Day 65 - 21/01/16
On the way from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw
It’s been great time out of touristic areas in Northern Thailand, but our time has come to move on and get into Laos.
If we had bought a bike we could have crossed to Houy Xai from Chiang Khong and save some kms, but that would be different story :)
Upon our return to Chiang Mai, we washed load of dirty clothes, relaxed for a day and booked overnight bus to Nong Khai, border town with Laos.
Bus was really spacious ( called VIP ) and the night went pretty fast. By 7 AM we arrived, had quick soup for breakfast and went straight through Thai immigration to board a bus across Thai - Laos friendship bridge. Good business for locals - 20 bahts for 5 mins ride.
Laos immigration was pretty straightforward, fill arrival card and stupid form which no one will ever read or process, pay 30 - 35 USD depending on your country of origin, wait for 10 mins and ta-da ! New shiny visa with 30 days allowance is smiling at you from one of the passport pages.
Got on the back of local pick-up, agreed to be dropped in central Vientiane where the concentration of backpackers oriented accommodation is high for same price, what bus driver wanted to bus station only.
It was Sunday early morning and it didn’t feel like we’ve arrived to a capital of some country.
Almost no traffic on the roads, no bustling, no rush, no high buildings, yeah sure few tourists around, but in general very laid back atmosphere.
We checked into one of the cheapest places in the town - Backpackers Hostel - only for those who like to be bitten by bed bugs as we found out next morning.
We had one main mission to accomplish - get visa to Vietnam.
So Monday morning we checked out of the hostel, leaving bags there for later pickup.
Rented very shitty bikes and headed north of Patouxai monument to face socialist bureaucracy. The experience was unique indeed.
No chance getting visa during same day. Next day visa costs 60 USD - 10 more than listed on-line, I guess beer money for the officer. No price is listed on official receipt.
Mr officer was lazy fat piece of crap who was treating young girl ahead of us quite hard way - “Show me your ticket !”, “Show me your hotel booking !”. She tried to explain that she won’t buy ticket without having valid visa, but that obviously didn’t get through his ignorant firewall. Kept repeating the same sentence, “No ticket, no Visa” and her replying “No Visa, no ticket” ... ehh Catch 22 again
Anyway it was good to witness this so we don’t run in into same cul-de-sac. I’ve quickly added our rough journey itinerary into the form and went to face the dinosaur.
Officer : "How can I help you ?” (You can’t get anything else than visa here, so maybe he was offering under counter services like massage with happy ending or what :)
Me : “Hello officer, we’d like to apply for Vietnam visas. We have no ticket and no booking,
we’re going on motorbike on this route (explained the route) and we’d like to get it done today”
Officer : “ Same day visa not possible, new policy, when do you want to travel to Vietnam ?”
Me: “In a month time”
Officer: “Then do it in Luang Prabang consulate, not here” ( What a piece of lazy c**t)
Me: “Thanks, do you know how much it costs there and what are their opening hours ?”
Officer looked into his notebook and passed us phone number to call, thanks you’re very helpful...
After short chat we agreed it’s better to get it done right here, right now, paid next day fee of 60 USD (half million KIP) and "dino" fight was over. Us winning promise of next day visa, dino winning his 20 USD whiskey money. We’re happy we weren’t asked more about tickets or bookings and moved on.
To be honest, there is not much to see in Vientiane. Few wats dating back to mid 19th century, Mekong riverfront, few tasty bakeries, fresh fruit shakes stalls and COPE - Centre of help for people affected by UXO (unexploded ordnance) which we found as the most interesting sight in the town.
Helping people who were caught in post-war nightmare - triggering unexploded bombies in some way and losing limbs, sight or in the worst case their lives.
Some interesting movies to watch :
We spent more than hour moving around the centre. watching documentary and getting into the topic. Conclusion - US has dropped more than 2 million tonnes of bombs on Laos which made Laos country with most bombs dropped on per capita on this planet.
Most of the bombs were in that time new technology - Cluster bombs, which are aimed mainly against civilians and 30 % of these didn’t explode due to various reasons and remain active on the ground. Now either covered by soil, laying in forests, tree canopies or hiding in school yards, just to be found by kids and tear their limbs off.
USA committed war crimes against humanity in this country and should do much more to clean this mess up !
But instead US still keeps cluster bombs in their inventory and as one of the few remaining big players, did not signed Treaty on cluster munitions.
Those who’re interested just follow the links above and you’ll find the truth.
Business of war and war for the business !
On our first day we bumped to a couple of Czech guys ( not that usual in this part of the world ) in a shake shop. We got into little chat and found out that Imrich and Eva have been out of Czech for many years, living in many different countries and currently staying in Vientiane :) We joined for a few shakes, coffee, beers and later on delicious soup for dinner !
We’re invited to stay with Eva next day as Imrich had to fly to South Korea ( Imrich is pilot and flying instructor - loves to fly anything from helicopter to Airbuses ).
We gladly accepted their invitation and met Eva next day for a beer and walked together during sunset hour along Mekong to their beautiful little apartment just on the outskirts of the main town.
Dinner was rather tough local experience... Duck eggs with half developed duckling inside, pork and chicken skins, pork liver. Crazy spicy papaya salad and the most tasty was huge basket of sticky rice.
Not really satisfied we ventured to local market afterwards and bough loads of fruit and milk to be ready for morning pancake feast !
Tati took refuge of comfy fluffy sofa, while I hung the hammock on narrow balcony, wrapped mosquito net around it and fell asleep in quiet peace above Mekong river.
I got awake little bit before the sunrise and the sky was stunningly clear with many shades of pink and orange. As beautiful as sunset, but much quieter all around.
Our breakfast lasted for good 2 hours, toasts with eggs, fruit salad with yogurt and finally at least 6 pancakes with strawberry jam or honey each. Ohh what a feast !
Hoping our visa might be ready a bit earlier than 5 PM we packed our bags, hugged and kissed Eva and jumped on the back of pick-up.
Forget about socialist bureaucracy working faster than you expect. The visa weren’t ready till 4:55. Bummer, but you have no other choice than to swallow it.
After an hour mission to get to northern bus station - 1/3 walk trying to hitch a ride, 1/3 on the back of hitched truck and last 1/3 by tuk tuk heading that direction anyway we found out there is still bus going to Vang Vieng that night and got on it.
The road was really bad while locals saying it’s very good :)
Well everything is relative.
By 11 PM we arrived to Vang Vieng, walked around a bit and checked into Molina Bungalows. Not the cheapest in the town but also not the most expensive.
It was clean, quiet at night.
But just till 5 AM when neighbours chicken yard woken to new day and few of those no-brain chickens repeated their idiotic - kwo-kwo-kwo-kwo-Daaaaak.
For some of them probably last song of their lives as the sound of cleaver hitting wooden chopping board was rhythmic and loud in the background.
On the way from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw
It’s been great time out of touristic areas in Northern Thailand, but our time has come to move on and get into Laos.
If we had bought a bike we could have crossed to Houy Xai from Chiang Khong and save some kms, but that would be different story :)
Upon our return to Chiang Mai, we washed load of dirty clothes, relaxed for a day and booked overnight bus to Nong Khai, border town with Laos.
Bus was really spacious ( called VIP ) and the night went pretty fast. By 7 AM we arrived, had quick soup for breakfast and went straight through Thai immigration to board a bus across Thai - Laos friendship bridge. Good business for locals - 20 bahts for 5 mins ride.
Laos immigration was pretty straightforward, fill arrival card and stupid form which no one will ever read or process, pay 30 - 35 USD depending on your country of origin, wait for 10 mins and ta-da ! New shiny visa with 30 days allowance is smiling at you from one of the passport pages.
Got on the back of local pick-up, agreed to be dropped in central Vientiane where the concentration of backpackers oriented accommodation is high for same price, what bus driver wanted to bus station only.
It was Sunday early morning and it didn’t feel like we’ve arrived to a capital of some country.
Almost no traffic on the roads, no bustling, no rush, no high buildings, yeah sure few tourists around, but in general very laid back atmosphere.
 |
| Patouxai monument |
We had one main mission to accomplish - get visa to Vietnam.
So Monday morning we checked out of the hostel, leaving bags there for later pickup.
Rented very shitty bikes and headed north of Patouxai monument to face socialist bureaucracy. The experience was unique indeed.
No chance getting visa during same day. Next day visa costs 60 USD - 10 more than listed on-line, I guess beer money for the officer. No price is listed on official receipt.
Mr officer was lazy fat piece of crap who was treating young girl ahead of us quite hard way - “Show me your ticket !”, “Show me your hotel booking !”. She tried to explain that she won’t buy ticket without having valid visa, but that obviously didn’t get through his ignorant firewall. Kept repeating the same sentence, “No ticket, no Visa” and her replying “No Visa, no ticket” ... ehh Catch 22 again
Anyway it was good to witness this so we don’t run in into same cul-de-sac. I’ve quickly added our rough journey itinerary into the form and went to face the dinosaur.
Officer : "How can I help you ?” (You can’t get anything else than visa here, so maybe he was offering under counter services like massage with happy ending or what :)
Me : “Hello officer, we’d like to apply for Vietnam visas. We have no ticket and no booking,
we’re going on motorbike on this route (explained the route) and we’d like to get it done today”
Officer : “ Same day visa not possible, new policy, when do you want to travel to Vietnam ?”
Me: “In a month time”
Officer: “Then do it in Luang Prabang consulate, not here” ( What a piece of lazy c**t)
Me: “Thanks, do you know how much it costs there and what are their opening hours ?”
Officer looked into his notebook and passed us phone number to call, thanks you’re very helpful...
After short chat we agreed it’s better to get it done right here, right now, paid next day fee of 60 USD (half million KIP) and "dino" fight was over. Us winning promise of next day visa, dino winning his 20 USD whiskey money. We’re happy we weren’t asked more about tickets or bookings and moved on.
To be honest, there is not much to see in Vientiane. Few wats dating back to mid 19th century, Mekong riverfront, few tasty bakeries, fresh fruit shakes stalls and COPE - Centre of help for people affected by UXO (unexploded ordnance) which we found as the most interesting sight in the town.
 |
| Bomb shells remade to art |
Some interesting movies to watch :
We spent more than hour moving around the centre. watching documentary and getting into the topic. Conclusion - US has dropped more than 2 million tonnes of bombs on Laos which made Laos country with most bombs dropped on per capita on this planet.
 |
| Exhibition space in COPE |
 |
| Finding the right fit is not easy ... |
But instead US still keeps cluster bombs in their inventory and as one of the few remaining big players, did not signed Treaty on cluster munitions.
Those who’re interested just follow the links above and you’ll find the truth.
Business of war and war for the business !
On our first day we bumped to a couple of Czech guys ( not that usual in this part of the world ) in a shake shop. We got into little chat and found out that Imrich and Eva have been out of Czech for many years, living in many different countries and currently staying in Vientiane :) We joined for a few shakes, coffee, beers and later on delicious soup for dinner !
 |
| Czechs reunion on the other side of the world ! |
We gladly accepted their invitation and met Eva next day for a beer and walked together during sunset hour along Mekong to their beautiful little apartment just on the outskirts of the main town.
 |
| Dirt road along Mekong river |
 |
| Magical sunset aftermath |
Tati took refuge of comfy fluffy sofa, while I hung the hammock on narrow balcony, wrapped mosquito net around it and fell asleep in quiet peace above Mekong river.
 |
| Good morning Laos ! |
 |
| Another beautiful sunrise moment |
Hoping our visa might be ready a bit earlier than 5 PM we packed our bags, hugged and kissed Eva and jumped on the back of pick-up.
Forget about socialist bureaucracy working faster than you expect. The visa weren’t ready till 4:55. Bummer, but you have no other choice than to swallow it.
 |
| Oldest pagoda in Vientiane - one of the few city sights |
 |
| Detail of carving on temple door |
The road was really bad while locals saying it’s very good :)
Well everything is relative.
By 11 PM we arrived to Vang Vieng, walked around a bit and checked into Molina Bungalows. Not the cheapest in the town but also not the most expensive.
It was clean, quiet at night.
But just till 5 AM when neighbours chicken yard woken to new day and few of those no-brain chickens repeated their idiotic - kwo-kwo-kwo-kwo-Daaaaak.
 |
| Kwoo - kwoo - daak ! |
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