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Published: October 21st 2015
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We had initially planned to travel from Thailand to Laos by train but we were obviously relaxing too much into our travels because by the time we went to make arrangements for the overnight sleeper train all the bottom berths had been booked! Whilst I know I can manage in an upper bunk we decided it might be too much of a squeeze for Steve and reverted to our fallback position of going by bus. We bought tickets for the overnight bus, being collected at 4 pm for a bus leaving at 6 pm and scheduled to arrive in Laos at 9.30 the following morning.
When the minibus arrived to take us to the coach station it already had passengers and luggage on board. The string-thin office lady gradually manhandled 9 passengers and all their luggage into a 10 seater minibus. Any issues I had about personal space quickly went by the wayside as S and I crammed into the backseat with 2 Amazonian German girls. As the journey progressed I became joined at the hip with one of them, literally, with mutual stickiness. She was full of flowery fragrance and I suspect I wasn't! Still, the spicy nibbles they
happily shared probably masked a multitude of sins. We all spilled out at the station, thankful to be out of the fetid heat-filled transport. Little did I know ....
Our cross-border coach was scheduled to depart at 8 pm, not 6 pm as we had been told but I happily spent the time people watching. When it was time to board I was pleasantly surprised to find we were on the upper deck of a bus with almost fully reclining seats. Blankets were provided, there was a TV and on-board loo (untested) and we were given food and drink by our on-board conductor. All very nice. The only downside was that the coach also had air conditioning (oh how I had wished for A/C on that minibus) which belted out frigid air straight down onto us passengers, to be told it was uncontrollable and could not be switched off. I spent most of the journey cocooned in Steve's blanket and mine and resembled the two monks seated in front of us in their orange robes. They seemed somewhat better prepared than us though, because as well as their mobile phones, ipods and other electrical necessities every monk needs, one
had also had the foresight to bring a woolly hat to cover his shaved head. Must have been divine inspiration.
The roads were surprisingly good, dual carriageway most of the way, with many heavy goods vehicles. We had one pitstop en route, to stretch our legs (and get warm!). Being dark, there was little to see so I coddled myself within my blankets and read. We were woken about 6 am with an inch of coffee in the bottom of a cup from our conductor. We were approaching the border.
I always think that physically crossing a border, on foot, is significantly meaningful. It's as if you are being judged on personal worthiness to enter into someone else's domain and I always get butterflies in case I might be rejected - even worse that Steve might get through and I might be sanctioned. We crossed the border at Nong Khai, going over the Friendship Bridge across the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos. There appeared to be no organisation at Border Control but it actually worked very well, if somewhat chaotically. We got off the bus on the Thailand side and filled in entry paperwork for the Laos visa. A very patient man took our photos, even though we initially resisted, not knowing why he needed to do this (they were for the visa it transpired). After receiving 8 copies of a very unflattering photo (you try looking presentable after 10 hours on a freezing bus but they cost less than £1 so good value there) we were allowed into the No Man's Land area between borders to wait for our passports, with said visa inserted. This was done by a seemingly disembodied arm waving individual passports out of a window, photo page showing, to be claimed by the relevant owner. God knows what would happen if you looked nothing like your photo, were having a bad hair day or had grown a beard. Nevertheless, armed with said passport and visa we were allowed through into Laos where our coach was waiting for us, having driven across the border with none of the inconvenience. Still, at least we didn't have to carry our luggage!
Driving switched immediately to the 'wrong' (ie on the right hand) side and we found ourselves in the middle of Vientiane rush hour traffic but were dropped at the coach station about 9 am on 16.10.15 and were at our hotel 15 minutes later via tuk-tuk. Thankfully, we were allowed an early check-in to a very welcome bed.
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