In our short time travelling we have discovered that there are a few universal signals for things. For example, to order the bill you pretend to write on your hand; if you don't understand something you smile and nod; or if you want to indicate a visa you stamp you punch your palm with your opposing fist. Well the final example may not be universal but we certainly found it useful.
When we arrived in Vientiane we had not known what to expect. Various other travellers we met either recommended not to go or bypassed it due to its lack of entertainment. We on the other hand found it quite pleasant.
There is not a whole host of things to do considering it is the capital but it is interesting for that fact alone. We spent our first evening at a bar on the bank of the Mekong drinking Beer Lao under the stars and getting bitten to death by bugs. Excluding the bugs, it was a wonderful sight.
One of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Vientiane was because there was a Cambodian consulate there and no matter how many times I looked through the guide books or checked online I couldn't seem to find a definitive "Yes" or "No" as to whether it was possible to buy a Cambodian visa at the border.
Since we were in the city anyway we thought we may as well check it out and then spend the day going to the markets and perhaps a Wat or two.
We hailed down a tuk-tuk and explained where we wanted to go and pointed to our map. After a few minutes the driver seemed to understand. He smiled and we got in. Already seated in the tuk-tuk was a middle-aged Cambodian woman and a monk listening to his ipod.
The driver half explained that we would need to drop the monk off first. We stopped outside a Wat and the monk jumped out and ran towards the temple. We waited for about ten minutes at which point the monk returned and we continued up the road. We hadn't really understood why this had happened but we were moving again so we thought it best not to question it.
My only worry was that the driver thought we might want to go to the Thai embassy. My reason for this was because every time I said "Cambodian embassy" he would nod and say something sounding like "Thai".
We kept driving further and further out of the city but we had no way to try and ask the driver where we were going. We just had to be patient.
After another twenty minutes we seemed to arrive at a large car park behind that was a big sign, "Thai Border Crossing". "No, no, no!" I shouted while waving my arms. I thought that, for the second time on our trip, we'd get stuck on the wrong side of the border. The driver simply laughed and pointed to the monk who was getting his things together, paid the driver and walked towards the border. After that we headed back into the city.
We stopped again just so the driver could double check our map and then set off. We arrived outside an official looking building with many other Western tourists crowding around outside. Trying not to appear too skeptical I quickly checked the sign outside to check we were at the right place. The sign read, "Thai Embassy". "No", I repeated. "Cambodian". Much more pointing and map twisting occurred before we set off again in what looked to be the right direction. The taxi driver then dropped us about 3km from where he picked us up. Almost an hour and a half after he'd picked us up.
Still smiling the driver let us off and just shrugged. We paid the nice man and Lizzie pointed out it wasn't his fault and he was just trying to help us. I felt quite guilty in the end considering the goose chase we'd accidentally sent him on.
The guard at the Cambodian consulate told us, from behind locked gates, that it was closed for lunch and would reopen in an hour and a half. Too hot to care we sat at a roadside cafe in the shade until we could speak to someone.
So a swift hour and a half later we passed through the gates to the Cambodian consulate which just looked like a big colonial house. We were then directed to a window where a small man in glasses sat behind a sign saying "Visas".
We asked him if he knew if we could buy a visa at the Laos-Cambodian border. He didn't know. Could he tell us who we might contact who would know? No. He told us the best thing to do would be to come back the following morning where we could get a visa to pick up that afternoon. Slightly deflated we thanked the man and decided to head for a nearby pool to relax and cool down and then return tomorrow.
We hailed down another tuk-tuk to go back into the city centre. In the back of our new tuk-tuk sat two American girls. We chatted and when we said about our visas they said, "Oh yeah you can get them at the border. We've just come from Laos and they issued visas at both sides." Success, even if it had taken most of the day.
The next day we travelled on to Savannakhet which is quite possibly the weirdest place we've been. It was a perfectly nice looking town there was just no one there. It was a ghost town. It seems a shame to say nothing about it but there really wasn't anything there. The people were nice and there was nice restaurants but apart from that very little to do.
More confused that anything else we travelled on to Pakse where we only intended to spend one night before going to Si Phan Don (the Four Thousand Islands). Unfortunately Lizzie developed a really bad stomach bug which kept her bed bound for a few days and so we stayed in Pakse for a few days.
Near our guesthouse was a hairdressers and one afternoon when Lizzie was asleep I thought I would be brave and get my haircut. I went in and asked how much it would cost to which I was answered with a blank stare. I made a motion with my hands as if I was cutting hair and then rubbed my thumb and forefinger together to signify money. The girl just began laughing and turned and said something to her friend who just looked angry. The laughing girl just waved me away saying "No". I repeated the gesture thinking that they hadn't understood but she just laughed more and said more emphatically "No". Why was this the moment that the Laos people decided to give definitive answers?
I didn't end up getting my haircut because knowing my luck I would have accidentally told them to shave half my head and I just don't have enough sun-tan lotion to pull that off.
No comments:
Post a Comment