Visa run to Loas

---

I didn´t realize there were two parts to the bus station and for half a second thought I was completely at the wrong bus station and was going to miss the bus. But I worked it out and travelled VIP style arriving early in KhonKean. Taking the bus to Nongkhai was relatively easy apart from the waiting on the bus for half an hour then moving 2km to sit and wait again for another hour. I eventually got across the border about half past nine and had met a Spanish guy who was also heading straight for immigration. So together we caught a bus into the city and quickly bought a delicious baguette sandwich before taking a tuktuk to immigration.

For some reason this time you didn’t get your number from a machine but it worked quicker so I wasn’t complaining. I thought it would be easier to stay in a guesthouse by immigration but really it wasn’t because there was nothing to do there and in the end we took a tuktuk to by the river in the evening anyway. But after having lunch at the guesthouse I really wanted a massage. The guesthouse recommended one and it was really nice and a very good massage until the girl decided to answer her phone and have a conversation. But its Laos and its Asia so… For dinner we ate an amazing Indian by the river and wow how I miss Indian food so much. As we took a walk down the river we bumped into a couple of guys who we had met at immigration in the morning. We sat with them a while then headed over to a bar, sitting there until it closed. For some reason the Spanish guy then wanted to go to a nightclub and after asking we were pointed in the right direction. But after about 20miuntes of walking we still hadn’t reached it and he decided it didn’t actually want to go after all anyway. So we walked all the way back to find a tuktuk to take us to the guesthouse, such a long exhausting day.

It was just a matter of waiting to pick our visas up and passing the time until 1 O´clock, so after having breakfast we went for a walk along the small river that passes by immigration. We then collected our visas and took a taxi directly to the border all pretty easily.

Again crossing the border was no problem and the tuktuk driver dropped us off on the highway where there was a bus waiting to go to Khonkean. The only downside with it all working so smoothly was that we had to wait for nearly five hours in KhonKean to catch the night bus back to ChiangMai. And there is literally nothing to do round the bus station. But we had a very late lunch then I sat and read until it was time for the long journey back. We arrived very early in ChiangMai, about 5.30 in the morning so the Spanish guy took me to nearby Tapai Gate and from there I walked over to where I could catch a sonteyoe directly to ChomThong. I knew I couldn’t leave ChomThong until 9.30 but there wasn’t much point in hanging around ChiangMai so early and at least once I got to ChomThong I could have breakfast.

---