onwards and upwards.... eventually

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so I finally decided it was time to leave Bangkok, and as i write from my room in vientien in laos,it seems that it was the right time given the political unrest in bangkok at the moment, although you cant tell from the tourist areas of the city.

Now for those who want to go to laos for a visa run I would not recommend it after the struggle today has been.
The trip started well with the cab ride to hualumpung train staion seeing countless numbers of police and ambulance
no doubt on there way to the airport, once I arrived there, I got onto the train which was a sleeper train bound for nong khai a town in the province of isaan on the border of thailand. this was to be my first trip on a sleeper train and I didnt know what really to expect, all i can say that after riding busses frim chang mai to bangkok , is that train is definately the way to go.

The train itself was fairly old and the seating was different to that of trains Ive been on before, with there being just two chairs facing each other on either side. when it came to go to bed, the train staff who were very freindly came around and folded the chairs and made our beds and put up the curtains. once i was cocooned in my snug little area and the curtains drawn I lay down to get some sleep . I have to say it was possibly the comfiest bed ive ever slept in aside from the occasional bed bug but as for comfort itself it was amazing.

As usual I awoke at around 3 am thinking it was time to get up and the train had stopped so i assumed we had arrived at our destination, however although my clock said it was 8 30 it definately wasnt as it was still dark (and quite cold) out side. so having got back to sleep eventually I again awoke at 6 am as two Thai women where talkng quite loud, which was very annoying given my lack of sleep this past week. Once I was awake i just stayed wrapped in my comfy bed lying down thinking of what to do once I got to nong khai, however after reading up on the town once more I decided it was probably best to go straight into laos.

Once I arrived at Laos and after meeting two ozzy guys, pat and zeek ( who im now travelling with for a while) on the train, a whole flood of confusion erupted as hundreds of people got off the train and hundreds of tuk tuk drivers were waiting outside the station. As I already knew, you needed a visa to enter Laos and from my research I knew this could be obtained at the border.

READ THIS IF YOU PLAN TO GO TO LAOS !!!!!!!!

the tuk tuk drivers said it was 30 baht to go to the borderi thought that this was reasonable, so Zeek , pat and I jumped in and went off to the border. Where the driver took us was definately not the border but a visa "office" which was basically a shack with a desk and a computer and a few maps on the wall. this was at 10 am just so you know the time scale im dealing with here. I joined the line and handed in my passport as they demanded it not knowing what for when i asked they just ignored me. I then joined another line to have my passport photo taken, this consisted of a young thai girl and her CAMERA PHONE !!!!! she put the photos into the computer and printed them out and then I waited about 20 minutes they gave me my passport and asked for 2000 baht. again I just handed the money over not really knowing what was going on. At about 10 30 i got my passport back and there was no visa in it but there was 40 US dollars now in my passport with a departure card filled out and even some left over passport photos for me to keep which was noce of them :P . The tuk tuk drivers who had sort of stayed around then shepparded us ( us being the 50+ people who were oblivious to what was going on ) towards there tuk tuks again not knowing where they were going to take us .

after a short ride we arrived at the border of thailand and Laos. we got off the tuk tuks and made our way over to the line and lined up for about an hour to get through and i handed all my forms over to the officer and he took the departure card and stamped the passport ( something i always enjoy getting ) and handed all my forms back to me. Looking a bit bewildered I followed the crowd of western looking people towards a bus and got on board. After another 5 minute journey we got off to find ourselves at the frindship bridge border crossing into Laos.

This is where the fun started. at around 11 30 we joined the line of people who were waiting to get into Laos , thinking it was just a normal border crossing after about an 30 minutes wait, it slowly dawned on me that they were actually issuing visas and the place we had been to was just a little make shift office that put the stuff together for you, when you didnt really need it. So after an hour and a half lining up we finally got to the front and handed in our 40 dollars and passports not knowing what was going to happen to them . the officer then told us to wait at gate number 3 and it should be about an hour to process it, after thinking his english was bad I asked him to repeat himself and he definately said an hour, I was not happy to say the least as now i was waiting for a unfaced man behind tiny slot who kept holding out passports on there photo page to every 10 minutes or so give out pasports in no particular order. sometimes he would give arbout 5 and sometimes just one, but every time the slot opened every one got up to see if it was theirs.

eventually at 1.45 i finally got my visa for laos and walked through the border and was sent back for not paying the 10 baht entrance fee.

it had taken from 10 o clock at the train staion to 2 o clock to actually get through the border and on to the other side with a visa.

My advice to anyone going to Laos is to get your visa before hand in bangkok it saves you money, time and definately saves you stress.

peace x

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Comments

[Becca Chin]

awweee!
awe babe im sorry it was such a hassle!! that sucks! but at least you got it!