Udon Thani, Isaan And Vientiane, Laos.

In order to qualify for a twelve-months' visa in Thailand, you have to have a ce

rtain amount of money in the bank: 400,000 Baht if you are married to a Thai and
800,000 if you are not married. (I have heard numerous times that two can live
as cheaply as one, but never for half the cost). Another stipulation is that tha
t money has to stay in a Thai bank three months before you need the visa.
This time my bank in Britain was slow sending my money to Thailand so I lost my
year's visa. There are a few options open in this case but all require travel. M
y wife and I took the decision to go to the nearby Laotian capital of Vientiane,
which is approximately 500 miles (800 kilometres) from where we live in norther
n Thailand, because neither of us had been there before.
The bus goes from Phitsanulok, which is about 75 kilometres in exactly the oppos
ite direction from Laos, that is south-east. Since the bus was leaving at 22:00
there was no suitable bus to take us there and we had to book a taxi.
The journey to Phitsanulok took us four hours, because the taxi driver wished to
stop off and check that his mother was well. He was not a real taxi driver, jus
t a farmer with a car. There are no real taxis where I live and his mother was n
ot sick, he only wished to take advantage of the fact that he was going to be pa
ssing close by her village to check that she was OK.
None of that is out of the ordinary here, you take it in your stride as part of
travelling through 'the country'. The bus was clean and comfortable and on time,
which, to be fair, they often are. When it came to saying good-bye, why wife's
daughter did not want to be left behind. Luckily, there was a chair left on the
bus, so we took her along as well.
The journey to Udon Thani was pleasant but long; seven hours of meandering throu
gh the mountains of north-eastern Thailand, but in the dark so you could not dis
tinguish anything. Udon was cold - the first time I have ever been cold in Thail
and in six years.
Although it was almost certainly about ten degrees Celsius, I have become acclim
atised to a minimum of 20c and an average of 30c. We had no warm clothes and the
daughter did not have a change of clothing at all. Nor a passport. And she had
left at home her ID, which has to be carried at all times.
My wife called a friend in Udon and she arranged a taxi to Vientiane, which is 2
2 kilometres over the border from Nong Khai, which is 50 kilometres north of Udo
n - a total of 72 kilometres. This time it was a shop-keeper with a car who want
ed to go to Laos to buy some duty-free cigarettes.
Once across 'The Friendship Bridge', we parted company for a time because I had
to use a different path through passport control. My wife and her daughter were
waiting at the other end for me, but the taxi had deserted us and gone home. I h
ave no concept how the daughter got through without an ID, but I know money chan
ged hands. Procuring a taxi, a real one, from there to Vientiane was easy.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is now in
volved with <a href="http://packageholidaystothailand.org/vientiane-visa-run.htm
l">Vientiane visa run</a>. If you would like to know more, visit our site at <a
href="http://packageholidaystothailand.org">Package Holidays to Thailand</a>.