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Published: February 25th 2008
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:As with the previous post, this was typed a few days ago, apologies about the delay in getting it uploaded:
We are in Laos! Now before I go on I feel obligied to reel off the spiel about the second nation of our trip. Laos is one of the few remaining communist countries in the world. However like all the others, there is a sense of creeping capitalism as the (single party) government begins to tolerate more and more private enterprise. (I promise this is not copied from wikipedia, its all copywriteable Hingley gold). Furthermore Laos is one of the poorest nations on earth, especially in terms of GDP per capita. Although one gets the sense that this owes more to the subsistence lifestyle of much of its population than sheer poverty. If I hadn't already told you prior to leaving, you may be interested to learn that Laos has the igniminious (sp?) honour of being the most bombed country in the world. This is due to being home to the USA's 'secret war' during the Vietnam conflict. Several tonnes (I am sure I have read as many as 6) of explosives I were dropped here for every single member
Thai Exit Post
I had to rejoin from the back of the queue because I forgot to fill out my departure card! of the population. Many of which still lie unexploded and continue to take lives to this day. Therefore Paul and I will have to fight the urge for an impromptue game of catch should we see any unexploded ordnance. Going further back in history, Laos was part of French indochina and as a result there are many colonial influences throughout, although predominantly in the capital Vientiane. That concludes the history lesson for now, although if I learn anything else I wouldn't dream of being so selfish as to keep it to myself.
Before crossing the border we had to spend a night in Chiang Khong, the town on the Thai side of the border. We had thought of possibly spending 2 nights there, allowing ourselves to have a day to do some errands. For example both of us have some laundry that needs doing. However Chiang Khong appeared a bit of a dump, and our accommodation would need an expletive in front of the world 'hole' to adequately describe it. For the first time in arguably the whole trip, it was the sort of place that made our skin crawl. On the positive side you could call it character
Gate to Indochina!
Like something out of Lord of the Rings! building! So our minds were made up, we would make a dash for the border in the morning.
So this morning we were once again up in good time. And after each having, despite the state of the bathroom, a remarkably good shower, we headed the 400m down the road to the border. It is in fact the Mekong river that acts as the divider between Thailand and Laos (in the north), so first we had to clear the Thai immigration checkpoint on our side of the river. Having added a couple more stamps to our passports, we boarded a longtail boat and covered the 30m across the river to the Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos.
Getting a visa on arrival in Laos was as much a test of patience as legality to enter the country. There were several disorganised queues, which made it very hard to distinguish between those people already in possession of a visa, and those hoping to be allocated one on arrival. However after about half an hour, including several nervous minutes waiting to see if our passports were going to be handed back to us, we were let in.
The first thing
Getting a Laos Visa
Just grab a passport and hope its yours! that strikes you about Laos is the willingness of the people to accept a variety of currency. US dollar, Thai baht and Laos' own kip are all accepted readily as tender. Lonely Planet suggests it is best to carry a sample of each currency, and to always pay in whatever currency requested, to save losing out in conversion calculations.
Conveniently the tuk-tuks near immigration checkpoint were taking baht. So we hopped in one and headed for the slowboat pier. It was here that we purchased our tickets, met some of the people we will be sharing the boat ride with, and enjoyed our first Beer Lao. Fast-forward to now. 3 Hours into the 8 hour journey with a further 10 hours to look forward to tomorrow. But although the seats are hard and the boat is packed, the company is great, the scenery is even better, and the beer is flowing!
I doubt there will be any internet connection at tonights pitstop in the small town of Pakbeng, so it will probably be at the boats destination of Luang Prabang that this, and the previous blog entry gets published. They will be dated correctly to make sure you
Looking Back into Thailand
While queuing for our visas in Laos. get a sense of time and location.
As a pretty irrelevant piece of blog admin, I am going to be editing the titles of each of the entries so far. The OCD in me wants some continuity in title formats, and unfortunately the non-nerd in me has been beaten down.
Hope all is well back at home.
Tom.
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