Next!

Day 328

I was up early and got the 7:45 am bus to Vientiane, Laos. I slept through most of the ride. Crossing the boarder was really easy. I'm really glad that I got that visa in advance, the lines were crazy long! Luckily it is a requirement to have an advance visa to take the bus so everyone else got through quickly as well.

When I got to Vientiane I met an English girl riding around on a bike who told me that everything was full. A few minutes later I found out that she was right. I managed to get a room for about 3 times what I had been paying in Thailand. I did have air con and a tv though with channels in English! I think it's good to treat myself on occasion.

I then had to get some kip. This took some time as none of the ATM's wanted to take my card. Eventually I figured out that I was hitting current account when I should pick checking account. I had wandered around for nothing.

Laos was a French colony. The language seems to be gone (although I think Laosions over 40 might still speak French) but baggetts and cafe culture has stayed. I had a lovely bagget sandwich for lurch. While I ate I checked out my guidebook. There wasn't anything I wanted to do here. I had know that from the beginning, I was really just here for a Vietnamese visa anyway.

When lunch was done I headed to the Internet cafe to check out my visa options and to let Nicole know that I was in Laos. We were planning on meeting up in the next day or two. I couldn't find anything online that guaranteed my ability to get a visa anywhere else in Laos, and none of my friends seemed to know either. I had to get it here to ensure I would have it. I then had to figure out if paying an extra $15 for expedited service would be worth it, if I didn't I would have to sit around for 5 or 6 more days as it was coming near the weekend to get it. In the end I decided on expatiated service. It was expensive to stay here and I would save money in the long run.

That evening I sat in my air con room watching movies. It was really quite a bit of a treat, I hadn't done this for ages.

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.

Thai Transportation

Day 327
It was 8 am when I got to Khan Kaen. I came here with the hope of seeing Austin, who I met in Java. We had been in touch but hadn't made any concrete plans. Khan Kaen is in the direction I was headed though, so I felt that showing up wouldn't hurt.

The tuk-tuk driver I got to my hotel really ripped me off. It was very annoying. But when you don't have a map and no idea about how far away things are it's really hard to bargain hard.

After I checked in I had breakfast and then took a nap. I only woke up when my stomach was growling again for lunch. I found a food stall with pad thai and people watched as I ate.

I then popped into and internet cafe to see if Austin was going to be around. It turned out that he wasn't so after watching some tv I headed back to my hotel. The food stalls were really out in full force at this point and I indulged on several things from different stalls. Oddly there were elepahants parked in front of the 7-11.

That night I chatted with some of the other people at the hotel before calling it an early night.