Should i put this post in “travel spreading 1858gc”, or in “daily rambliniscings”? I do hope to meet someone in Laos who is interested in this precious book, but the main purpose is to get a 90 visa to stay in Thailand longer. Hope i can catch a train Saturday evening, and come back on Tuesday.
Your prayers are requested, for safety of course, and also to meet someone interested in this 2nd best book in the world 🙂
🙂 Danny, I love that word you choose, “rambliniscings”. I envision right off a rambling rose covering an arbor in full bloom.
Rambling on with your thoughts on a subject is nice if you put the opinions and observations under the Ramblingscings thread. All else should be under the ‘Travels…’ when you move from one place to another or plan to go to another place.
Are you saying that you need to go over the border into another country and come back again into Thailand so to get a 90 day visa for Thailand? Why do you want to go back to T-land?
Yes, i have a one-year contract to teach at an elementary school in Bangkok. I’ve been working there all this month already, so my 30-day visa was about to run out. I got the Laos visa for 35usd (oops, today is sunday, so it cost an extra 1usd for “holiday surcharge”. – ha!
I plan to go to the Thai embassy tomorrow with my letter of introduction from the school, so that they will give me a 90-day visa (if i pay the probably 60usd). I’ve never paid for a Thai visa in my life, so this is a bit strange to me, but anyway….
When i told a white guy getting his visa, that i am travelling around spreading a prophet’s book, and am Seventh-day Adventist, he didn’t say anything. When he finished writing, he walked away saying: “Better not spread your prophet’s book here, or they’ll kick your — out!!” Putting that together with his other statements about the people in Laos being the “happiest in the world”, i see where he is coming from. So idealistic 🙂 So deluded 🙁
My “bunkmate” from Bangkok to Nong Khai (the border town close to the capital of Laos – Vientiane) is a Japanese post man around 8 years younger than me, and from a part of Osaka where i used to teach one family English. He speaks English a bit, but soon seems more comfortable with my level of Japanese, and unlike most Japanese men, keeps up a steady stream of conversation 🙂
I have the upper bunk, as it is 488thb, saving maybe 40 baht over the lower bunk’s cost. Of course an air-con car is out of the question, as that is almost double the cost!
We arrive around 9:30, only around 20 minutes behind schedule, very exact by Thai standards – ha!
After crossing the border, the tuk-tuk guys pounce on us, saying “150 baht” (for the 2 of us). His guidebook says the usual price is 80-100, so we almost take it, but i bargain a bit more, and finally one guy says “OK” when i say 2 of us for 100 🙂
My first time into Laos, and the road is excellent, everything is clean, and i’m quite surprised, but knowing that often some foreign country helps out these poor countries in transportation, i await my final conclusion until travelling all the way into the city. It is pleasant all the way, with a bit more trash etc. nearing the city as might be expected.
His guidebook points us to Phorntip Guest House, which has a 100,000kip/nite room. There are 2 beds, air-con, warm shower, and cable, so we take it. I’m thanking God for supplying this Japanese man to help me halve the cost of a place, having a friend to talk to, and having it all in Japanese – feels almost like home!
This town is laid-back. Really laid back. Walking around by myself a bit brings to me what i have been missing from my life – solitude. Here i am in the downtown section of an Asian capital, and it is quiet. I need that.
We walk around to the main market, where a newish mall has opened also. It is interesting, and we see food is a bit higher than in Bangkok. The Lao people don’t seem to have much in the way of business “push”, which is a pleasant surprise especially compared to Vietnamese. That might be one reason for the backwardness of their country too tho.
After internet for me, and a shower and nap for my friend, we walk about 100m to the Mekong riverbank, where there are little food stalls stretched out for maybe 300m. We soon find one that lets us cook the noodles and veggies (meat for my friend) right in a clay pot on a charcoal fire on our table. We both are hungry, so order rice too – a huge feast! It is really nice
The next morning, after a guest house provided breakfast of eggs and french bread, i start walking to the Thai embassy. My friend has a book with the Thai embassy located on it, and it doesn’t look too hard to find. I’m thinking that on a Monday morning, there will be a rush hour, but there isn’t too much rush – a very nice contrast to the other places i’ve been.
The embassy must be close….I ask some people, and have trouble communicating, but get the general idea that it is further along the road. Now i’m up to the big triumphal “monster” arch, and still no embassy. I ask a traffic cop, and he points me still further along the road. Going that way leads seemingly out of civilization, with buildings becoming scarce. Then there is the Malaysian embassy, then a Toyota dealer, then, up ahead, i see a bunch of tuk-tuks and people milling around – yep, that’s it. 50 minutes from the guest house.
Some touts try to sell me a visa application form for 20baht – ridiculous. I wait to get inside, then get one for free from the receptionist. Right on it is written “Not for sale” – ha! The man behind me bot one…. Then he goes to get his passport copied, spending another 40baht. I remember walking past a copy shop, and walk back 5 minutes to get it done, at 1/10th the cost (smug look).
The man at the counter (all this is outside, waiting partly in the sun, partly under the roof), looks over my form, and tells me i can’t apply for the type of visa i have marked. I’m game for anything, and he marks a different category, and after going in the small building to the side, and reading the sign on the door by the Lao govt. saying that all payments in Laos have to be in kip, i hand over 1,000baht to the clerk who gives me a ticket to come back tomorrow. A 60-day tourist visa costs 1,000thb, while a non-immigrant business visa costs 2,000.
I do some touristry things like climb the steps to the 7th-floor top of the big “monster” concrete arch. Vientiane is flat, and there is a really good view from the top. There seems to be only one other building in town with a claim to possibly be higher. I want to buy some postcards, but the lady doesn’t want to give a volume discount. OK, i don’t need to buy from you.
How to find the church??????
I walk around a bit, and happen to run into the Tourist Information Center – great! It looks doubtful that they know the church i’m talking about, but give me a little xeroxed map that looks pretty good, and circle a spot on it, so off i go.
The sun is blazing hot. One man in line for the visa was surprised that i walked to the embassy, telling me that while he could walk in Bangkok even with the humidity and smog, he could not in Vientiane with the burning sun.
I see a sign for “World Vision”, and a tall white guy comes out while i walk past, and asks if i need help. Why, yes i do. He glady walks with me the 100m or so to the large, Seventh-day Adventist church. It is locked, but in walking around the back, i find some people eating, and head up the stairs.
Inside are 3 people, and 2 of them “just happen to be” translators! How does God always work this out for me?! It is amazing. They are working on a new health book, and tell me that right now, the only SOP book in Laotian is Steps to Christ.
They also say that it would be much easier to translate from Thai into Laotian, so after giving them one book, and praying with them, i told them that it is currently being translated into Thai, so when that is finished, we can plan on how to get into Laotian 🙂 I put the Ellen White material and 1858gc anime on his computer, and hear from one that he plans to go to Japan to study (so we speak in Japanese a bit). May God bless them both abundantly, and may the work in Laos go forward stronger in the future.
I find a lady selling little charcoaled things by the side of the road, and buy a sweet potato, corn on cob, rice in bamboo, and a bric-pak of soy milk for 9,000 kip, or nearly 1usd. Delicious!
Walking around some more, and exchanging some more baht to kip, i finally make my way back to the guest house after doing some internet. The guest house young receptionist on Sunday was really nice, but the middle-aged man today is really sour. Oh well.
My friend has gotten a haircut, and was ripped off royally, being quoted 30usd, finally getting them down to around 22. That is crazy high. No doubt they saw the Japanese sucker, and stuck it to him. We mourn and laugh about it over some not-yummy fried noodles.
It has seemed a bit surreal, being surrounded with Japanese speakers on NHK TV, and of course my friend for 2 days, but the next morning, after breakfast and a prayer together, he says good-bye. May you accept Jesus Christ as your saviour – H-san! I want to see you in heaven.
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Being around him reminded me of the best things and worst things about Japan. The courteousness – politeness – looking out for others – quietness – honestness – willing to share – being well prepared – ability to give and take in conversation – ahhhh, so nice. And the inability to think out of the box – getting bogged down in minor details – blaming bad things in Japan on foreigners – and most of all—the indifference toward their own soul. Ahhh, Japan, i love you very much! Please come to the foot of the cross, and inherit eternal life 🙂
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I write some postcards and take another shower just before check-out time at noon. Knowing the way today, it only takes 40 mins to walk to the Thai embassy where there are already around 100 people milling about. I see the American guy who was behind me in line yesterday, and we talk while waiting. He has lived in SE Asia many years, and is a computer programmer. He is in a hurry to get back to Bangkok, and offers me a free space in a taxi he plans to get. We all rush in when they open the gates, and fortunately, everything goes smoothly, and we are out in around 20 mins with a nice, shiny visa taking up a whole page in our passports.
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True to his word, he bargains (not hard – 300baht) for a tuk-tuk to the border which is around 22km away. He says i and one other person can ride free. I tell the Filipino girl i talked with yesterday in line, but she has other plans with her friends. Some French guy gets in with us, and pays my friend 100baht, and we “tuk-tuk” out of town. I stop the driver at a french bread place, as my friend in Bangkok has asked me to bring back some. We hit Friendship Bridge just before 2, and before i know it, we have separated, as he has caught a taxi to UdonThani for his airplane back to Bangkok (2,500baht?), and i have a short bus ride (15baht) over the Friendship Bridge to the Thai side.
After getting into Thailand, i take a tuk-tuk for 20 baht to the Nong Khai train station. The train doesn’t leave until 6:20, so there is lots of time to watch the dogs lick each other, and the waiting passengers feed them, and then kick them when the dogs come back for more (like, yeah).
I get some Kao Pad (fried rice) at a stall across the road, and the train leaves right on time. It is really nice, at twilight, going thru the northern Thailand countryside. Little kids wave to us, and we wave back. Soon it is dark, and before long i get up in my upper bunk to go to bed. Upper bunks are cheaper, and i’m in the non air-con car, so it was 488 up from Bangkok, and 477 back to Rangsit, a suburb of Bangkok. I have to take some “sleepy medicine” (a tiny swig of cough syrup), to get to sleep, and wake up about every hour or so thru the nite, but do manage around 4 hours or so of rocking sleep.
We are around 40 minutes late in the morning to arrive. Alighting from the train, i’m accosted by taxi drivers. “You go where?” “Minburi”. “Come with me”. “How much is it?” “400baht” “No thank you.” I walk out to the road, ask a question of someone passing by, and walk to the main road where there are lots of busses. There should be minivans going to Minburi, but can’t find any, so after waiting 20 mins, and getting anxious that i won’t be in time for school, i hop in a taxi. The 37km adds up to 221baht. Almost 1/2 of my entire 650km train ride! Oh well. The last few kms are in a bus, and i arrive at 7:33, ahead of most of the other teachers who are usually late.
Thank you God for this opportunity, and for working out the visa. Please may your words go strong in the country of Laos one day i pray.
Phew! that was some report. Reading from top to bottom entry I was really impressed. May I list the bright glowing impressions left in me …?
1. I am so thankful for your fitness to endure the small discomforts of life in the non-western world.
2. Thanks be to our Lord for gifting you with the talent of loving people to just talk to all and anyone along the way.
3. I’m grateful for your consistency in being faithful to your calling. This has been an enormous help for me in my spiritual attitude when things go negative in my life. I just think on how you cope and pick up strenght to carry on in better courage.
4. I am really ‘wow-ed’ how you can keep a frugal hand on your monetary resources. It is really neat to see each of your bargaining stories, especially. I like seeing your courage in action to resist giving a higher price for something when you know the true established value expected of all the others who normally pay.
We, the lurkers, are looking forward to your stories from your school teaching job.
Just today i got a email from the young, SDA translator i met there in Laos. He said he has heard quite a bit from people about “The Great Controversy”, and is interested in reading it for himself. Also, he expressed interest to translate it after it is translated into Thai – making my heart sing 🙂