Laos

I just spent the past couple days in Laos renewing my Thai visa. I left Phitsanulok on Sunday evening (Monday morning actually) and traveled to Udorn Thani, followed by Nong Khai, and then across the Friendship Bridge into Vientiane, Laos.

Monday, 5 October 2009: Sure was a lot of confusion with where I was supposed to go, what I was supposed to do, etc. Didn't help that there was a festival going on in Vientiane on my first day there. Apparently, I booked a room in a Guest House that was right smack in the middle of the festival and so all the roads leading to the hotel were closed to vehicle traffic. Lucky me. Of course, the van driver who took me to the hotel didn't bother telling me the roads were closed and decided to just keep on driving around town. Good thing I had already paid for the trip to the hotel, otherwise he would have tried to stiff me for some extra cash for driving all over the place. When I finally got him to tell me what was going on, he said the roads are closed and so it would be better if he took me to a different place. I told him to take me as close as he could and that I would walk the rest of the way, which ended up being a whole block and a half.

So I finally made it to my hotel, checked in, and then went for a walk around the festivities. Not much really going on. Just a bunch of booths full of clothing, food, and electronics. At first glance, the prices were outrages. 50,000 Kip (Laotian money) for a shirt. It was a little while before I found out that 1 Baht was 250 Kip, so a shirt was around 200 Baht.

I wandered around for a while and was approached by some 22 yr old who wanted to practice his English with me. That was fine, except for the fact I couldn't understand hardly a word he said. After a few minutes, the conversation changed to Thai and Laotian and this kid ended up just following me around after that. He kept trying to call his sister for me to meet, but she never picked up her phone. (Oh Darn). After close to an hour, I was finally able to separate from this kid and headed back to my hotel room for a nice nap. I didn't get much sleep on the bus to Udorn Thani from Phitsanulok, even though it left P'Lok at 12:40 am and arrived in Udorn at 7:00 am. Weren't the smoothest of roads and everytime we hit a bump, I woke up. So, taking a nap around 4:00 pm was just what I needed. That about covers the fun and excitement for Monday.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009: I thought I left the hotel early enough to get a good spot in line at the Royal Thai Embassy, since I left at 7:45 am and the place didn't open until 9:00. It was a ten minute drive and when I arrived outside the embassy, the line was already halfway down the block. So I waited in line outside the embassy for a long time, then when they finally opened the gate, I was given a ticket in which I was number 241. Sat around for 2 full hours before my number was called. Walked up to the counter, handed them my paper work, and was told to move to the next building for visa payment. It literally took 30 seconds at this first counter. So, I moved along to building 2 and waited for another 10 minutes before my number was called again and I could pay my 2000 Baht for my non-immigrant B visa. Of course, the processing of the visa takes 24 hours, so I had to leave my passport with the embassy and return on Wednesday to pick it up again. By this time it is already almost noon and I am starving. So I returned to my hotel, got something to eat, and watched a little tv until the weather cooled off a bit. Once it did, I decided to walk around and take a few pictures before eating a sushi dinner and heading to bed.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009: Check out wasn't until 11:30 and since I couldn't go and pick up my visa until 1:00 pm, I decided to stick around the hotel for the morning. When I left the hotel, the same van driver who took me to the embassy yesterday was outside waiting for me. Since it was just a little after 11:00, I asked him to take me to a couple touristy places before heading to the embassy.

I ended up taking a lot of pictures which I will upload later. Arrived at the embassy around 12:30, paid a guy 100 Baht to pick up my passport and visa for me (sure beats standing in that long line again), and left the embassy around 1:15 pm. My driver took me all the way back to the boarder, where I got my Laos exit stamp, took a ride back across the Friendship Bridge to get my Thai entrance stamp, and then rode down to Udorn where I am now waiting for my bus back to P'Lok.