Vientiane (Laos) 18/4/12 - 21/4/12

This was the trip we had been dreading! The bus ride from Northern Vietnam to Laos. Most internet forums advise against it and label it 'the journey from hell'! The reason being? 24-30 hours on some extremely bumpy roads. Even the tour agent we booked it with told us that it would be a nightmare and 'not to get our hopes up about the bus'! If we could have afforded to fly we would have, but we went for the cheaper sleeper bus instead. We got picked up from our hotel at 4pm and didn't leave the bus station until 4 hours later, which put us in a good mood with a minimum 24 hour journey ahead of us! Amazingly we made it there in 19 hours, although we didn't get much sleep at all. We don't know what the scenery was like as we had the top bunks at the back of the bus which don't have a window to look out of!


Our first stop in Laos was the capital, Vientiane. The hot weather continued and the temperature shown on TV was 39 degrees.  According to Jenna it was 'too hot' to walk around and she demanded a moped! I'd been happy to rent them on the quieter streets of the Thai beaches, but was a bit unsure as Vientiane was a bit busier. I offered a compromise of renting a bicycle for the day, but that was met with a lukewarm response to say the least, so off we set on a moped! Whizzing around the Laos version of the Arc de Triomph was a stressful experience, but we returned the moped at the end of the day in one piece! We drove a short distance out of town to visit the most famous temples in Laos.

The one thing we had to do in Vientiane was to get our Thai visa, so we drove to the Thai consulate. As with anything official in Asia, it wasn't anywhere near as simple as it should have been! First we obtained a numbered ticket from one desk. Then we obtained an application form from another. The we queued to have a photocopy of our passport taken. Then we waited with the ticket, photocopy of passport and application form at another desk. Then we submitted the entire application. Then we queued at another desk to pay. That makes it sound quite simple, but it really wasn't! 

The funniest experience of the process though was when we were queuing to handover the application. It was all a bit tense as we had to hand it in before the 12.30pm deadline. The day was Thursday and if we didn't meet the deadline then we wouldn't be issued with the visa until the Monday and we really didn't fancy sticking around in Vientiane longer than we had to! So we finally got to the front and handed over our applications to the Thai, female official. Our application had to include 2 passport photos so we handed these over as well. She practically threw them back to us and shoved a prit stick in my direction. Apparently the photos had to be glued to the application. Silly us and obviously there was no way she could do it, so she waved us to one side to get gluing! But then she pointed at Jenna's passport photo and started frowning. In broken English she started ranting and raving about it not looking 'polite' and it being 'offensive' or something. Now Jenna would be the first to admit it wasn't the most flattering of photos, travelling has taken it's toll on both of us, but surely it was a bit harsh to say that she her photo was offensive! After much confusion, it turns out the official was offended by the fact that the passport photo made it look like Jenna was naked! She had been wearing a strapless top when the photo was taken and so the top 3 or 4 inches of her shoulders were on show, without any straps or sleeves. The official said her boss was very strict and may not allow it. She said go outside and get a new photo or risk the visa being rejected! But it was about 12.28pm at this point and I thought the official would love it if we went outside to get a photo and then missed the deadline! Pfff we weren't happy but we knew losing our rag in the Thai consulate probably wasn't the best idea. I saw a pair of scissors on the table where apparently all of the prit sticks were and thought I'd do a crafty one. So as the official continued with some other applications, I got to work. I snipped the bottom 5 millimeters of Jenna's photo leaving just the face and neck! Surely the official wouldn't have a problem and may even congratulate me for my artistic creativity while under pressure? Nope! Her voice got louder and her eyes grew narrower. She said she would submit it but that it would probably be rejected! Ridiculous! So off we set back to the hotel on our moped, via the Arc de Triomph, unsure as to whether we would be staying the weekend in Vientiane after all!!!

The next day we rented a tuk tuk driver for the morning and set off about 20 miles out of town to the Buddah Park. The park was really peaceful and full of beautiful buddah statues and temples. We walked around the park for about 45 minutes and then decided that 40 degrees was too hot for walking and so got the tuk tuk back to our air conditioned room for the remainder of the day!

On the Friday we headed back to the Thai consulate to learn our fate. We queued for it to open, then queued for a numbered ticket, then queued inside....etc. Finally we got to the front of the queue and I feared the worst when I saw the same female official! But we needn't have worried as we both received visa approvals, although Jenna did check hers several times to make sure the official hadn't played any nasty tricks on us!