Vientiane: One of the least populated capital

As daylight takes the place of night, Train Number 69 of the State Railway of Thailand continued its journey through the alluvial plains of Northeast Thailand. Bounded on both sides by the typical features of any rice-growing countries, the dried paddy fields marks the end of a crop cycle. The harvesting season was just over and what remained were the brown untilled soil and dried bundles of paddy stalks. There is a sense of timelessness as instead of tractors or other modern agricultural machinery, buffalos were seen ploughing the field alongside man in preparation for the next crop cycle. They were oblivious to the passing train as it is as normal as the rising and setting of the sun. And, observing this panorama behind the window of the train carriage is a city-boy far away from home. The city-boy is non other than me, who hadn't get a full sleep and who had nothing much better to do after waking up but to wait for the train to reach Nong Khai, the terminus of the North East Line.

There were no English speaking foreigners on my coach. All the occupants I saw in my coach were mostly middleage locals who disembark from the train on stations before my destination. I only saw the foreigners once the train pulled into the Nong Khai station. True to the travel guidebooks, there were a few tuk-tuk standing by to pick us up to the border. There was only one possible place the foreigners are heading to and wherever they are going, I would be going too. Without as much as hesitating, I quickly jumped into one with a Japanese couple heading to Vientiane and a Thai engineer going to oversee the building of a dam. It is not easy to get lost here as the foreigners I encounter were more than willing to provide me information on the onward journey to Vientiane. After I was stamped out of Thailand, we boarded a van that ferried us across the Mekong River via the Friendship Bridge. The sight of the red, blue and white flags of Thailand lining both side of the bridge were replaced by the white circled red and blue flag of Laos. Whoever missed the change of flags would not help but notice that the road traffic had reversed from left-up to right-up and vice-versa marking the entry into Laos, formerly of French Indochina.

I had to get down again to have our passport stamped. It was a busy morning as the small wave of arriving foreigners mixed with the long queue of Lao and Thai people waiting to cross over to the People's Democratic Republic. I couldn't wait for the man from Seattle I chatted up with on the Thai side as he was stuck at the Visa Application counter. So I chartered a tuk-tuk with the Japanese couple. My first impression of Laos includes that it was a dusty cowboy outpost similar to the Wild Wild West. That impression stick to my mind as the tuk-tuk passed over a particular stretch of road which is in a state of repair that it stirred up dust and sand. I felt as though I was in a middle of a sand storm.

As the tuk-tuk dropped me in front of Don Chan Palace, I was mesmerized at the Jalur Gemilang displayed at the flag post. I did a lot of research on this hotel set on the Don Chan Island of the Mekong and knew that not only it's the only tallest building and five-star hotel in Vientiane, but it is also a hotel built and own by a Malaysian company. By pure chance alone, I manage to get acquainted with one of the hotel owners itself through Friendster. Unfortunately, he was not around to greet me but his staff made a call to him in Malaysia and after a succession of phone passing between me and the staff, I got a room at an acceptable rate. There are many budget and midrange guesthouse and hotel in Vientiane but I figured it would be worth it if I live luxuriously in this hotel for two nights.

Eager to embark on a self-tour of Vientiane, there wasn't much time to unpack my stuff as soon enough I was down at the lobby waiting for the shuttle bus to take me to the heart of the city. Turned out it's not a bus but a luxurious hotel car who brought me and a Asian couple from Australia to the Nam Phu, the city's water fountain. After a quick bite of sandwich at the Scandinavian Bakery with the same Japanese couple whom I met coincidently, I headed in the general direction of Talat Sao, the morning market. The main thing on my mind was to find a place where I can buy a direct bus ticket to Hanoi. I found a couple of them but my other concern is how comfortable is the bus. If I were to brave the estimated 24 hours ride to Hanoi, I wanted it to be in a bus with at least air-conditioning and minus the fearful bus filled to the brim with locals and market produces. In other words, I am in a quest to find the genuine VIP bus.

Bangkok revisited

Life is a journey. Travelling is also a journey. What makes a journey different from the other journeys is what we gained from it. Also, the destination is not as important as the journey itself. This time, I embarked on another epic journey. One week. That's all I have. That's the length of the annual leave I was realistically allowed to take. And one week is all it takes for me to go through three countries. Looking back, must admit I wasn't really enthusiastic about it but when the day comes, it has to be done. There was no turning back. Not even when I am still suffering from a sore throat. The air ticket has already been booked. My first stop is to Bangkok, and my final stop is Hanoi. And so the journey begins.

I was already feeling as though I am in Thailand when I boarded the Thai Air Asia plane bound for Bangkok. With an all Thai aircrew, cabin announcements in both Thai and English, and with a poster of a grand Thai movie painted on the fuselage, it was unmistakenly Thai. Even the food had to be paid in Baht. Those unfortunate enough to have only Malaysian currency had a disadvantage in the exchange rate which is as high as cruising altitude of the plane.

It was my first visit to Suvarnabhumi Airport and my first impression of it was it is larger than KLIA. A shuttle bus had to ferry the passengers from one end of the complex to the other. However, I wasn't impressed by the long and slow-moving queue lining up in front of the Immigration counters. I wasn't impressed that there were no straight bus to Hualamphong Station today. I didn't spend much time there to be impressed with anything else as I board another Airport Express bus bound for the City where I could take a taxi to the train station. Luckily I met the fellow Malaysian who had sat beside me in the plane. He told me that the bus would pass by a BTS station. Great, I can connect with the subway to get to Hualamphong. The distance from the airport to the city is of equal distance between KLIA and KL, but instead of the road being lined with oil palm plantations in Malaysia, the road from Suvarnabhumi is lined with buildings.

I expected a crowd and a long wait at the Hualamphong Advance Booking Counter. But I didn't expect an almost empty office. The glass door had a "Closed" sign displayed but seeing that there are people inside, I went it. Served by exactly the same woman during my previous Bangkok-Chiang Mai journey, I got the ticket to Nong Khai, the border town on the Mekong overlooking Laos.

Feeling happy over short wait, I managed to meet up with my friend at Siam Paragon on time. We were almost conned at the entrance of a temple by a guy who claims that the place was closed. His real intention laid bared when I realised he's not from Malaysia as he claimed he is, since he couldn't reply me in Malay. It was exactly how the Lonely Planet stated how a scam would happen. However, we managed to find the real Erawan Shrine where my friend said someone she knew was also conned as well when he wanted to make an offering. Sigh... minus a point for the Land of Smile. As I was carrying quite a bothersome backpack, our plan to visit both Wat Arun and Chathuchak Market was cancelled. Besides, it was a rainy day in Bangkok today. We had our dinner at Central World and after that I helped my friend to do some shopping for grocery. Had a great evening with her as we spent the whole time catching up with everything.

After we parted ways, I headed back to Hualamphong. There was a higher security presence here as a police officer was scanning the baggage of everyone entering the station. In fact, it was all over Bangkok as the shopping complexes and subway station requires every bag to be opened or scanned. Even the Hualamphong station looked different since I was here 7 months ago. The mini post office was no longer here. There were now chairs on the waiting hall so people no longer had to sit on the floor. However, the digital display for the train schedule was replaced by a large time table poster.

I was on time but the train wasn't. I seated myself in front of a Muslim Thai lady who was working in Laos. I managed to strike a conversation with her and obtained some information about where I could get a bus ticket to Hanoi. It was a while later before the train started pulling out of the station and started it's journey through Northeast Thailand. Settling down on my lower bunk and looking forward to a comfortable sleep in the gently rocking train, I called it an end to Day One.

Epilogue

A new blog and also a new template. A nice clean slate for me to paint it anyway I want and what I want to paint is a picture of a sunset. To me a sunset doesn't just mean that the night time is here but a sunset must happen for there to be another sunrise. This is the same way that we are all suppose to view our life. We had to first bid farewell to sunset before we welcome the next sunrise. And that's how I view it.

Recently knew that a special girl in my heart had found the special guy for her life. She's doing pretty fine and from what I heard, it would be a lasting relationship. Still, I would hope that she would tell me herself but I guess she wouldn't want to hurt me, that's why I found it through a third party. The time for feeling pain and hurt has already passed. It's been such a long time that I had felt pain and hurt but right now, I feel happy for her. I always believed if you love a person, you must also be happy for her, even if the person she spent her time with wouldn't be me. Nah, not that I still love her deeply but there's still some of it left in my heart.

Sometimes would really look back and think how things could have happened differently. What if both of us were left alone, what if there were no interfering people, what if people were helping instead of potraying me in a negative manner...would I had been given a chance. Sometimes would reflect back on myself and asked was it really the others the cause of what had happened... or was it really myself which had shaped the present. Sometimes would want to know whether what I did for her mattered or not. Does she feel touched? Does she feel impressed? Does she feel special? Does she feel happy? Is there anymore I could have done. Guess it doesn't matter anymore.