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Lao PDR
Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 10:08 -
If I'm totally honest I only went to Laos to renew my visa for Thailand. Cambodia was a bit of a disappointment for me and I wasn't expecting much better from Laos. I went with my friend Dew who has just quit her job here in Kanchanaburi, so she had some free time. We travelled to Nong Khai from Bangkok overnight, but the train had no sleeper carriage beds available, so we had to buy seats. It was a pretty uncomfortable journey, but eventually, some 11 hours later, we pulled into Nong Khai station at 05:05. Then the usual Tuk-Tuk driver tricks started. It doesn't matter what you ask them, they will take you to whatever company pays them commission. When you persuade them to take you where you want to go, they will pretend they have no change for 100B if the price is 80B. I thought that having Dew there would help, but they tried all the same tricks and she still had to argue with them for a good price and change.Anyway the guesthouse we eventually checked into, the Khiang Khong, was 350B a night (about 5 pounds) and it was pretty good. We could see the Mekong from the balcony. There had been flooding there and more was expected, the Mekong was really high and some structures on the banks were already underwater. A lot of the businesses in town had sandbags layered outside and some had even built temporary breeze block walls around the front of their shops that you had to step over to get in.
Nong Khai is very small, but as a border town for Laos it does have quite a lively tourist area. Down by the river there are some amazing restaurants - we ate in a Vietnamese restaurant called 'Daeng'. I would never have tried it had I been on my own, but Dew had eaten Vietnamese food before and persuaded me that there would be lots of vegetarian food. She was right! We ordered a selection of vegetables, noodles and sauces and made them into little parcels using flat rice noodles that looked like lasagne layers. It was really nice and we watched the sun set over Laos on the opposite bank. After dark the place looked really cool with paper lanterns everywhere.
The next day, we sorted out Dew's border pass. The ASEAN nations have an agreement to allow easy movement of their citizens between other ASEAN countries. Dew has not got a passport, but she could travel on her Thai ID card with a border pass. She got a three day entry for about 50p at the Nong Khai town hall.
We crossed the 'Friendship Bridge' by bus after going through Thai border control. They won't let you walk across the bridge, but the bus is only 15B. On the opposite side I had to sort out my 'Visa on Arrival'. I thought it was going to be difficult, Laos is a communist regime, officially named the Lao People's Democratic Republic and is a fairly repressed nation in terms of political freedom. It turned out to be very easy - the border guards were friendly and it was no hassle at all to get in.
To be continued...
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