Thailand: 4th country!

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Welcome to Thailand!

We got up early, waking up the guy at our hostel to let us at around 6am. We walked to the bus station where we proceeded to swat away mosquitoes for an hour before the ticket booth opened and sold us our 7:30am bus tickets for the Thai-Lao International Bus headed for Nong Khai, Thailand.

Vientiane is only 22km away from the Thai border, and an easy border crossing into the very close city of Nong Khai. All in all it took us about 1 hour to cross the border (what, no cool visa this time? Just a stamp?😊) and get into Nong Khai, where we quickly got a tuk tuk to our guesthouse, Mut Mee Guesthouse, right on the riverfront. We'd decided to take it easy for a night, just enjoying the relaxation of Nong Khai instead of heading straight down to Bangkok or otherwise.

Mut Mee turned out to be a great choice. It had a delicious restaurant with hammocks that had views of the river, a floating restaurant and bar and cute little bungalows. Our bungalow? Hands down the cutest place we've stayed thus far. Oh, and FREE WIFI! Woohoo!

Since we weren't able to check in right away (It was only 8:30am), we put our stuff in their storeroom and got another tuk tuk to the train station to buy our overnight train tickets to Bangkok to leave tomorrow night. It was painless and we quickly held 1st class sleeper cabin tickets in our hands!

Heading back to the guesthouse, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at their restaurant and then were able to check in. After showering, we set out to explore the town a little bit. There's a gorgeous waterfront promenade that just calls out to you to sit, take some deep breaths and look out over the river, where you also have a nice view of the lovely "Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge" we'd crossed over earlier that day. Nong Khai is described as a quiet, backpackers paradise, and it's easy to see how you can get sucked in to the atmosphere and end up staying much longer than planned...

We stopped to get lunch at a local restaurant, but the vegetarian options weren't really looking feasible, so Martin enjoyed a chicken dish and then we headed back to the hotel where I had vegetarian Pad Thai...in Thailand. I know. Imagine that!

Our evening has been another highlight of the trip. Every evening at 5pm, Nagarina, a boat owned by Mut Mee, takes off down the river for an hourish sunset cruise. We ordered dinner and it was brought on board just before taking off with only 14 other people on board. Yes, we ate authentic Thai food on the river in Thailand as the sun was setting. Incredible! The whole thing, drinks and all included, cost $15. Total, not for each of us. Incredible, again.

We ended the night enjoying a cocktail each at the floating bar associated with our guesthouse. Another great day...

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Comments

[Mom/MD]

Ok, ok...you have totally convince me...I DO NEED to come back to SE Asia and tour around a bit more...so mainland China didn't leave a good first impression...but your trip just makes the rest sound so amazing! What great memories you guys will always have!