Wednesday, December 27, 2006
19 December, 2006
We woke up and decided to get to Cambodia via Thailand instead of heading South to the Laos - Cambodian border (which was the safer route – but we were excited to take our chances). We heard that this was a better, shorter route to get to Siem Reap even though we had to enter another country and cross an extra border. We waited for a Sungtauw (truck) to arrive at the island (Khong island) and we were on our way back to Pakse. A town we had passed coming from Savannekhat. It was a 2 hour journey in the breeze, not too bad, and when we arrived a tuk-tuk took us to the bus station. We arrived and there was another truck being loaded for Vang Tao (the last Laos town before crossing into Thailand) which was our destination. We got on and this truck stopped all the time to pick up passengers. They were almost on our laps, I think we were about 40 at the back- crazy! This was bearable and we got off at the border. We walked across from Laos and into Thailand and it was so easy since we didn’t need a visa BUT the idiot at the customs stamped one of my blank pages and I specifically asked him not to. We were now pissed off to say the least because I now only have 5 more blanks and 2 more visas to get and the rest…. I did start with a brand new passport- believe it or not! Anyway, we continued with our journey and got to the local bus station 1km away to catch another truck to some place where another bus was waiting for us to take us to Ubon Ratchathani- our final destination for the day. We arrived in Ubon at about 15h00 and were quite excited about the days’ progress. We then caught a tuk tuk taxi that forgot to drop us off where we had requested so we got off furious and never paid him. We had to backtrack a bit with another tuk-tuk and were recommended to go to a particular hotel which was awful. We found another dump that was bearable for one night and we settled. So far we were on schedule with our plan and tomorrow we would leave for Cambodia. We got to the tourist agency we were also advised to go to and we wanted to book our bus to get us through the border. They then told us that the bus will only go in January and the only way to get to the border is by private car. The price was ridiculous and that would only be up to the border (no further). All the information we were given previously was backfiring and we were really upset. We hadn’t really eaten the whole day, we were tired and now we had visions of sleeping in Ubon a few days. In fact, we were trying to figure out which island we would head off to in Thailand. Ubon, we were also told, was a lovely little town with a night market and lots of shopping. Well, there was a food market, which was where we landed up for dinner, and that was it! Everything was closed by 20h00 and nobody was around. It was a bit of a disappointment to say the least and now we were regretting ever coming to Thailand. We did however find out that there were buses to the border and so we could always get there at some stage the next day. We went to an internet café and I spoke to the family whilst Rich frantically looked up if anyone had ever crossed the way we were going and there was no information at all. When we arrived back at the hotel, the guard asked us if we wanted a private taxi to the border. We finally haggled a price and thought it would probably be the fastest and easiest way to get started with our day, even though we were paying a bit of a premium for it. Rich never really slept that night and we were both very worried about our sojourn the following day.
We woke up and decided to get to Cambodia via Thailand instead of heading South to the Laos - Cambodian border (which was the safer route – but we were excited to take our chances). We heard that this was a better, shorter route to get to Siem Reap even though we had to enter another country and cross an extra border. We waited for a Sungtauw (truck) to arrive at the island (Khong island) and we were on our way back to Pakse. A town we had passed coming from Savannekhat. It was a 2 hour journey in the breeze, not too bad, and when we arrived a tuk-tuk took us to the bus station. We arrived and there was another truck being loaded for Vang Tao (the last Laos town before crossing into Thailand) which was our destination. We got on and this truck stopped all the time to pick up passengers. They were almost on our laps, I think we were about 40 at the back- crazy! This was bearable and we got off at the border. We walked across from Laos and into Thailand and it was so easy since we didn’t need a visa BUT the idiot at the customs stamped one of my blank pages and I specifically asked him not to. We were now pissed off to say the least because I now only have 5 more blanks and 2 more visas to get and the rest…. I did start with a brand new passport- believe it or not! Anyway, we continued with our journey and got to the local bus station 1km away to catch another truck to some place where another bus was waiting for us to take us to Ubon Ratchathani- our final destination for the day. We arrived in Ubon at about 15h00 and were quite excited about the days’ progress. We then caught a tuk tuk taxi that forgot to drop us off where we had requested so we got off furious and never paid him. We had to backtrack a bit with another tuk-tuk and were recommended to go to a particular hotel which was awful. We found another dump that was bearable for one night and we settled. So far we were on schedule with our plan and tomorrow we would leave for Cambodia. We got to the tourist agency we were also advised to go to and we wanted to book our bus to get us through the border. They then told us that the bus will only go in January and the only way to get to the border is by private car. The price was ridiculous and that would only be up to the border (no further). All the information we were given previously was backfiring and we were really upset. We hadn’t really eaten the whole day, we were tired and now we had visions of sleeping in Ubon a few days. In fact, we were trying to figure out which island we would head off to in Thailand. Ubon, we were also told, was a lovely little town with a night market and lots of shopping. Well, there was a food market, which was where we landed up for dinner, and that was it! Everything was closed by 20h00 and nobody was around. It was a bit of a disappointment to say the least and now we were regretting ever coming to Thailand. We did however find out that there were buses to the border and so we could always get there at some stage the next day. We went to an internet café and I spoke to the family whilst Rich frantically looked up if anyone had ever crossed the way we were going and there was no information at all. When we arrived back at the hotel, the guard asked us if we wanted a private taxi to the border. We finally haggled a price and thought it would probably be the fastest and easiest way to get started with our day, even though we were paying a bit of a premium for it. Rich never really slept that night and we were both very worried about our sojourn the following day.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 3:48 AM 
