Embassy Trip; Take Two

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'I love it when a plan comes together'

We checked out of the Khao San Palace at 10 to 8 and headed over to the Stray office to drop off our big bags and jumped into a Taxi towards Bangkok centre. This time we were prepared and as soon as we arrived we were security checked and allowed in to the Consular office. There was an unbeleiveably high amount of British men with young, scantily clad Thai girls all there for the same purpose as we were but we shrugged that off and enjoyed 'Anacondas; Hunt for the Blood Orchid' on HBO. A bit surreal watching a 15 rated horror movie in the waiting room at the Embassy, but we had watched the first one before we left so it was pretty good! :D



The whole process only took us about an hour and a half which was a great relief after the debacle the day before. So we left with our affirmation in hand and went off to find our translation service. It was further than Google Maps had led us to beleive, but as it was still early the sun wasn't at full strength yet and we took the trek at a leisurly pace. When we arrived at the Translation office we were glad to be met with a lady who we told why we were there and she responded, 'oh yeah, Guenther?' We were extremely happy as Guenther is our dude on Koh Samui and that meant that we were in the right place. We dropped off some copies of our passports and signed a form and she said she would take it from there. We were glad to be totally finished in record time and managing to get a Taxi back to Khao San Road for half the price we had been paying the last two days and with no nonsense about Black Buddha's or Tailor shops.



Once we got back we kicked back in the sister bar to the Sawasadee Terrace in Rambuttri Road across from the Stray office and read our books and drank fruit shakes for hours. It was bloomin' brilliant. A couple of hours before we were supposed to be at the Stray office, we started speaking to a couple sitting across from us called Tony and Lea who were from Noosa in Australia. They were really lovely and shared their stories of having travelled China and Tibet and Laos and N.Z. Time flys when your having fun and all too soon, the time came to go and meet our rep and find our overnight bus to Laos. We said our farewells and headed up the street to the Stray office. When we arrived we were told that the bus would be a little bit later and that we should wait in the bar across the road until they came and got us. While we were waiting, Tony and Lea passed by to go into their hotel and, just as we were almost being called they came back out and came over to say to us to come down and visit them when we were in Aus! It was a very nice offer and time permitting you may hear more stories about them later in this blog.



So we bid adieu (again) and headed over to the Stray office where we met a couple who were coming on the overnight to Laos with us. Their names were Sam and Jess; a very nice young couple from Brisbane. We headed through the back streets and found our way to a big car park where we signed in and boarded the (mozzy infested) overnight bus to Laos. The bus was pretty intense being 12 hours to the Laos border the another hour from there to Vientiane but we arrived unscathed and excited about the next week.

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