But several of them are.
Now that Janine has gone back to the US
for the holiday season, I have continued on to Laos on my own.
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| 8:00pm Sleeper Train Bangkok-Nong Khai |
I took the overnight train from Bangkok
to Non Khai, Thailand, and switched trains there to cross the border
into Laos. After our first experience with Thailand night trains, I
elected to go 'First Class' on this trip. First Class is really the
only way to travel in Thailand, even the cockroaches know that.
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| One of my many bunk mates in First Class! |
My berth was the last berth on the train, so I was just a few steps away from the back window, which was kind of a neat perspective. Luckily, it seems that no one bought the bunk above me, so I had the berth all to myself.
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| My berth - the couch converts into bunk bed |
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| The view out the caboose. |
The ride itself was uneventful, despite the roaches, I got a solid nights sleep. When I arrived in Non Khai, (2 hrs late) everyone had to pass through customs and immigration to get onto the train to Laos. This second train was mostly westerners, and only had about 30 people on it. The train brought us across the “Thailad-Laos Friendship Bridge” across the Mekong. On the Laos side, I had to get my Visa, for which I paid $35, and was given a counterfeit $5 as change. In Laos, you can use the local currency, Kip, otherwise most places will take USD and Thai Baht. The Lao Kip trades at about 8,000 Kip = $1. I've been routinely buying things that cost 50,000 Kip, and I stayed at a hotel that was 145,000 Kip, (or about $19). It starts to give the false impression that you are the richest person you know.
I grouped up with a German Couple to
take a Songteau (covered pick-up truck) to the city's capital for 100
Baht - They'll take whatever currency you've got in Laose. I walked around the city in the process of finding my
hotel, and checked in. The proprietor was very friendly, and took me
up to show me the room. After several attempts at unlocking the
door, he apologized and motioned at the key, indicating that for some
reason the key was the wrong one, he said “a few minutes” and ran
down the stairs, returning triumphantly with a new key. This key
didn't work either. This process of leaving and returning (always triumphantly) happened
about 4 times. I decided that I was impressed with the security of
the place, if you couldn't even get in with the right key. On the
fourth failure, he took me to another room.
It seemed that they were not intending
on having anyone stay in this room, as there were someone else's
clothes in the closet, and a dead cockroach on the floor of the
bathroom. But the A/C worked and so did the shower, and that's all
that really mattered to me at that moment.
I debated calling it a day at that
point, but I was driven by hunger to go walk around. Also, my goal in
Vientiane was to get my Vietnam Visa from the embassy, and it was
supposed to take 3 days, so the sooner I got the ball rolling the
sooner I could move on to another part of Laos. It took about 5
minutes.
A decent looking restaurant was hard to
come by, so by the time I actually found one I was starving. Even
though I was the only customer, the waitress seemed to feel that my
wanting to purchase food was extremely inconvenient. The food was
good though, and with a large beer, my total bill came to about $4.
The next day I set off to see the major
sites of the town. I had a tastey breakfast at the Scandinavian
bakery (though it was far more expensive than other places) and
within 3 hrs I had seen the Mekong, the market, the Black Stupa and
the Victory monument. There wasn't much else to see.
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| Stupa - Interesting mix of old and new |
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| The Mighty Mekong is less mighty in dry season |
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| "Hooray! We're free from the French!" |
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