"If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others." His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama.
Kanchana and I went to Vientiane a few days ago.
We got the overnight train from Hualompong station in Bangkok which should have taken about 11 hours to get to Nong Khai (it took a few hours more). Second class sleeper tickets cost about 500 Baht. The train is good and fine to travel on, although I found the upper bunk really hot and hard to get a good sleep.
On arrival in Nong Khai we shared a tuk tuk with a few other people to the border crossing which is only about 10 - 15 minutes away. At the border there was an assortment of people and some were good reminders of why I generally avoid ex pats and tourists. Their ability to complain is certainly one of the greatest in the world. Anyway, the procedure for a Laos visa was pretty straight forward and required a passport, passport photo and either US$30 or 1500 Thai Baht. It took about 15 minutes to get it. There was another 10 Baht entry fee to pay as we entered Laos.
From the Friendship Bridge crossing point we hired a driver and van to take us to Vientiane (about 15 - 20 minutes away) and to take us on a half day tour. This cost about 700 Baht. Oh, we didn't change any money and just used Thai Baht for the whole trip, although occasionally got change in Laos Kip and the visa I paid for in US$.
Our first stop was lunch. We had some fried rice and some Laos style Som Tam and a coke each for 153 Baht. It was very nice.
At first Vientiane is basically a lot like other medium sized Thai towns. The architecture is only slightly different and the people are very much alike and the language is quite similar to the language of the North - Western part of Thailand. More differences can be noticed the longer you stay, but the two countries do share a very common culture.
From talking to the driver we discovered that the average wage in Vientiane is around about 3500 Baht per month, compared to about 7000 Baht in Bangkok. The rural areas of both countries have much lower average salaries. The prices in Laos are also similar to Thailand although many things are just a little more expensive. Vientiane is clean and has no air pollution was an observation that Kanchana was impressed with.
We saw a temple (unknown name), Ho Phra Keow, Si Saket temple and museum and Patu Xay. Oh and another large Chedi that was said to contain one of Buddha's bones but I can't think of the name of that place right now. There was a 20 Baht entry fee to most of these places. They were all pretty interesting, but Kanchana got a bit unhappy at one, as it suggested that the Thais, during a previous war, destroyed a lot of Vientiane and stole the Emerald Buddha. This is not what Kanchana has been taught, but I don't want to get involved. Disagreements between Laotians and Thais seem so pointless as they are very similar, and a lot of Thais now look at Laos as a reminder of how nice their culture was before Thailand got to it's current state of development.
Anyway, after our tour we headed back to the border crossing and went back into Thailand. There was another exit fee. It was small, about 10 Baht again, but I didn't write it down. We got a taxi into Nong Khai and found a restaurant with a TV so we could eat dinner and watch the Royal Barge Procession hoping to see His Majesty The King. We then went back to the train station, boarded the train and had a shower on the train before it started. YAY! We were back in Bangkok the next morning, a little tired, but having seen some more of Laos (first time for Kanchana) and with another 30 days stamp for me.
Laos is really nice and I hope to travel in it some more.
Oh, just after I finished writing this there was some interesting news from Laos. Two birdwatchers, an American and a Thai filmed an unusual rodent that some hunters had caught. They later paid the hunters to release the rodent back into it's habitat. As it turns out this rodent was thought to be extinct. Extinct for the last 11 million years. No scientist had ever seen it and there has been no fossil record of this creature found that is younger than 11 million years old. But here it was happily hoping around in Laos.
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