December 19, 2022 to December 20, 2022
Visa Run to Huay Xai, Laos
For many years Thailand has given tourists a free 30 day visa-on-arrival but in an effort to sweeten the pot, so to speak, and attract as many tourists as possible to return to Thailand this winter, they added 15 days to their visas-on-arrival. It was a welcome change for sure. But, time marches on anyway and our 45 day Thai visas were about to run out. We could have gone to Thai Immigration near the newish 'Friendship Bridge No. 4' a few miles downstream from Chiang Khong and pay 1900 Baht ($55) each for another 45 days. Or, we could cross the bridge into Laos and pay $40 for a 30 day Lao visa, stay as long as we wanted to have a Lao experience and then return to Thailand getting another 45 day visa upon arrival. We thought it would be more fun to experience a different country overnight, or maybe longer, than to sit in a Thai Immigration office. The amount of money would come out about the same figuring in the cost of food and the hotel in Laos if we stayed only one night.
We have had mixed feelings about the direction Laos has taken in the last 15 years. The incredibly ignorant, (stupid to begin with), corrupt MEN at the top in the Lao government (there are around 400 of them) have let China eat their own country, simply for personal gain in wealth and power. I remember when tourism began in Laos and the people were incredibly excited about their futures. With lots of new opportunities unfolding, people could finally envision moving out of poverty. But it seems the Lao government squashes dreams the people have and corruptly extracts their cut from any success story. Now the people seem more downtrodden than ever. Many do not appear to be happy and they seem almost soulless. They treat tourists all right but the spark is gone.
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Likewise, the government has encouraged China and Thailand to do a lot of large projects that have changed the landscape and environment forever. Dams are on every river and everything associated with the rivers has been disrupted. 90% of the electricity produced by the dams goes to China or Thailand so does not help the Lao people. Fish are gone, the people say, and once gorgeous stretches of small rivers are no longer navigable or beautiful the way they were just a few years ago. Thais used to come to Laos to buy fruits and vegetables because they were completely organic and delicious. I don't think that is the case anymore due to agribusiness and chemical companies.
There has been a drastic change in Laos and we have felt it so strongly that we have not wanted to return for any length of time because we just get depressed, along with the people. In 2019 we did a visa run to Vientiane, thought we might stay awhile and were back to Thailand in two days because it just didn't feel good anymore. So, here we were on the other end of the country and about to try Laos again. We took all of our stuff along because we had considered having a wild exploration of roads we had never taken and returning to Thailand at a border crossing we knew nothing about and nobody we talked to did either.
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We rode to the big bridge and went through Thai Immigration and were told we could not ride our bikes across the bridge to Lao Immigration because in Laos driving is on the right. In Thailand it's on the left and they didn't trust that we could handle zigging to the opposite side of the road midway on the bridge. We had been allowed to be intelligent drivers when we had crossed 'Friendship Bridge No. 1' in 2019 but not here. I figured it was simply a money making scheme especially if you have bicycles. They charged us three times the lone person rate, all for the hassle of putting our bicycles on a bus and going over the bridge! It was irritating.
On the Lao side, at their immigration office there was the $40 visa charge (up from $35 last time we crossed) but then there was a 20 Baht fee without any explanation of what it was for. I remember years ago if you crossed through Lao Immigration on a weekend the guys in Immigration had come up with a small fee which they tried to rationalize to us, "Overtime". They had even made a crudely hand-written sign, "Overtime Fee". What a joke! This time it was not the weekend so we figured it was a fee for buying beer after work. Corruption abounds at the top and sets the example for the lower echelon of bureaucrats to come up with their own schemes for graft. So, right off the bat we were irritated even if it was less than 60 cents they were demanding. I kept my mouth shut and did not say, "Oh, a corruption fee?" like I had said at the Cambodian border a few years ago. The guy almost didn't let me into Cambodia and he threw my passport at me! People don't like it when you point out the truth to them.
I thought it was interesting that their corruption fee for beer (I don't know it was for beer!) was demanded specifically in Thai Baht. This is because the Lao Kip is quickly becoming kind of worthless. I don't know what the inflation rate is but I do know that the Lao Kip is worth less than half what it was just a few months ago. They are headed toward using Thai Baht and U.S. dollars for their currencies rather than the Kip.
Also, Lao Immigration was a mess. There were no signs telling us which window to go to next. We had to go from one window to another but there was no direction from anyone in between. There were no signs pointing us in the right direction, nothing. No one told us anything and instead acted like zombies. All the tourists there were as confused as we were. Right at the border the tone was set, the tone we were afraid of experiencing again.
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Once out of immigration, I changed my mirror to the left side and we were off. Andrea never changed her mirror because I guess she decided to wait and see if we would stay more than one night. We got a lovely hotel room with a bathroom that looked as though nobody had cleaned it in years! There was even a used razor lying next to the sink! But the room overlooked the Mekong and into Chiang Khong, Thailand. Huey Xai is kind of a picturesque little town with lots of steep streets and great views. We rode around town until sunset time and ate at a nice little restaurant right on the water as the sun sank behind the hills in Thailand. It was lovely and the food was good, not very different from Thai food.
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I see kids using big sharp knives and scissors all the time over here. Parents are not concerned in the least. In general kids are unsupervised and somehow things seem to turn out quite well. Fingers intact.
1 year ago
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My main desire in Huay Xai was to go to the morning market which I remembered from 20 years ago or more to be exotic with a few hill tribe people selling their produce. Back then the market was completely open-air. I simply wanted to buy some Lao coffee, the raw stuff in bags. it's a certain mixture, old style, and is different from old style Thai coffee. I wanted it and also to drink some from a vendor in the market. Surely there would be a vendor for Lao Cafe.
We were striking out finding the coffee. We asked so many people that I think everyone knew what we were looking for but for some reason couldn't direct us to where we could actually buy some. Finally, the last place we looked had some bags. It was super cheap and it weighs a ton!
We never did find any to drink.
We ate some breakfast that was not quite what we had ordered and after that decided to scrap all plans for riding that unknown road to the border crossing no one could tell us anything about. It would have been an odyssey, an epic adventure that would have produced a wealth of material to write about for this journal and therefore entertain you immensely. We hate to let you down but we headed back to more or less predictable, happy Thai people where there is not a corruption fee at the border and where the bathrooms are cleaned regularly, usually. Sorry, Laos. We tried once again. Maybe someday you all can overthrow your corrupt government and then make some headway. Nah, that will never happen.
What has happened in Laos very much saddens me. I was as excited as the Lao people were 20 years ago. I went back more times than I remember and had unforgettable experiences. I think somewhere in the country you can still have those kinds of experiences. We haven't had the sticktoittiveness to keep going deeper into the countryside in recent years but that doesn't mean great adventures don't still exist. I believe that if you venture deep enough you will have adventure. It's just harder to find now in Lao.
Other factors could possibly be that we are now older and less interested in hassles and maybe can see through corrupt practices which we don't want to deal with anymore. Maybe we've become soft and we like cleaner bathrooms and people who are not sullen. Maybe we want to see cleaner streets, less trash and smoother roads. I'm sure these things are true because we rode back into Thailand after 24 hours in Laos and before we got back to Baan Rimtaling Guest House we swung into the Cactus Cafe and had some of the best khao soi of our trip. The owner saw our loaded bikes and asked where we had come from and where we were going. She laughed that we didn't even get as far as our guest house before we had to have her khao soi. That's what I'm talking about: People able to pursue their dreams and create businesses that become successful and they become part of the middle class, able to joke around with tourists, able to be happy and content with their lives. That's the difference between Laos and Thailand. I truly feel sad about what has happened in Laos.
lovebruce
Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 671 miles (1,080 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 12 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |
So interesting how that evolves over time.
As much as I would like to read about an adventure through Laos to the mysterious border crossing, I'm happy that youse listened to your guts when they said, "Nah. Not *this* unmettled road!"
1 year ago
1 year ago