Paisley Firefly: Laos

LAOS

Saturday: Chatuchak market! Tristan and I spent another day at Chatuchak just exploring a bit and getting a couple things. We also walked through the pets’ part of the market and, if you’re an animal lover like myself, I’d recommend not going through there. It’s all exciting at first, seeing all the puppies and kittens, until you see how they’re treated and how cramped the cages are. Other than that, it was another very enjoyable outing.

Sunday: Sunday saw to Tristan and I basically just relaxing until the afternoon. We had to head back into Bangkok to get a van to Laos to do our visa extension. We ended up running into quite a few people from the course, which was a pleasant surprise. The van ride itself, however, was terrible. The van was made to be more spacious and comfortable than your everyday, “generic” van, but Tristan and I were stuck at the back, which meant we couldn’t recline our seats back in any way, which rather inconvenient.

Monday: we arrived at the border at 4:30am, having gotten very little sleep, an hour and a half before the border would open. Eager to stretch my legs and find the little travellers room, Tristan and I got out the van just in time for the rain. And we soon discovered something even worse than the rain: I’d have to wait almost an hour for the restroom facilities to open. Back to the lovely, cramped, overly stuffy van it was, yay (insert rolling eyes face here).

Tristan and I were applying for our visas and so we got stuck at the immigration offices for quite a while. The agency we were using for the boarder run helped make the process a whole lot quicker for us than it could’ve been though. At about 12/1pm we finally got to the hotel and decided to go get some curry from the Indian restaurant we’d scoped out on the way to the hotel. The curry was incredible and so worth the crap we’d had to endure in the past 15 hours and the walk to the restaurant itself. After filling our bellies, we opted for a nap so we’d be well rested for the evening tour we were to joining. We slept through our alarms and ended up having a 6/7-hour nap. We also missed the evening tour to the market so we just made our way there on our own. Be warned: transport in Laos is crazy expensive. We met up with the others from the course for drinks and karaoke and I made myself a little friend: an adorable little ginger kitty. He loved me and fell asleep with his head in my hand. I tried my best to bring him to my room but SOMEONE *cough cough* Tristan *cough* wouldn’t let me.

Tuesday: More lines and buses and waiting. On the plus side, we stocked up on some chocolate in duty free (chocolate in Thailand is expensive!). At 11pm we arrived back at Future Park and headed home to Rangsit (yes, I now call my apartment in Rangsit ‘home’).

Wednesday: REST DAY. Time to recuperate for work.