One Way or Another

Day 328

Indecision had me up early. I had lots of options and no ides of what to do with myself. I could go ot a border town in Thailand, but I was a bit tired of being in the herd. I was up early so that I could go to the Laos embassy and get a visa. This would give me added options and get me across the border much faster.

It took me about 20 minutes to walk to the embassy. I couldn't quite find it, the sign was in Thai, but a nice woman walked me there when I passed it a bit. In just about 10 minutes I walked out with a new visa. It cost about $3 more than getting it at the border. From what I've heard it can take up to two hours to get a visa there, so I definitely made out.

The the hard part, a decision. I spent some time chatting with the Australian who owned the hotel. He said that the border town I was considering wasn't all that much more interesting than where I already was. I could also take a bus directly from Khan Kaen to Vientiane. I headed to the bus station to find out times and settled on leaving first thing in the morning.

Now I had to figure out what to do with myself for the day. There isn't much to do here. After some internet time and lunch at McDonalds (first time in Thailand) I walked to the museum. It was a very hot and sweaty walk. On the way I found a market with pig heads on offer. It was pretty gross.

The Khan Kaen Museum was just as good as all the others I have been to in Asia, meaning it was crap. I did have my own guide though. I learned that the Thais believe in evil spirits and many of their rituals are meant to get rid of them. There were a lot of ceramic displays of these rituals. One of the characters looked shockingly like Hitler. There was also a small section with frightening manikins about diversity in the market.

With not much left to do I simply headed back to the internet cafe. It's so strange. I'm either so busy I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off or I can't figure out what to do with myself!

I was back at the hotel before dinner and just ate there. After reading a bit I went to my room and called it a night. A rather boring and early night.