Wednesday 24th Feb
Having caught the bus from Namsom to Nong Khai, we were greeted with the usual line of tuk-tuk drivers. We explained that we wanted to be taken to the Friendship Bridge and after a huge smile he was please to take us! Having seen this sort of smile before I immediately knew not to trust him ;o)!
He took us to an office along with a French guy that looked like he had had a life time on Tiger Beer, with the hum of stale cigarette smoke and booze, sitting next to him on a squashed tuk-tuk was not a pleasant experience. The office we were taken to was a tour operator offering us Visa’s for Laos and transportation all the way to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The catch was they wanted 400 baht (8 pounds each), to travel just a few miles! I smiled politely looked at Jonny and Elliott, took out the Lonely Planet and explained that if we went our own way it would be a lot cheaper. After a short discussion we all agreed, I was a little concerned that the tuk-tuk driver would refuse to take us as he would not be making a commission, just a few baht for the tuk-tuk ride. However, fortunately for us the French guy was so out of it he was happily paying the extortionate office fees, which meant we were off the hook without a struggle.
The bus over the Friendship Bridge was 15 baht each and the taxi journey from the Laos border to Vientiane was 150 baht between three of us. The visa (30 days) cost $30.
The border crossing was amazingly smooth and hassle free!
Laos is so different from Thailand and Cambodia, the people are so laid back you have to hassle them….not the other way around! Our ‘go it alone’ theory paid off as we managed to save 1000 baht (20 pounds) which on a traveling budget is money well saved!
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