The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

melvbot

As I had to do my visa run the other day I thought I would take a few pics of this momentously tedious task.

Setting off from Petch at 0730 the wife and myself got onto the first bus from Petch to Lom Sak.



Its one of the old crappy ones with fans and the like but its only an hours journey and 20 baht so its bearable, just.
--
Lom Sak bus stations just like any other bus station so I didnt bother with any boring pics. More tedious pictures of buses later so you won't miss any of the excitement.

The bus from Lom Sak to our next port of Chum Phae is hardly any better than the first cattle truck we were on. It takes about 2 hours and costs 92 baht.
No music or movies we're played so we entertained ourselves with some music courtessy of the iPod and some foody treats such as this



Sticky rice with red stuff and paper round it. Tasty and filling if you eat 2 or 3 of them.

The Lom Sak-Chun Phae leg is over a very steep hilly road so its a crawl for most of the way, 5mph if you're lucky going up most parts. Not much to see as in photos but some really good views on a clear day at some points.

Most of the route is carved through the hills so it either dense jungle or rocks to look at hence no other pics than this one.

__________________
The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth

Marmite the Dog

Is that it?

DrAndy

what more do you want Marmite?

as he said, it was tedious

the food looked good though

melvbot

Ok we're in Chum Phae bus station now. We've been here once or twice and it always seems hotter than the other side of the hills. Theres a big market right next to the bus station with all the un/usual foods and tat thats on every other market in Thailand.
There are food places all around the perimeter of where the buses come in so if you're hungry don't bother eating here. The mrs has tried 2 different places so far and she has never eaten more than a few mouthfuls before leaving. This is someone who eats bugs n guts so it must be bad.



This woman was alseep in the station right in the main walkway. Everyone just walked round her, not surprising really.

The third and final bus. Slightly better than the previous 2, and I mean slightly.


This marvel of human transportation was our home for the next 4hrs 20 mins. It goes from Chum Phae to Nong Khai via Udon, it has no toilets so the bus station facilities are critical at this point. The ones in the station are ok as theyre fairly new and clean, for now.It takes some of the slowest crappiest roads you can imagine, no dual carriageway/highway action for a large part of the journey. For this privelege you have to pay 170bt. Next stop Nong Khai.

melvbot

Sorry for the delay. Tesco needed some of my money, they cant survive without me.

melvbot

Thank god we're finally in Nong Khai. One word can describe our welcome, wet. It was absolutely pissing it down. I wanted to get a shot of the hotel but it was a no go due to the rain. You'll have to make do with the card instead.
We stayed in this gaff for 400bt a night. Nice bed, air-con, hot shower, cable TV and a fridge. we were only staying one night so it did the job.



Just in case anyone want to stay there heres the other side.




By the time we had dropped our bags the rain had eased up so we wen to get some food.


Think its called The Mekhong River Guest House or something similar. Its on the river and has a nice view if its not raining and windy, but it was. It was too wet to get any outside pics and we had to sit at one side of the restaurant as the wind was blowing the rain in from the river.



Fermented pork ribs with ginger and onion. Very Tasty



More pork but in a curry. The meats had something done again possibly fermented or just forgotten about for a few days and thrown in. It was nice but I plumped for this instead.



Chicken breast and chips in some sort of batter. Pretty good apart from the crap as per usual French Fries.

By the time we got back I was a bit drunk and the room was a mess so I'll spare you the pics. Bedtime and alarm set for the tedious bit.

Marmite the Dog

That's betterer!

melvbot

Woke up, teeth brushed and ready to do battle. It had stopped raining thank god so I jumped in a Tuk Tuk and headed for the border. These pics have been done to death in other threads so heres a token shot of immigration.



This place is populated by some of the fattest, thick idiots with backpacks as you can see.
The visa for UK'ers is $35 or 1500bt.
Visa done I went through an tried to avoid paying the entry tax as no-one was there last time. They got wise and collared me trying to walk through with a load of Thais. Never mind it was worth a try. 20bt lighter and now in Laos I did the only fun thing that this part has to offer

Duty free booze time !!!!



I like this place because if you smile and give them this



They ignore your smile, grunt and give you this


Johnny Walker Green label. The only reason to do a visa run...

melvbot

All stamped up with another 90 days it was back to the hotel then off for brekkie. We went to the same place to eat as before and the wife ordered an American breakfast for each of us. They duly obliged by bringing us American Fried Rice which made me a bit grumpy so I forgot to take any pics except this one of an ant on the table.



We should have ordered with the ant in my opinion, he was far more attentive than the staff were. The food was crap this time and the coffee was terrible so the wife didnt tip them.

We headed down to the river, all of 10 feet away to take a few more pics.



We packed up and jumped on the buses home. Reverse order of before.

Hours and hours of rain. It looked like this for most of the way.


That pretty much wraps it up.

Begbie

Pretty good, especially the pictures of food.

melvbot

First photo thread so Im a bit wiser as to what to take and how long it takes to put it together. Hopefully something less tedious next time.

darksider

Gotta love them backpackers, seeing the "real" SE Asia

melvbot

Most of them were in a big group and came on a bus tour. They still managed to get in the way and clutter the place up even though someone is doing everything for them. One geezer queued up for about 15 mins for his passport even though he didnt need to. 2 Israeli birds went to the first window demanding their change immediately as they thought they were being ripped off . I explained that they give it at the second window with the passport but they took no notice and kept holding the queue up. After a quick "Just fok off out the way, you'll get your change with the passport" from a gruff looking bloke in no mood for muppets they got the idea. They'll probably write how rude some foreigner was to them in their journals, its all part of the experience.

darksider

Yep, that's the ones.

Spin

Nice effort Melv, I'll be heading up that way first week in August for some Beer lao and another 90 day stampage.
About this photo, did you go on the the trip with Kingwilly? You never mentioned him, is that him holding the whisky for you? Kingwilly has really hairy arms like that you see...

melvbot

No, the hairy arms actually belong to me the wife. I could be a KW troll

sunsetter

i always meet some lunatic backpacker there, last time was a young bloke about 22-23 said he was in, so 19 met police special squad or something and his thai wife was a gold dealer, when we got back through to thailand his wife was pattayas finest, and my missus told him and her off for lying !!

nice thread melvbot, not as tedious as youd think

__________________
just take the time.....

melvbot

Taking the pics and making the threads OK its just a tedious subject. I dont get about much at the minute and this is the only opportunity Ive had to get any pics unless you want me to document a trip to Big C. Theres a nice dam about 20 mins away from the house and Im struggling to find the time to go there, could get some nice pics for the competition.

sunsetter

go for it mate, ,my first one on here took ages to do, but it was worth it

http://teakdoor.com/travel-the-world...fordshire.html

Travelmate

Nice tedious thread. At least I now know what you bumpkins have to go thru in order to get a 90 day visa. Is the bus mandatory? Is there other means of getting there?