On arrival at the Thai side (Nong Khai) of the Thai-Lao Freindship Bridge things went nice and simply. A minute to get a passport stamp then you buy a 20 baht ticket for a bus ride over to the Lao side.
They packed us into the bus like sardines then drove us over the mighty Mekong River to the Lao immigration building. Here, the fun really began. First up was a massive and very slow moving queue to pass through immigration. After a while it became obvious we were going to be stuck there for hours, however happily fate intervened. A gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would like to rent transport for the day. On offer was a 9 seater van with driver for 1200 baht for all day....handy as there were 9 of us. The price was right and the clincher was when he whispered "and I get you out of the queue".
I agreed and true to his word the guy took our passports right to the front of the queue and they were stamped immediately. And we were off - well kind of - there was a 10 baht entry fee to pay for the privelege of visiting Communist Laos first.
Fees paid our driver began the 19 Km drive from the bridge into Vientiane city.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment