Damn Lucky

Well today was a very 'Merritt' day of traveling. Ryan and I got breakfast at a little cafe that employs underprivileged children and trains them for the hospitality industry. I have been trying very hard to eat just Vietnamese food while in Vietnam, but I'm starting to realize that it's much more enjoyable to eat what you WANT. This cafe was also a bakery, so I ordered a carrot muffin. They couldn't heat it up because the electricity had gone out. What? I don't know if it was just that area of the city, or if it was the entire city, but the electricity went out in Saigon - maybe not quite as developed a city as I thought....but then again that happens in America every once in a while.

Ryan booked a bus back to Phnom Penh (which is on the way back to Bangkok), and I took a taxi to the airport. No more travel buddy.

When I arrived at the airport I realized that I had enough money on me to pay the taxi driver, but not enough to pay for my visa when I arrived to Laos! At least I realized before I arrived! I lucked out and found an ATM in the airport, and after several tries with several different credit cards, managed to extract 500,000 dong ($32) from the machine. I had 200,000 dong in my wallet already, as well as a $5 bill, so that left me with a total of about $49 for a visa that I was told cost between $35 and $42. Hmmm, that left me with $7 to buy food at the airport and a tuk-tuk when I arrived in Laos. I skipped on the food.

On the plane, I read in my Lonely Planet that only US dollars and Thai Baht are accepted as payment for a visa. Shit! I ran through my head every place I could have stashed away money....I had used all of the money stashed. Ooops? I guess it's time to refill the stash? A little late to realize that.

Sitting on the plane I don't know what made me remember my random stash of leftover Thai baht, but I realized I had Thai money in a little zipper pocket in my wallet.Two weeks ago, when I arrived at the Poipet border in Cambodia, I must have stashed away my leftover Baht - 2000 Baht to be exact. That's about $64 - more than enough to pay for my visa. Phew!

I landed at the Vientiane airport, and got in line for a tourist visa. Everyone had 3 passport size photos - a requirement for a visa. I was sure I had a packet with photos in my backpack....but it disappeared. Shit! Luckily it was only $1 extra.

Oh and did I mention I was supposed to be able to prove I could exit the country (i.e. be able to present a plane ticket for exiting Laos)? I decided to take the risk and not have any proof of exit, and they didn't care. Whew again!

So, I got into Laos by the skin of my teeth, found my bag waiting for me on the conveyor belt, and decided to save $2 by not taking a taxi but rather walk a quarter mile to the airport entrance and get a tuk-tuk into town (the tuk-tuks aren't allowed to hang out at the airport terminal).

Town was DEAD. There was almost no one around. Kindof eery. No cars. Only a motorbike or two, a few tuk-tuks, and maybe two or three tourists. Oh, and everything was closed. That would mean that all of the guesthouses have rooms, right? Very wrong. I was hard pressed to even find a room, let alone a decent one. Every guesthouse with a decent room and a good price was full! All of the guesthouses that weren't full were total dives. I mean total DIVES. I think I would prefer a jail cell over some of the rooms I was shown. I always say "you're only sleeping there"....but I drew the line today. One room was locked with a padlock because the door knob had been ripped out of the door. The beds looked left over from the Vietnam war.

The previous night I talked to a group of backpackers that told me Lonely Planet is a complete sham. Supposedly a few weeks ago an author for Lonely Planet admitted he had written one of his guides without even visiting the country, and that when they do visit the country, they don't have enough time or money to investigate everything they write about. They told me to throw away my book. Well, every place in town that was written up was full, and every place not written up was a dive, so I figured either Lonely Planet writes about the nicer guesthouses, or everyone goes there because they're written up.

I tested my theory by investigating a guesthouse given rave reviews by Lonely Planet, but located 5 minutes outside of town (walking). They had a room, and although it isn't as nice as Lonely Planet claims, it's liveable. At $14, I splurged.

At night, everybody came out of the woodwork - tourists and locals. Mind you, this 'capital city' is very much a sleepy town compared to Bangkok, Saigon, or even Phnom Penh. However, this has its pluses. I didn't see a SINGLE beggar tonight. I have been told I won't see any beggars in Laos. I was only offered boom-boom twice, and the tuk-tuk drivers aren't pushy. They actually understand the meaning of 'no thank you'! Everybody smiles too!

I got my first course at an Indian restaurant (I don't know why I was in the mood for Indian, but hey, that's what I wanted). I then went to the riverside food stands and ate fresh spring rolls and a roti for dessert. A roti is a crepe thrown in a frying pan, with egg poured over the top. it is then covered in condensed milk (they looove condensed milk here) and served to you on computer paper. The paper is reused after its first role as bank financial statements! Who knows where this guy gets his paper.

I then walked around the city and got lost. What's new? I came across a vendor selling fresh fried dumplings (or that's what it looked like). He was making them right there! They weren't dumplings though - the outside too thick and airy.

Hmmm, that's about all for today. No real adventure stories, but it would have been interesting had I not been able to pay my visa. I am damn lucky I got into this country.

---

---