Visa Run to Laos

Well it has been nearly 28 days since we arrived in Thailand, which means it was time that we renew our visa. We had a couple of options, the first was to make a quick run to the Cambodian border and walk across and back in. A quick run means a four hour van ride each way, and this option would allow us to receive another 30 day Visa. Thailand immigration law states that you may only receive three 30 day visa's in each six month period. The second option would be to go to Laos, which is quite a bit farther away. Laos is almost nine hours each way by van, including stopping for quick breaks. The benefit of going to Laos is that we would be able to receive a 60 day visa with an option of extending it another 30 days without having to leave the country. Jessica and I decided to go to Laos as it made much more sense to get an extended length visa to save on the hassle of traveling back and forth out of the country. We ended up going with http://thaivisaservice.com/ for the visa run. They weren't all that great, but they did get the job done. The worst part was that they spoke no English once you left the meeting point in Bangkok, which became very frustrating why trying to figure out what was going on.

We left at 9:45p and arrived just before 6:30am. There were probably 5 break stops, nearly all of which were really annoying as they kept waking us up from sleeping. We then walked across the border and out of Thailand. Next a bus took us across the Friendship Bridge and we purchased a 30 day visa for Laos. For the next step we were drive to the Thai Consulate in the city of Vientiane. There we waited in line to turn in our passports and visa application form. In line we discovered that we could apply for two 60 days visa's at the same time, which we ended up doing. Next we had to wait in a very small room with nearly a hundred people in it. Their was one lady calling up people to pay for their visa's, and she was calling up people by sticking up their very small passport pictures in a glass window. After that ordeal was finished the visa service company took us to a hotel that ended up being very nice. From the lack of sleep the night before we took a quick nap and then off to do some exploring. For dinner there was a buffet which was also very good.

The next morning Jessica and I walked through the central market area of the city and then meet back at the hotel for transport back to the border. Keep in mind at this point that we still do not have our passports back as they were collected by the Thai Consulate. Our service went back to the Thai consulate and picked up the passports and brought them to us at the border. After more waiting we finally made our way out of Laos, followed by more waiting on the Thai side of the border until our passports were processed. All told we left the hotel at 12pm and got back on the vans at 3:55pm. After that it was another long trip back to Bangkok, and we arrived just before 1am. Another thing to mention is that the drivers of these van had to be driving nearly 100mph at times going in and out of traffic. It was absolutely nuts at times.

Here are some pictures we took during our trip:

A smoke filled field in Vientiane, Laos.


Hand prints on a wall:


Homemade intruder discouragement at the top of a wall:


Alleyway where we found the wall:


Building construction:




Random Picture:




The money is called the Kip. This 9000Kip bill is worth about 30cents.
Front:


Back: