Six day trip to Laos - day 1

Six day trip to Laos - day 1

Hello again to you all, and my best wishes from Indo-China/South-East Asia.

The minibus to the Thai/Lao border picks us up in Chiang Mai at 9am. It's full, mostly backpackers from Germany, US, Argentina and England. It's quite cloudy today, but we escape the rain and storms that are plaguing the south. The scenery in Northern Thailand is beautiful, cultivated fields, shrub-land and forest, mountains in the distance.

The photos are taken through the window of our speeding minibus. This camera is amazing.

The roads are good or very good for most of the 7 hour journey. Getting a bit bumpier as we near the border though.

The border crossing is interesting. There are barriers in the road just beyond where our minibus has stopped and unloaded us with our bags. Our driver is pointing towards a small hut on the left, a larger hut further down on the right, and another minibus beyond the buildings. Now he has driven off and left us.

The first hut is the Thai border post where we present our departure form and passport which is returned with the appropriate stamp. The Argentinian lady (who speaks good English) has some difficulty in her debate with the official (who speaks no English) as to which of her passports she should use, the Argentinian one or the Italian one. But it is soon resolved.

So now we are no-mans land between the border posts.

The next hut is the Lao immigration office. Window number one inspects my passport and gives me a 'visa-on-arrival' form to fill out. Window number two takes the completed form, a passport photo, $35 and my passport which is returned with a beautifully printed Lao visa. Back to window number one where I get the vital entry stamp in my passport. Straightforward for me but the Argentinian lady is having prolonged debates in both windows as to her choice of passport. She wants to use the Argentinian one because the fee is cheaper, but the officials want her to use the Italian one. She eventually gets it sorted.

Another hour's drive in the new minibus takes us to our accommodation. We are going to spend one night here. The chalets look delightful from the outside....

but the damp-smelling furniture, bed-bugs, ant-infested bathroom and squat toilet spoiled it a bit.

I enjoy the evening meal in a near-by very basic 'restaurant'. No menu so I ask 'what you have?' ....'chicken fry rice'.... 'OK' 

We receive instructions for the morning:- breakfast at 7am, depart on minibus 7.30. Till then, bye for now.