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17 – 20 August - Vientiane, Laos

It was a pleasure walking the streets of Vientiane with its ancient temples, silk shops and baguette vendors. The following day, I handed in my visa application for Thailand. Vientiane is a popular place for visa runs as they don’t ask many questions. No bank statements or flight ticket. You just fill in the form, hand it in with two photos and collect the following day. The cost is 1 000TB which is cheaper than most other places. The queue, therefore, is long, and I was no. 366 in the collection row. I had no patience for such a long queue and instead went to the restaurant across the road and returned an hour and a half later. By then the line was much shorter, and I just slotted in and collected my visa.

I also met up with Christian, a warmshowers host in Vientiane where I have stayed on two previous occasions, and decided to move to his place the following day. Christian hails from Germany but has been living and working in Laos for the past six years. I love staying at his place as it is relaxed and comfortable and most of all, he knows all the best restaurants and pubs in town.

I made use of my comfortable surroundings to finish all my ESCAPE tour stuff, for Tania who was arriving in September, Marguerite who was coming in December, and Amanda who was planning to come over next year April.  

When all my stuff was done, it was time to head back across the border to Bangkok and meet Tania for a new route I have planned for us. I call it Tania’s Tour from Bangkok to Hanoi.