Three days short of 7 months and three days in Lao

Today is our third day in Lao. After spending one night in NongKhai. Nongkhai is the border town between Thailand and Laos. In between is the Mekong river and it has a wonderful riverfront area.

Once we crossed the famous "Friendship Bridge" with a tuk tuk that was a mere 50Baht (less than $3) we filled out on the spot visas for Laos. Only to quickly get on the cheapest transport over to the Laos checkpoint on a local bus for a total of 30 baht (about$1). There were 3 or 4 main lines to have your passport and visas checked to get into Laos. I saw a side line filled with locals and we literally flashed our passports and zoomed by. Finally, we approached Laos soil. Our next task was to find transportation to Vientiane. This was the next major city and actually the capital of Laos. I was walking in front of Kevin and approached by a man offering minibus air conditioned immediate transport to Vientiane. This was quoted at 200Baht to 150Baht to 400baht total. This still was an expensive price rangin from $5 to $13. We are on a tight budget and for 22km.

In a matter of minutes there was a crowd of 8 to 11 men shouting out prices and circumstances like "we take you now" "we have air con" "cheap cheap." But we spotted one guy on the side of the whole crowd putting up 4 fingers indicated 80baht for the 2 of us. We were sold on a price of 2.60. It was a shared tuk tuk which is called a songtow in Thailand. This was fine because the driver agreed to take us to our hotel. We were SO satisfied to get from one side of Thailand to the capital of Laos for a mere $6 or $7.

The first day or so here I didn't understand the town. We went to a French Cafe. These are common because of the French influence still seen here today. While we were having lunch there were tons of beggars coming up to the door (not to actually enter the food establishment). They indicated they wanted food. This made us sad, but there was no way to help everyone.

The town is dusty and dry and it was such a quite town that reminded me of a wild west movie with an abandoned city. The only thing is, Vientiane is the capital. So, we went to the Thai embassy to get a 2 month Thai visa and we decided to rent bikes for the following day.

There is NO HOPE haggling with the tuk tuk drivers. Their stratedy in this city and from what I hear the whole country is a laminated print out of major sites and places with a fixed price. These prices are so inflated it is ridiculous. Kevin also read up on the way the tuk tuks are run in the city. Some books say it is very similar to a mafia. They all group up together and will not take anyone unless it is for the price they demand.

At one point when Kevin and I were trying to arrange a fair price and explaining to him that $1 USD for each km should be a fare price, the driver got out his hammock and hung it back up in this tuk tuk to lay down. It's a strict force and if the Laos mafia backs it up we can understand why they don't back down from their prices. This mafia is their workers union in a corrupt way.

Conclusion:

We rented 2 bikes for $4, picked up our passports from the Thai consulate and visited tons of temples in Vientiane. There is so much to see in this small town and it was so nice to sit back, pedal and soak in the dusty environment in a more peaceful way. Locals were constantly smiling. Probably because two white folk found a COMPLETELY cheaper way around the town. But most likely because it was entertaining to watch us maneuver in such a crazy place with random round abouts, one way streets and a mixture of cars, trucks and motorcycles. We were the minority in many ways and regardless the reason it was nice to receive so many smiles from locals.

We are nearing 7 months of travel with our backpacks. Today, I read an article about the possibility of backpacking forever. I would love to. It is non-stop exploring which in South America was sometimes tiring, but in South East Asia we have found some nice ways of balancing relaxation with sight seeing. It's been so much more natural to be on the road everyday and I do wonder if I could do this forever. I just have to pick up Rachum, stick her in my backpack and sneak her into hostels. Not really, Just dreaming.