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.
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.
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