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baldrick

well last week I needed to go and get a tourist visa so I thought I would try Vientiane - I normally pop down to Sing.

I thought I would take the bus to NongKhai for speed then take the train back

so first into a taxi for the run to the morchit bus station



then as I arrived at 0930 the next bus out was the Udon Air bus , got a ticket from booth 118 on the second floor - 450 baht and rushed off to the bus.

left morchit



took in the scenery



and arrived in NongKhai bus station at 1730 - an express run - then declining the generous tuk tuk fcukwits offers I walked down to the river and walked down to the Mutmee guesthouse which had an online presence. I did not book ahead but found when I got there the it was full. oh well , I had passed a few places walking to it so I turned around and stopped at another on the way back - the Chong Konh Guesthouse and got a 300 baht room. Basic , but more than adequate for me , and it was in town right on the waterfront. just across the street was a bar/resturant , apples bar , which had a fair western menu with reasonable prices and the food was good.

Chong Konh Guesthouse 17°53'3.42"N 102°44'40.96"E






view from the guesthouse to the Mekong



I went for a bit of a walk around and stopped for a beer at a couple of places - I ended up stopping at a hole in the wall bar whose music , though a little dated , was preferable to the other bars playlists , the beer was on ice and the women friendly

J-Lo Bar 17°52'51.65"N 102°44'51.21"E




morning over the Mekong



got up the next morning and discovered that a guesthouse across the road from mine had decent ground coffee via an expresso machine at 30 baht a pop - so got a couple of heart starters in me.
it looked a quite new concrete block building - so it might be worth trying if you have more class than I ( they might let you stay )



then 40 baht for a Tuk Tuk to take me to the bridge



on the other side , I was accosted by the standard and thinking I would be prepared to pay 150baht to get taken to the embassy , but ended up in the back of a Tuk Tuk with about 3 Laos Ladies and a price of 100 baht to go to the embassy first - no worries

got to the embassy at around 0945 and recieved number 226
got my paperwork in order and over heard someone saying that this embassy would issue a dual entry tourist visa if you just put x2 beside where you had ticked the tourist visa box - ok done

Thailand Embassy in Vientiane 17°57'53.46"N 102°37'27.70"E

watched the ebb and flow of the scrum around the application window marveling at how the fcuk people had made it this far with out being able to read simple instructions posted on a large board and masses of information on Teak Door - handed in my application , 2 mugshots , copy of main passport page and copy of TM card and stamp and went inside the main building to wait to pay the cash. when they asked for 2K baht I realised that they were issuing dual entry tourist visas.

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"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw