor.
My cousin hates driving at night but it's warm as toast tonight, frogs are howling river songs, the skies are crystal clear and we made it through another amazing day so he's handling it!
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