Two days ago I headed to Vientiane ahead of the team. I did this not only to avoid them (just kidding) but to renew my visa by traveling to Thailand. Thailand is only a half hour drive from Vientiane. Today I made that long journey to leave Laos for the first time in 65 days. Not very long in terms of a year I know but it feels like longer than just two months. I was dropped off by Bob at the border and then given my instructions. I got out of Laos by dropping off my departure ticket and then going through immigration. This took about 4 minutes then I bought a ticket and jumped on a bus to Thailand the trip took another 10 minutes or so as we left Laos crossed the friendship bridge and made it to Thailand. I got off the bus filled out my immigration form for Thailand and then crossed into Thailand which took about 5 minutes waiting in line and zero dollars with very little information needed. Lovely Thailand. I walked across the street and then got back into line leaving Thailand. This was another quick process before buying a bus ticket and getting back on my way to Laos. After arriving in Laos I filled out some paperwork for my Visa then paid my entry fee to Laos(notice there was nothing for Thailand). About ten minutes later my visa was finished being put in my passport. I got in line with about 50 other people trying to pass immigration and waited for about 10 more minutes when a military woman came up to me saying that I didnt need to wait and let me through. I just walked out and got in the car with Bob my tiny journey was over. It is an amazing/completely dumb thought that all I had to do to get a completely new visa was to go to Thailand for what ended up being 15 minutes. Gotta love me some bureaucracy. The whole trip totaled about an hour and was lackluster at best. I can now say I have been to Thailand on this trip. Next trip I hope spend more time there. The count down is 2 days till Savannakhet, Tom and I are leaving on the night bus tomorrow and should arrive at 5 am on the 27th.
A side note. As some of you may notice at the bottom of the screen is a counter which tallies the number of page views. The site just eclipsed the 1000 view mark and I thought that I would say thank you because I think that this is a special benchmark that I didn't think we would achieve so quickly. I always love comments and advice. I would also like to let you know that although there were 2 earthquakes in SE Asia I felt neither and am doing fine.
3 comments:
Your experience at the border is comical. Of course, we know that in the future, depending on which way the political winds blow, others may have a very different experience. You may have the makings of a book here, maybe even a movie deal!
At least I know you didn't get into any trouble in Thailand!! This could be a good book on how to negotiateSoutheast Asia.
Congratulations on the 1000+ readers. Your adventures are giving us all a great vicarious journey. You've obviously become a pro in the local public transportation. Nothing like living like the locals! Good luck in Savannakhet. Gillian
Post a Comment