Friday February 20, 2009: NongKai-->Bangkok

I'm sitting in my hotel room in NongKai, Thailand as write this, yes, hotel room. I had not planned this but I think I had better start from the beginning. Please excuse me as i eat my peanut butter toast... yum. Yes mom, thanks to the Scandinavian Bakery in Vientiane, Laos it is finally whole wheat!!

OK this morning, Friday February 20, 2009, I got a very early start. I had woken up multiple times, probably due to my excitement about crossing the Lao-Thai border today, and finally got out of my dorm bed at Mixay guest house (35kip at night) at 6:15am and left the building (after they slowly checked my room for stolen/broken/missing items) at 6:45. Danielle (Aussie I have been traveling with for the past 3 days) was not yet up so left without her. The first "International Bus" Vientiane-NongKai leaves Talat Sao (central) Bus Station in Vientiane at 7:30am, which is located maybe 1km from my guest house, so I figured I would walk until I came across a tuktuk that would give me a reasonable price or just walk the whole way. I only had, maybe, 50,000k on me and I knew I needed 15,000k ($1.79usd) for the bus so I needed to find one that would take me for the right price. Many of the tuktuks in the "tourist" area of Vientiane have a printed list of prices they pull out. The prices are hugely inflated and I won't pay 60,000kip to get to a place that is so close and should only cost 10,000-15,000kip. After a little while, I found a tuktuk to take me the rest of the way for 15,000k and we headed off.

When I arrived at the bus station, I've been here 3 times before, I went to the counter pulled out the money and my passport and proceeded to buy my ticket. They also charged an additional 2,000k for "Thai immigration" although how my paying the state run Lao Bus System for Thai immigration makes sense, I'm not sure. As a side note you can also buy your ticket in Thai baht for 55b ($1.62usd). I paid for it in Kip because once you leave Laos any money you have left over is as good as monopoly money and cannot really be exchanged any other place. (Although it can be exchange within Laos, as I did exchange 400,000k into Thai baht yesterday).

After that I walked to the benches ad put my bags down so I could rearrange my documents and money in my money belt (which I never thought I would use but has been invaluable to my peace of mind). While I was doing this an older Lao man turned to me and started talking. Supposedly he lives in Philadelphia... not sure if he does or not but he just kept rattling on. I finally excused myself to go buy some water and grabbed my bags and ran. I really did need to buy water but I also wanted to sit someplace quite and relax. After buying the water (2,000k) I met a man from Sweden (one of many in Laos, I have found) and started to talk with him. We were both headed to Thailand on the same bus. Then, the old man from before came over and started talking to me again... finally he went away. By then it was time to board the bus. They did a funny thing and reassigned seats and stapled this new seat number on to our bags as they tossed them into the undercarriage. I noticed latter that they never checked to see if we had the corresponding scrap of paper when we grabbed our bags so I' not sure what point this served.

We made it through Lao customs/immigration quickly. I was a little worried since I had seen the Swedish man's Los visa. Unlike mine, which is a page in my passport filled with like 5 stamps, his was similar to any other visa (big embossed sticker). Obviously they just do it a little differently on the China-Lao border since it did not seem to be a problem.

Then we headed off to Thai immigration by crossing the "Friendship Bridge" which was built over the Mekong River by the Australian Government just a few years ago as part of an aid package. As of November 2008 US citizens can only receive 15 day entries when crossing into Thailand by land. However, if you arrive my air you still receive the requisite 30 days. No matter what it is free and I received just one quick stamp and was admitted into Thailand. I was also given a departure card and told by the Swedish man not to loose it or I might miss my departing flight trying to get a new one. I'll certainly make sure to hold onto it! The Swedish man was also nice enough to talk to another passenger and found out that he was also headed to the train station, about 2km from the bus station, and let me know.

Once we reached NongKai, Thailand and disembarked the bus I found this gentleman, Richard, an Aussie and together we hopped on a tuktuk to the train station (cheaper this way). Turns out he speaks Thai!!! Once at the train station he did all the talking and found out there were still 4 2nd class sleeper beds available. There are 2 night trains from NongKai to Bangkok every day (18:25 and 19:25) so they are very busy to have both almost fully booked. We were VERY lucky! I bought one right away, as did he, for 488b. In Laos they were selling these tickets through agencies for at least 750b, what a rip off. This was the reason I left on the first daily International Bus for if I had come any later I am certain there would have been only 2nd class seats or 3rd class hard seats (shared wooden benches, icky!). Anyway, the Aussie had just come down from Luang Prabang on the 9+ hour night bus and wanted a place to rest. He asked me what my plans were and invited me to get a room too. He talked to the tuktuk driver (same one) and the tuktuk took us to one of the cheap (but still nice) establishments. The owner of this hotel was nice and after the Aussie (still don't know his name) told him we only wanted rooms for the day, dropped the price from 300b to 200b. My room is big and has a bathroom and patio.

Before hitting the hay we walked along the river and grabbed an amazing lunch of fried chicken on rice with a spicy sauce and celentro. Did I say it was AMAZING!!!? But, most importantly I was able to find an ATM very easily and, for the first time in 1 ½ weeks, withdraw money!!! I now have about 3,500 baht (about $100usd). Then I headed back to the hotel, turned the AC on and the passed out on the bed for like 5 house.

Around 5pm I'll head to the Train Station and then on to Bangkok. I should arrive in Bangkok around 6:30am and I guess I'll eat breakfast and then go in search of the hotel Dad booked!