237. | Houayxay

Back to socialism.

I still lived in this system. Today there are 5 officially socialist countries in the world. Their characteristic is the one-party system, plus the ideological basis of the system is Marxism-Leninism and the strong role of the state in the economy. In addition, there are 3 other countries that are not socialist, but they promote left-wing or “socialist” policies.

I have not been in a socialist country for 13,288 days (36.5 years). Of course, this is not the most important characteristic of Laos, but I cannot ignore this fact because of my own history.

It will go smoothly someday

Maybe it’s time to write down what has been clear to me for a long time, but not necessarily as clear to my readers as it is to me.

These trials that come my way every step of the way don’t discourage me at all. I’ve been thinking about the temporality of these little extra tasks all along.

When I’m in them, I think my blood pressure is a little higher, but maybe that’s because the feeling of “who knows what’s going to happen next” burns at a slightly higher temperature than normal excitement.

As soon as I get out of the pothole, I don’t care about it at all. My blood pressure quickly levels off and I can focus on what’s around me and the next step.

By the time I get to the point of first telling or writing down the experience, it has simply transformed into a good story – at least for me.

Now I will tell you how I arrived in Laos, and in the process I will count the “unknown” factors.

Bus, bus and bus

The bus parked at bus stop number six leaves every hour during working hours towards Laos, the ticket costs 140 BHT, and the bus number four goes to the Friendship Bridge. I knew this since the day before, so I showed up at the bus terminal before 1 pm.

I was about 50 meters from the bus when the driver started waving at me like an old acquaintance. I didn’t feel it, but maybe it was written on me that I was going to Laos. We talked in small talk so that the direction would be good. “Laos?” “Aaaaah.” That’s enough.

A guy had already taken my backpack off my back and put it on the back seats of the bus and motioned for me to sit down.

Who’s going to pay?

Is there something in this system that you don’t have to pay when you get on. If they want to protect the interests of the passenger, then perhaps the ideology is that only those who are actually traveling should buy a ticket. Because two minutes after the bus leaves, the driver’s assistant begins his money-raising tour.

If the interests of the bus are at the forefront, then I don’t even dare to imagine what the ideology is. We’ve already left, pay! If not, we’ll throw you out of town, and then you can come back on foot.

The bus was only loosely filled with passengers. I was glad that the seat next to me was empty. Of course, Murphy’s Law always works. As the bus turned out of the parking lot, I saw a man running towards the bus, out of breath. He reached it. And so did the two women who were with him. So someone was already sitting next to me.

The fact that these buses run without a schedule adds a serious uncertainty factor to the trip. I’m wrong to look at the map to see how many km I have to travel, this information doesn’t help at all. On the one hand, I don’t know how many detours we’ll take. Maybe x will be 2x. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean anything how long it takes me to travel 2x kilometers in Europe. The speed here is not as wild as what I’m used to.

Besides, there’s something charming about it when the car in front of us, which is traveling at about 30 km/h, is overtaken by the bus at a crazy speed of 35 km/h.

I dare to hope that we’ll reach the end of a 100 km and 1.5 hour car journey according to Google Maps in 2 hours.

I was wrong! I managed to get from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong in 3.5 hours.

The only direction I had to go after getting off the bus was forward. I soon found myself at Thai customs. The officer asked if my visa was okay. I can’t imagine why, as he also checked my passport. The question was probably a trap, but I got away with it.

I would have continued towards the – I hoped – left side, which meant freedom, because the sky was so beautiful there. But they already told me that the direction would be right, and I should buy a bus ticket. I told the lady that I wanted to walk across the bridge, but she said that was impossible. So I bought a ticket for 30 BHT.

I arrived at a big bus roundabout with several of you. We were all at a loss as to what to do next. Which bus to take, when it would leave. But there was only one and they immediately started packing our bags into the bottom of the bus. Given the circumstances, we really just hoped that this was the bus we had bought tickets for.

That was it. The bus took maybe 1 minute and we arrived on the Lao side.

There wasn’t much information waiting for us here either. A man immediately approached me to ask if I had a badge. I have no idea why he asked what he meant, but he calmed down and said no and didn’t bother me any further. Maybe he was waiting for a group?

The only sign that made sense was that eVisa on the right. So I went to the right. There were already a lot of people queuing up with all sorts of forms.

I didn’t understand why I had to queue if I already had my visa. Luckily, I had the sense to ask if I had to queue. I didn’t.

I could already see that after a short walk I would have to queue at checkpoint 5, because that’s where the eVisa is directed. Of course, there was no one in checkpoint 5. In fact, there was only one official sitting in checkpoint 3.

We stood in line. The girl in front of me said the magic word e-visa, and the official moved to checkpoint 5. We followed her.

I was quickly in line as the second. He took my passport and asked if I had a visa on arrival form. Fuck. Of course I didn’t, I’d never heard of one. He sent me back to the starting area to fill one out.

This form is basically a piece of paper. I had to write down all the information that was already on my passport and visa. After I filled it out, of course I had no idea what to do with it. Should I do something with it at the first checkpoint or go back to booth 5.

So, I got in line at the starting line for the second time. Luckily, the official I asked 10 minutes before recognized me. He told me to just go to booth 5.

There was only the official there. He took my passport and a cheese ticket. He was strict. He just gave me instructions. Fingerprinting. Looking into a camera. 50 BHT. I was surprised, but there were no questions here. I paid.

I’ll note – because the reader may not notice – that I’ve already been to Laos and paid in Thai baht. The government employee asked me for this. It’s like the Hungarian border guard had asked for the fee in Austrian schillings back then. Strange.

I almost made it to the new country. But before the exit, a figure in a white shirt stopped me. He asked for my passport and a cheese ticket. As if I hadn’t left the checkpoint 10 seconds ago. He asked me for 20 Thai baht. Tourist tax. No receipt, nothing, just a warning that I could leave after I paid.

Even though I had bought an eSIM card for this country in advance, I was greeted by total internet silence.

So of course I couldn’t even check how far I would have to walk to my accommodation. Luckily, two young German girls spotted me and we immediately agreed to rent a taxi together to take us into the city.

So I paid 140 BHT to get to the city center in 10 minutes. Exactly the same amount as the 3.5 hours I had spent earlier.

I love these counters because without writing I would never think of counting how many little things I have on a trip like this.

A dozen is a nice number for a simple city-to-city, cross-country trip.

Finding my accommodation

But the black soup only came later.

I booked this accommodation through the Agoda app. It’s the same brand as Booking, but it’s more geared towards Asia.

The address of the accommodation…

This is always the problem. It’s impossible to copy it to Google Maps. When I searched for the name of the accommodation on Maps, of course, no results appeared. I took out the confirmation email and checked to see if there was a map link.

Hallelujah! There was a link. When I clicked on it, of course, it didn’t appear as a map app, but as a Google map embedded in a website that couldn’t be navigated. I quickly downloaded the Agoda app to see if it handled the address more intelligently. That is, it passes it on to another app, e.g. Google Maps. Not smarter.

As it turned out, my accommodation is 500 meters from where the bus leaves. To find out, I rode around the area for an hour and a half. First, I looked for a larger point based on the map shown by the app and headed there. It was a hospital, I thought I could find the accommodation there myself.

Of course, in reality, the accommodation is not near the hospital at all. So after walking around for a few streets, I got back to the main road from where I started. I oriented myself based on the map as to where the accommodation should be.

And then I rode around for a good half hour within 100 meters. During that time, I asked a dozen people where the building was. Not even the ones who were selling something in a shop 200 meters away knew.

That’s how I got to the bank of the Mekong, where the eyes of the third person there lit up and showed me the direction. Under the gardens, at the base of the chicken coops.

I had a minor heart attack when I got back to the main road from the back roads. Finally, the last person knew where I needed to go, so I luckily arrived at my accommodation.

The host immediately started hugging me and putting his arm around my waist. The only problem I had with this was that he was a man, and it made me feel quite uncomfortable. Since he did this once more during the evening, I was forced to decide that if he did it again, I had to tell him. Next time, from now on, I would tell him the first thing I did, because that’s the way it is in my world.

What he said was also strange. To choose a room for myself. Then he blurted out something about his own room. I really hope I misunderstood something. In any case, I asked for the keys to my room, which I didn’t get at first. And I locked myself in for the night not only with a key, but also with the deadbolt.

My room

Two medium-sized beds and a small bedside table were waiting for me. Two pictures on the wall, and an air conditioner. I immediately asked for a table and a chair, so we brought in a table and a chair without a back from the garden in front of my room.

I immediately rearranged my room. My back is now the wall, but at least I can work comfortably.

There are geckos, no rats. I found a spider, but only the friendly reaper variety, so I don’t have to worry.

The internet works perfectly fine otherwise. I noticed one strange thing: when I try to open Google or YouTube from behind a VPN, they simply refuse to start. I don’t know if this is a trick of the VPN, Google’s security system, or just the peculiar humor of the Laotian internet.

The city

Today I walked 6 kilometers in the part of the city where I live. It’s a beautiful place. But with this walk I reached the borders. There will be more streets and areas, but I practically got to know the main directions. This part of the city lies between a mountain and the Mekong riverbed, so it is quite limited, at least in one direction.

I made a small conversion chart for the money to understand the baht-kip money conversion. So today I bought with more sure hands than yesterday.

Today I ate spaghetti for the first time in many months. It was really delicious. And cheap too. Everything is cheaper or similar in price to Thailand.

The people are not at all different from the ones there. The only difference is that the streets are poorer here for some reason. And there is a little more garbage and disorder. But for me this is not disturbing at all.

During the walk I found a huge market. I saw familiar vegetables, smelled familiar smells and noticed unfamiliar foods.

Here, in one day, I saw more police officers and uniformed men and women during a walk than in the previous months combined.

It was strange to see the red flag with the hammer and sickle again in person.

This is a small town (part of town). I don’t think there will be any big excitement here. I saw two churches that I will visit this weekend.

I found an exciting program, but I have to think about it a lot. If I have something to write about, it will definitely be here on the blog.

My favorite part of this town will probably be the banks of the Mekong. I don’t know why, but I have such a nostalgic feeling about this river, which I saw for the first time yesterday.

I will definitely take this feeling with me. Just as the Mekong will probably take me away from here. But that will be another story.