The Great Traveling Adventure Continues…

The lightening of the sky (an unavoidable occurrence to witness on a bus with giant windows) awoke me and everyone else at 5:30 am. Luckily I was used to this early hour after my Wildflower experience and while I was still tired, I was better able to handle it than some of the others. Our bus didn’t arrive in Udon Thani until 6:30 am. We had been told before we left Chiang Mai that there were two bus stations at Udon Thani and that we would arrive at one, then take a red truck to the second to begin the second leg of our journey. We arrived right on schedule, collected our bags, bartered a fee for a red truck (which was actually white, evidently they are only red in the large cities) for our group, and headed out for the “New Bus Station” or “Bus Station Number 1.” The drive was quick and at the second station we bought tickets for a ride from Udon Thani to Nong Khai, the Thailand border city.

We had been told our bus ride would take around two hours, but I think it took less time than that. The ride from Udon Thani to Nong Khai on a map looks like it goes through rural farmland or, at the very least, Thai countryside, but in actuality, the road drives through a continuous cityscape. It was rather unfortunate as I was actually able to stay awake during this portion of my journey and was able to see everything, but to no avail as it was all city. The cities of Thailand can be quite interesting though. In the US and many other countries there are clearly delineated boundaries between sections of the cities, poor areas and rich areas. While some of that exists in Thailand too, particularly in the large cities, in the smaller cities the sections are intermingled in a way that I’ve rarely seen anywhere else. Next to a large, French looking mansion will sit a dilapidated shack with odd pieces of sheet metal patched together to form a roof. It is an interesting juxtaposition of the two sets of society that form Thailand and really showcases what is considered a primary problem of Thailand: the huge gap between the two classes of society and the lack of a true middle class. Only one interesting thing happened on this portion of our journey. At one point the bus stopped to pick up two new passengers, but before they were allowed on the bus a police officer came through and checked the passports of all the Thai looking people. For some reason, all of the people here are convinced Saem is Thai and her passport was checked as well. Since I was sitting next to her the officer gave my passport and visa a quick scan too. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

We arrived at the border city bus station and had to hire a tuk tuk to take us to the Friendship Bridge. The border between Thailand and Laos is formed by the Mekong River. Spanning the width of this enormous River at the cities of Nong Khai, Thailand and Vientiane, Laos is a bridge known as the Friendship Bridge. While I would love to regale you with the tale of how this name came to be, I cannot do so as I do not know anything about it. The most I can say at this time, based what I’ve gathered from the others, the bridge was built to solidify friendly relations between Laos and Thailand and therefore earned the moniker, The Friendship Bridge.

Traveling from the bus station to the Bridge can sometimes be an irritating affair I’ve heard, with tuk tuk drivers trying to take you to an agency to get your visa (where they will collect a hefty fee from you) rather than the Bridge. Luckily BABSEA did see fit to warn us about this possibility and we were adamant with our drivers regarding our destination. With all our passengers and luggage we only managed to fit three people to a tuk tuk, with even that arrangement sometimes a bit overcrowded. The drive was once again an easy one overall (after all, we did all arrive in one piece). When you arrive at the border you must first cross the departure point of Thailand. A stamp was added to my passport here stating that on June 8, 2010, I was leaving Thailand. After you have received this stamp, you enter some type of strange limbo between countries. At this point I’m not sure what would happen to you if the next country denied you a visa. Perhaps you would be forever stuck in inter-country limbo if the former country refused to take you back as well. Hmm…something to ponder.

I did not have this problem, however. After exiting Thailand, we boarded another short bus to take us across the Bridge and officially into Laos where we would apply for our visas at the border. It must be stated at this point that I am irked with BABSEA over this visa issue. You see, during our second week we were informed we could get visas for Laos ahead of time. We were told that the only benefit of getting your visa ahead was that you wouldn’t have to stand in the potentially long queue for your visa at the border. Getting the visa ahead would also cost $53 while getting it at the border would cost $35. Armed with this information, I chose to get my visa at the border. Naturally! It would save me a lot of money and I don’t mind standing in line for a while. Well…it turns out there is a great deal of difference between the two visas that was never explained to us and which would have changed my mind and convinced me to get the visa ahead of time. It seems if you get the visa early, it is good for multiple entries and for sixty days. Buying the visa at the border simply gets you a single entry, thirty day visa. This means that I will have to make a visa run at some point and buy a new $35 visa to reenter Laos for my remaining stay. Obviously if I had had this information I would have purchased the visa beforehand. Irritating BABSEA, not giving us all the information. Oh well.

The queue to get your visa was extraordinarily short. We simply went to the first window, filled out two forms, gave the officials our passports, forms, and the money. I walked right up to the window to turn in my information and got my passport back with my new visa in just three minutes. Our entire group was done in about 15 minutes and we were ready to enter Laos. The visa for Laos is quite pretty and, like Thailand, is a sticker that takes up an entire page of my passport. I feel like such a world traveler having whole pages of my passport used up, but it is actually a false feeling of superiority as I only have stamps from two countries so far in this new “adult” passport I got two years ago. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will also have added Malaysia, Cambodia, and (possibly) Vietnam, along with more Laos and Thailand.

After getting the visas we headed out to get a tuk tuk truck (an interesting blend of tuk tuk and truck that is a little scary to behold) to take us to the bus station in downtown Vientiane where Thip (one of the women we met during our Orientation weeks) would pick us up to take us to our new house. Riding into Vientiane was an interesting experience. About five minutes away from the border our tuk tuk was stopped by the police who were simply sitting in lawn chairs on the side of the road. Our driver got out of the tuk tuk and went over to talk with the officer. We watched the interaction and at one point saw our driver hand over some money to the officer. It seems that in Laos, as in Thailand, it is an acceptable and necessary process to bribe the police. A strange way of doing things, but it evidently works for them.

Their business concluded, our driver hopped back into his truck and we were off, once again heading toward the bus station. The drive didn’t take too long, simply ten minutes by tuk tuk and then we stood on a street corner trying to get ahold of Thip to inform her that we had arrived and were ready to be picked up. There was some confusion over this and some walking in circles, but we eventually managed to find her, find a tuk tuk, load our luggage into the vehicle, watch it take the luggage away to our new house, wait for it to return for us, and then we were off for our new residence. Our abode is located a brief five minute walk from the VFI office and right off a main thoroughfare. You simply turn down a small side street and there, on the right, sits our house, tucked away in a small compound with our landlady’s home next door (we call her Mae La, which means “Mother La”).

The house is huge and beautiful. As you enter the house, in true Asian fashion, you take your shoes off and walk inside barefoot on large white tiles. The living room is enormous and outfitted with two couches and four chairs, as well as two chests, one of which is armed with a TV (it is unknown at this time if it works). We have three rooms (two people per room) with twin double beds and a dresser to be shared between the two. The rooms have been fitted with air conditioning for us, which is going to be a lifesaver. Our kitchen/dining room area is also quite large and our landlady was nice enough to outfit the entire place for us in advance (including bed sheets, pots and pans, etc.). We have truly been set up in style. Now, we have only to rent bikes for two months and we will be set in Vientiane.

After dropping off our bags we left to eat lunch (although it was 1 pm by this point) near the VFI office. The food was good, although more of a homogonous Asian cuisine than Laos. We headed over to the VFI office after eating and were introduced to the cofounder of the program (Rick) and the directors of the projects on which we will be working. It was exciting to meet everyone, although I was quite tired at this point and don’t remember a whole lot of what was said. We were informed that the next three days will be a type of orientation to the program, which will give us plenty of time to learn all about our duties and what we will be working on. Everything sounds interesting and exciting and I’m greatly anticipating beginning work tomorrow.

We then headed back to our house to unpack, shower, and relax a little. Zenia and I attacked the unpacking process and managed to get fully settled into our room in only an hour. We now feel fully at home, ready to begin our long-term stay in Laos. At 6 pm Lamleugn (who we had met up with at the VFI office along with Chinda) picked us up to go grocery shopping at a local superstore. I feel bad that we kept her out so late, but we had a lot to pick up for our new residence (including laundry soap because we have a washing machine here! Woo-hoo!). After our shopping extravaganza, Lamleugn took us on a quick tour of the city and then out to dinner at a traditional Laos venue (open air seating along the Riverfront) where we made total pigs of ourselves over the incredible Laos food. We all agreed after eating that bikes would be necessary very soon and that we need to join a gym pronto. The food here is too good and once you start eating it is impossible to stop. I don’t really want to return home twice the size I left, so I plan to exercise and eat a lot of fruit for meals while I am here.

I am now exhausted from all the traveling we accomplished and am ready for bed. Tomorrow we start work at 9 am. Wish me luck on my first day!