Visa Run: Vientiane, Laos

So what exactly does a "Visa Run" entail? What does Visa run even mean? Well for us it means a 2 day vacation to the closest country, in order to get our Visas renewed. 

And what a process it is! In Bangkok, they have "Visa Run" services that take care of everything. Due to my lack of knowledge in this area, this was the route we chose. Called up, made a reservation on the night van to Vientiane, Laos [the "s" is silent, pronounced Lao]. Most of you probably have never heard of Laos, and I don't blame you. I had no idea it was a country till I moved all the way over here.

 So here is a little background (brought to you by the internet):

  Laos is a land-locked country between Burma, China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Like Vietnam, Laos is a communist country but the communist party has since the eighties been relaxing its grip on the whole society. Rice production still makes up the biggest portion of Laos’ economy but they also grow coffee, tee and opium.  The country is rich in minerals like gold and copper and more areas are being mined every year.  The country is still pretty poor with about 30% of the population under the poverty line.                Laos has the honor of being the most bombed country on this earth.  I read somewhere that during the Vietnam war, America hit Laos by an average of one B-52 bomb load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973.  That is more explosive power than was used in the whole of WWII. [CrAzY!]

Now that we are all caught up on our world history. I shall let the story begin. Our journey started in Bangkok, where we met a group of people doing the same thing. Hopped in a van at 8pm. Estimated Time of Arrival: 6am. It will take approximately 10 hours.  Luckily we sat next to a lovely couple, a woman from Chicago and her Thai boyfriend who actually spoke the local Laos language, Issan.  [It is the language of northern Thailand, where he is from.] We hung out with each other the entire time and had a blast along the way. 

Prior to crossing the border we were warned with this sign: 

[Apparently it is illegal to play cards of any kind.] [& since Thailand has a King and Queen it is referred to as "The Kingdom"]

It took us about 2 hours to cross the border after filling out a plethora of paperwork. Thankfully organized by the service we took. The service cost us 6000 Baht which is about $180.00, but that includes the 10 hour van ride there and back, 4 meals, 1 night stay in a guest house, and all the visa fees. Amazing trade off if you ask me. Normally once we cross the border, we would have had to go to immigration, which is exactly like going to the DMV. But, since we are using the service all we had to do was drive by, each take a number and then hand our number, passports and paperwork to the service, and THEY wait there all day and take care of what ever it is they have to take care of.  

While our visas were magically being taken care of, we joined our 2 new friends [whom we did not learn the names of until the taxi ride home, woopsies] for a Tuk Tuk ride to a local temple where they give Laos massages. To be honest the massage stunk, and I currently consider myself a Massage Connoisseur, so I can accurately judge these kind of things!  

The scenery was so very peaceful, and calming.. it was a fair trade. Following the massage was time spent in an herbal sauna!

After our massage, we decided to rent some bikes [at 1$ for 2 days] and ride around to see the city. This trip was not planned, our director at the school actually told us that morning that we had to leave the country. Originally we were planning on going back to Cambodia to visit our friends.. but the van going there had already left. But it worked out lovely... once again playing each day by ear we got a lot accomplished in our short stay. 

Here are some pictures from our ride: 

We were able to take the stairs all the way up to the top. 

This was the view looking down. 

 A woman working in the rice fields. 

We stopped off and went to 2 temples. During a previous war, most temples were destroyed by the Thais. However, the ones that we visited resembled the Thai temples, so they believe that that is the reason they were not burned down. 

The temples were beautiful, we went to one that had over 6000 Buddahs, some big and some small. The landscape was beautiful and so peaceful, obviously you can tell by this random man taking a nap!! [haha]

Laos was very beautiful and still strongly French influenced, you can tell by the architecture. It was actually much prettier than Thailand. The street vendors even sold baguettes with veggies, and eggs. It was delicious and something you cannot easily acquire in Thailand.  But being one of the poorest 3rd world countries in Asia, you would never be able to tell by the state of its capital, filled with such friendly well dressed people! Everything was dirt cheap, they accepted Thai Baht and American dollars as currency which was kinda cool! In Bangkok we have been able to buy DVDs for about $3 a pop, in Laos I found Disney movies for 15฿, or .50¢. Needless to say I stocked myself up! I bought all the Harry Potters, and any Disney movie I could get my hands on, including but not limited to: Snow White, Fantasia, Emperor's New Groove, Cinderella, and Mulan. Buying DVDs has become a slight obsession of mine! When the price of Disney movies is at LEAST $20 in America... I cannot pass up a .50¢ price tag! 

Overall, our trip to Laos was very successful. We made some new friends and we are 1 step closer to  getting our Work permits, and never having to worry about Visa runs for the next year! 

Till next time, Cheers!