Nothing like a 6am start on a Monday morning, we walked back to our station got my overnight ticket to the border and then returned home, me to sleep and Djalma to get ready for work. When I did finally get up around mid-morning Djalma was already at school getting ready for his first class, no preparation needed, just placements tests and a fair bit of negative shite from his co-workers, who by the way are actually really nice, just apparently not that into motivating their students. He brought some duck and rice home for lunch and then I sorted through the rest of my stuff for the visa run.
We left around 6ish for my 8.30pm train, getting the BTS and the Metro to the main station, Hua Lampong where we sat and had a quick dinner of pork ball noodles, the place was crawling with roaches but none of them seemed to be doing backstrokes in our broth, thankfully. Quarter of an hour before my train was due to leave I got into my air-conditioned carriage and kissed my husband goodbye, then settled into my berth listening to my Ipod.
We were late arriving at Nong Khai, the last stop on the Thai border before crossing the friendship bridge over the latte coloured water of the Mekong River, but the connecting train waited for us and after we were stamped out of Thailand a big group of backpackers, myself included, sat on the train and waited to be ferried across the water and into Laos.
The train ride only took 15 minutes when it did eventually get moving and we arrived in Thanaleng (pronounced Tanaleng) the first stop on the Laos border only 20odd kilometres away from the capital, Vientiane, but unfortunately without any rail connection there. Buying my $35 visa and jumping on one of the shared open backed taxis, I headed further into French Laos. Fortunately for me an English/Thai couple were also headed towards the embassy and I got off there as well, submitting my application form and payment before walking into town.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
After changing a few of my USD I followed directions and the map and found myself right where I wanted to be, unfortunately my hotel of choice (cheapest and best!) was full so I took a room in the one next door and after a MUCH needed shower I headed for breakfast.
Sitting down in the Scandinavian Bakery recommended by the LP guidebook I indulged in a baguette almost as long as my arm with ham, cheese and salad, things I'd almost forgotten the taste of. After planning the rest of my day I headed out in the direction of Wat Si Saket hoping to find a bank and an internet café along the way, no such luck – I made it to the tourist attraction before I even saw a bank. Fortunately for me, even after paying for my hotel room and breakfast, I had just enough to cover the entrance fee a whopping 5000kip, which works out at about 60c or 40p and that was the tourist rate.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Ignoring my thirst – it was hot and sunny, I spent over an hour walking round the grounds and the partially open rooms facing inward to the main square and the room with the big Buddha. Wat Si Saket (a Wat as I think you know by now is a Monastery Temple) is open to paying visitors, there wasn't a monk in sight, it was built in 1818 by King Anouvong and is the oldest temple in Vientiane.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
It's special because in the small niches spaced in regular intervals on the walls in the 3 walled rooms, the are over 2000 small silver and ceramic Buddha images and if that wasn't enough, underneath these wall mounted deities there are over 300 seated and standing Buddhas of varying size, age and material.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
It was a beautiful place to walk round and most of the Buddhas had robes as well, some where pretty funky others quite tame but all of them were orange or gold. In the grounds outside there were some beautiful shrines to those passed away, most were white with plenty of gold painted detail and a couple were mirrored, covered in lots of cut mirror reflecting the sky and the trees.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Wandering through the grass I managed to collect hundreds of annoying grass seeds in my voluminous trousers legs, they scratched and pricked at my legs the whole afternoon. My parched throat calling, I got directions from the ticket man and then some armed guards, to the nearest bank. JOY, can you guess... air-conditioning! I took my sunned body into the bank and changed 50USD and managed a good three glasses of their filtered water – just like in Bangkok a smile will get you everywhere, they were so friendly. Feeling refreshed and more than a little bit guilty that I hadn't made contact with Djalma, I walked until I found an internet café and managed to get him on line and assure him that I wasn't in Timbuktu or Cambodia somewhere (honestly with me on my own, you never can tell) and that I had already been to the embassy and had some fresh bread. Wifely duties done I decided to walk around the small French flavoured city a bit more. It felt quite liberating being myself in a new place and I quite enjoyed it, I decided to try and check out the museum, something Djalma wouldn't have liked anyway, but it was closed and looked crusty AND there was a no photography sign, so I crossed that one off my list.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Walking down the sun-baked streets I passed by many a Wat and decided to go in and have a look around, just stepping into the small gardens away from the road takes you into a different world. Monks in bright orange and I mean day-glo-what-on-earth-do-you-wash-your-robes-in orange wandered round in smalls groups chatting looking for all the world like uni students in the same uniform. The sky looked ominous but there were still huge patched where the light came pouring through so after sitting in the main room with the big guy and sending a prayer for my family back home I made my way to the river front.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
I walked along the river front praying the sky wouldn't empty itself over my unprotected camera and enjoyed the peace and quiet, several metres away the traffic was going like the clappers, though it had nothing on the traffic I see every morning outside my window in Bangkok.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
I walked down to a big statue of a soldier or a general pointing in the direction of Thailand, at his feet two women where laying garlands of bright orange marigolds and lighting incense sticks in prayer.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
By now the sky was looking more threatening and I decided that I had indeed, earned myself a little beer and possibly something western to eat. Cue a BeerLao and a cheeseburger and chips, good old filth and I loved it, just to top it off I started reading a novel I picked up from the bargain box at a second hand bookshop earlier in the afternoon. Jackie Collins. Wow, sometimes I surprise myself with my utter lack of shame. After finishing my beer and burger and picking the grass seeds out of one of my trouser legs, I took my book back to my hotel room and read till the wee hours of the morning, allowing me to kill the bed bugs which crawled out when I should have been sleeping. Ugh.
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| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
The next day I woke up late, got myself a cup of tea with milk and a fresh roll filled with scrambled eggs bacon and tomato. Heaven. I finished packing my bags, nabbing the towel, soap and the toilet roll and set out for the bus station. I got there about 12.30 and having confirmed the bus times to the train station in Thanaleng I walked to the embassy to collect my passport. I walked the VERY long way, taking a wrong turn off the huge intersection around Patuxai and walking about 30 minutes in the wrong direction before I realised my mistake. Getting directions I took my red sweating body to the Embassy getting there one hour after I'd planned to (the visa collection booths are open between 1 and 3 in the afternoon), luckily at 2pm I was the only person there and was in and out in a flash, well not quite a flash – I stood in front of the free standing air-conditioning machine and let the ice-cold air blast over me before heading back into town.
It only took my twenty minutes to get to the bus station and I snagged one of the last seats on the minibus and sat happily in the back making my own little puddle of sweat enjoying the intermittent puffs of breeze through the open window. It felt like ages before we left but it didn't take us that long to get to the bus terminal at the friendship bridge, the railway station was further on and I asked to be dropped off there. The driver almost managed, he overshot the turning off for the station so I had to walk back and then a good two kilometres (which felt like rather a lot after all the walking in the midday sun) before finally seeing the station in the distance. Not wanting to have walked all this way and miss the train I kept my pace up only to find that the train left at 5pm, it was well before 4pm. I felt a bit like crying but paid my exit fee, got stamped out and then went and washed under my arms and my filthy feet in the toilets. Feeling fresher I sat down and started on a new book I'd swapped at my infested hotel, Black Widow by Bart Davis.
The train took us back over the friendship bridge and into Thailand where I flashed my snazzy new visa and was readmitted. I went directly to the ticket desk having elected to take the risk and buy the ticket back to Bangkok myself and not through one of the agencies which added a huge mark-up, I was in luck and got an air-conditioned berth that night back to the city. Business taken care of I went over the road to an old train carriage which had been renovated and made into a small library, with free internet. I got hold of Djalma let him know I was coming back and everything was okay then I took my hungry stomach to a nearby restaurant and filled it with a large amount of delicious stir-fried chicken noodles before going back to find my train and get the hell home.
Despite the train being behind schedule, we were woken up just after 6am so the attendant could take our bed sheets and stow away the upper berths (they folded out like a glove compartment door). We arrived in Bangkok an hour late at 7.30 and I decided that walking home would be nice and easy and then promptly got quite lost. Will I ever learn? It took me an hour and a half to walk from the station to our flat and I was knackered by the time I got there – it was Thursday morning by now. Thank god the tallest building in the city is next to our Soi (road). Kicking back in bed we watched an episode of possibly the best ever series in the whole world, Lie To Me, and then 3 Star Wars films back to back only broken up by the need for some lunch, noodles at the pork noodle man on the corner. It was so good to be back home, sightseeing by myself was fun, but it also sucked not having anyone to share it with.
On Friday I tried to be good and follow some sort of plan for the day, after collecting Djalma's freshly ironed shirts from the dry cleaning lady I headed back up to our room to write for two hours, do some yoga and then write a bit more. I just about managed except that I wrote hardly anything during those two hours – just a week's worth of diary which isn't much and then the yoga tired me out so much that I fell asleep on my mat. After a shower I finished the leftovers from breakfast just in time for Djalma to walk back through the door having finished for the day with some duck and rice. We had an awful lot of duck that week!
After another episode of LTM (Lie To Me) and a Star Wars film we ate Pringles, drank a couple of beers and played cards – Djalma beat me so often it took all the fun out of playing.
The weekend passed in a blur, on Saturday I got up early and did some yoga and then we walked down to the Youth Centre which Djalma had been told was only 40TBH a year, this equates to approximately 1 English Pound, for as many visits as you like. We took our passports stopping only to get an iced sweet milky red tea for me and to climb over a wall when we couldn't figure out a way round to the building. The staff were lovely, we filled in our forms, they took our pictures and printed us out little cards and then a happy little caretaker who seemed to know everyone took us to a medical centre to get a piece of paper saying we were in good health (for use of the swimming pool). We went back to our hotel, feeling excited about the gym, the table tennis, the badminton and the normal tennis but sat down in front of the computer and watched LTM instead. Evening closed in and we shared a beer on our little balcony watching the traffic whiz by, we got some supplies for the following day and then played cards for a couple of hours before bed.
We had planned to take out the free bikes and do a spot of sightseeing on Sunday but it b=never happened, feeling really lazy and I mean really lazy cracked open a few beers and proceeded to play cards all morning and all afternoon, eating crisps and listening to music. I was on an incredible winning streak in the morning but the beer took it's toll and I started losing heavily in the afternoon, not so good for Little Miss Grumpy!
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