Stuck in Laos

It's not every day you get to wake up in a foreign country and think, "I wonder when I'll be able to go home?" Thanks to a range of terribly unlucky factors, I had the honour of experiencing that moment.


Crossing the Friendship Bridge II, between Thailand and Laos...

All I wanted was to upgrade my Thai visa from a Tourist to a Non-Immigrant B, so I could work legally. I travelled to the border town of Savannakhet, Laos, to visit the Thai consulate. But...

1) My school didn't give me all the necessary paperwork for my visa application

2) The Thai consulate was closed for four days over the King's birthday long weekend

3) I couldn't re-enter Thailand because I no longer had a valid visa.

Thus, I was stuck in Laos.

Wait a second. Stranded in a new country, unable to go back to work, with a long weekend at my disposal? Time for a holiday!


A monastery in Savannakhet

I wasn't the only one surprised by the Thai consulate's extra days off. I befriended a motley crew of other stranded, random foreigners consisting of a 57-year-old Dutchman, a 44-year-old Norwegian, and a 34-year-old Danish man from the Faroe Islands, and his Thai wife and daughter. We all got on really well and spent our first couple of days chatting and exploring the town.


Our motley crew

On my third day in Laos I left Savannakhet and took a bus south to Pakse, a former French colony. It was a 5-hour trip but well worth it, as Pakse had a relaxed, tourist-friendly yet small-town atmosphere. I'd planned earlier to meet up with some American friends who live in Ubon too.


Vendors board the bus to sell grilled chickens and other food

So the next day we took another bus even further south, almost to the border of Cambodia. There we found Si Phan Don, the "four thousand islands" that scatter the Mekong River. I'd heard it was such a beautiful spot, but this is what we found:


So much rubbish...

We arrived the night after their big boat racing festival, and the celebrations had clearly left their mark on the environment. I've never seen so much rubbish before - except maybe at the tip. And even then, this came pretty close. Early the next morning we took a boat down the Mekong.



Two hours later we reached the next main island and hired some bikes so we could explore. We hadn't gotten far before we were stopped by patrolmen. To proceed, we each had to buy an admission ticket. Foreigners: 20,000 kip (about $2.50). Laotians: 5,000 kip. Really annoying. In the end we worked out a deal, where the three of us together paid 50,000 kip, we received two tickets, but we were all allowed to pass. Basically, it meant we paid less, off the books, and the patrolman got to pocket 10,000 kip. It doesn't matter if someone is missing a ticket - after patrol points, no one checks them.

We rode on to some of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen.


It reminded me a lot of the old Lion King game for PC, specifically the Hakuna Matata level. I'm pretty sure that's where they designed this level off.


On Monday I travelled back to Savannakhet(two buses and eight hours), where I met up with the motley crew again. It was good to hang out with them again. They shared a lot of insight into Thai culture, as they've been around for a few years. On Tuesday we collected our visas and parted ways. I waited round at the consulate all afternoon for my visa, which wasn't due to be completed until Wednesday, but my boss had called them and was pressuring them to have it done for me in one day. 4:00pm came and went, and the officials told me to come back tomorrow. I got 100m down the street when they suddenly gave me a call and told me to come back - my visa was ready!


(left) Thailand across the Mekong, as viewed from Laos
(right) Just about to cross the Friendship Bridge II back into Thailand

I crossed the Thai border that evening and stayed the night in Mukdahan, just across the river from Savannakhet. It felt good to be back in Thailand, even though physically I really wasn't that far from where I'd just been, and I made it back to Ubon the following day.

That night I moved apartments. The place I'm living in now is much nicer, even though it's more expensive. Here I haven't had any problems like dirty water leaking through my ceiling from the room above. Anyway I'm much more settled.

And, to top it off, I'm now working legally!