Country two on our little tour around Asia was Laos. It was more of a side-trip really. It wasn’t on our original list of countries to see, but since it was so close, we figured we had to go see it! So we took a 14 hour train (i know, “close” lol), and made our way from Bangkok, Thailand to Vientiane, Laos (the capital). We made it in by 930am ish, and spent the next 2 hours going through customs and getting our visa-on-arrival. By 11am we were dropped off in the city centre and grabbed some lunch before heading to our hotel. So by the time we made it to the hotel and showered after a sweaty train ride from Bangkok, we had about 24-30 hours to enjoy Laos. This ended up being quite alright, as it turns out that Laos isn’t quite ready for tourists. There wasn’t really anything to see or do. Without a map, we wandered around the city for most of our time there.
At 330pm the next day we grabbed our bags and headed back for the border. We made it there quickly and easily, and bought our tickets for the train which you have to go on to cross the Friendship Bridge, which is the official border between Laos and Thailand. Then we waited for the train to leave. Mistake number one. An hour later, as we crossed over said bridge, Daisy asked me, “So how did you like Laos?” to which I responded, “I never want to come back to Laos again.” Mistake number two.
We were the first off of the train and the first in line for customs. I handed the officer behind the glass my passport. She flipped through it and said “no”…which is never a good sign. “No, you don’t have stamp.” It took me all of two seconds to realize that we must have missed a window on the Laos side of the border. The guard checked Kim’s and Daisy’s passport (Marilyn was in a different line), and said “same, same.”Daisy asked, “wait, is this bad?” ….Well we’re in Thailand but we’re not allowed in Thailand because we technically haven’t left Laos but we did leave Laos and there are no more trains going back and our train to Thailand leaves in 1 hour and we only have 5 hours once we arrive there before we need to be on the next train for Laos. YES, this is bad!
The female guard behind the glass points at a male officer nearby and tells us to follow him. Kim, Daisy, and I are practically running behind him to keep up with his fast pace (with our big packs on our back and our daypacks on our front). We follow him to the end of the train station, where we assume there must be an office around the corner. Wrong. He is getting in a car. And pointing to tell us to do the same!
So what do three foreign girls in a strange country, with a fourth friend in a different customs line clueless to where we are do with a Thai officer pointing at a car unable to communicate in the same language??? We jumped right in! ‘We’re going to Laos!”
The officer (very speedily) drove us to the Thai/Laos border, just before the bridge. Without any other options, and pretty trusting of our helpful friend at this point, we left all our stuff in his car and transferred to the shuttle bus that crosses the bridge. As soon as those bus doors opened on the other end, we raced off and around the corner to get our departure stamps. We were hit with a brick wall of 4 lines of about 15-20 people each. We spread out and waited for about 10 minutes to get our stamps. With only small amounts of Thai money left (I had already converted all to dollars), I rushed to pay for all of our exit fees and bus tickets back across to Thailand. I finished all my Baht on the exit fee and thankfully was allowed to buy bus tickets with dollars (the only 2 small bills i had). We turned and RAN to the bus to go back across the bridge, literally squeezing ourselves in like sardines. (I literally had nothing to hold onto and even nailed some poor guy in the head with my elbow at one point). On the ride back across teh bridge, Daisy and Kim reminded me of my earlier comment: “I”ll never go back to Laos.” :/
Back in Thailand we ran into more long lines. This time our guardian angel (the Thai officer), pulled us out of line and rushed us to the office where we were given first priority! After 3 minutes we were back in the car headed to the train station. At this point, realizing we still had 15minutes to make the train, our worried thoughts turned to Marilyn, who we left in Thailand without so much as a word or a wave to let her know we’d be back.
We thanked our officer friend and headed out to find our left-behind friend. We went up and back on the train platform for almost 10 minutes and couldn’t find her. I saw our officer friend and said to him, “We can’t find our friend.” In his broken English he said to me, “She go Laos.”
I turned and ran to Kim and Daisy yelling MARILYN IS IN LAOS! We realized she must have had the same problem as us, which we thought we saw her getting all the stamps in Thailand and being passed through. Obviously, she didn’t have the right stamps and was doing the same as us, rushing to get all the necessary stamps, this time with less than 10 minutes till the train was leaving.
This is when our prayers got even more intense! Daisy waited by the main entrance and Kim and I waited on the side that we had been dropped off, praying that Marilyn would make it in the next 10 minutes and we would make the train. Otherwise, we would be buying 3rd class tickets for the next train… hard wooden benches for a 14 hour overnight train. Eeeesh.
This is when the storm started rolling in. Without even exaturating, it looked like a scene out of a movie. Kind of like when the tornado comes in “The Wizard of Oz”….the sky turned brown, things were blowing past us and we even had our sunglasses on because dirt was blowing everywhere. Daisy came over and checked in with us and then went back to the entrance she was waiting at. We waited and attempted to look through the dirt to find Marilyn so we could make the train. And then we heard the train whistle. The last call. We had one minute to get on that train, or it was leaving without us.
The next thing I heard was Daisy’s voice: “CHRISTIE, KIM, MARILYN MADE IT, GET ON THE TRAIN!” Before she even finished her sentance, I yelled KIM LET’S GO, and we sprinted across the train tracks towards the closest end of our train car. We jumped on and met Marilyn and Daisy in the middle of the train, hugs/smiles/laughs exchanged.
Less than ONE minute later, we were on our way to Bangkok… with Marilyn!
