Oops I did it again!

I got to thinking about having to return to Finland before everyone else here, and not to anyone’s surprise decided to change my return flight again. Luckily AGAIN I managed to change the return date for only 110€, from 9-Feb-2011 to 13-Apr-2011.

I did not actually change my flight until the last of January, and since my visa expired on the second of February I only had two days to figure out yet another visa run. I had already been to Cambodia twice and there was the problem between Cambodia and Thailand over the Preah Vihear Temple, so I decided to go to Laos instead, to Vientiane.

So, on the morning of the second of February, I took buses northwards, Buriram-KhonKaen-UdonThani-NongKhai. It only took two days to get a new 60-day visa to Thailand, but because of the date of my return flight I had to stay in Laos until the 13th of February. No problem there, just hang out for a time and check out Vientiane. Since I’m coming up on a full year of staying in Thailand on tourist visas, I got a surprising stamp added to my visa…

No more visas for me?

Then on the morning of the 13th started to come back to Thailand and would have returned straight to Buriram, but just missed the last bus from KhonKaen to Buriram so had to spend some time in KhonKaen then. Finally returned to Buriram on the 15th. No big problems on the trip, except that my mobile phone was stolen. No biggie, only about 25€ so I did nothing about it except bought another one. And besides, my traveller’s insurance has expired too so no reason to report the theft to the police, it would be more trouble than the phone was worth.

The weather here in Buriram has changed, the local “Winter” seems to be over. Daytime temperatures are somewhere close to +40 and nights are not cold anymore. Not having used the aircon in my room, now suddenly I need it again daily.

As for Laos itself, having only visited once, for 3 days in Paxse in 2009, I was of the opinion that it is not as much fun as Thailand. Vientiane however proved me wrong, and I will definitely go to Laos again some day. The people are very much like Thais, and almost everyone understands the Thai language too. Next time however I will have to see a bit more of Laos than just a few blocks of central Vientiane.

The first two nights I spent in a hotel close to the Thai Consulate, but then changed to a cheaper place closer to the river. At only 10USD a night, the Bouasy Guest House close to the Black Stupa (That Dam) was withing walking distance of the riverfront where most of the bars were (what did you think I did in Vientiane for the 11 days then?) A very basic guesthouse, just a fan and no TV or refrigerator, but clean and quiet and with warm water.

That Dam, the Black Stupa

Like in Cambodia, most of the products on sale are imported from Thailand, and are therefore usually slightly more expensive than in Thailand. And like in Cambodia, the locals seem to like Thai TV and music more than local entertainment, at least judging by the people in bars and restaurants, might be different in the countryside or in smaller cities. Food was surprisingly expensive, even in local eateries a meal was 12000-15000Kip, about 1,5-2USD (1USD was a bit over 8000Kip), but luckily beer was no more expensive than in Thailand and cigarettes were slightly cheaper. Of the four countries I’ve visited in the last nine months, I’d say that Vietnam was the cheapest, Cambodia was just about the same as Vietnam, and surprisingly Laos probably the most expensive. Of course in Thailand I’m using Buriram as comparison, Bangkok is price-wise a different thing altogether of course…

Laos is supposedly the poorest country of these four, but it’s not apparent in Vientiane at least. The income differences in all these countries are huge, with some (most) people being very poor and a lucky few being VERY rich. So in closing, I’ll just post a nice pic I took in a small car shop in Vientiane…

Aston Martin Vantage in Vientiane