In late April I headed up to Vientiane by myself for a couple of weeks before Andrew came up through until the end of May. He travelled by himself and did well enough, even leaving the airport in Bangkok for a night and getting himself back for the final leg through to Vientiane. He got to immigration in Vientiane and tried to go through based on his digital arrival card. The immigration officer shoo-ed him away and he had to go through the tedious task of lining up for the visa-on-arrival process. USD 40 later he was in the country. What he forgot was I already prepared (and paid for) his eVisa which was in his travel folder, in his backpack. He looked a bit stressed by the time the taxi dropped him off 2 hours later than expected.
We stayed an extra 10 days this trip so my work visa and our country stay permits could be completed – no more eVisas needed for Andrew! But to convert visa types you have to go out of the country and be stamped back in. Initially we planned a few days in Vietnam at the beach between Hoi An and Danang – but the day before we had to cancel as the work permit was delayed. A 2nd trip was planned when the documentation was ready. Playing it safe, we went to Thailand and Hua Hin beach. Somewhere we had not been before, it was on the mainland and less than 3 hours out of Bangkok. It wasn’t the idyllic blue seas of a Thai island, but it was very nice just to relax. Time by the sea is always nice and visiting good night markets and eating well was very much enjoyed.
Back in Vientiane we had a last minute cancellation of one of our apartments – the day before we were supposed to move there. Because I was working in 2 different offices, on 2 different sides of town, we were spending 2 week blocks at different hotels. Recovering from the last minute cancellation we ended up in a luxury apartment and Andrew doesn’t want to stay anywhere else from now on.
There was a few days of rain in early May, but then it stopped again. But the sky and thunder could be very dramatic, as the view from the office window showed
Again I spent too much time working, while Andrew had quite a nice time going out for coffee and taking pictures of temples. Every days more pictures of temples came through. One day he told me one of the young monks had given him a bottle of water – normally people give offerings to the monks, not the other way around!
And I was so pleased to finally get a photo of the egg-man…as I called him. As I walked to the office I would often see the motorbike driving to the local shops selling his trays of eggs. In my head I would sing, “it’s the egg-man, see the egg-man, it’s the egg-man’… over and over until i got to work because I didn’t know anymore of the words. One day I finally searched the lyrics and realised it was the Beatles “I am the Walrus”, and I could add a few more words to the manic refrain going around in my head.
Spending an elongated time in Laos was enjoyable. We returned to restaurants, places and people we have known over the year,s in a relaxed manner. Apart from day we went to meet a fellow kiwi for Sunday lunch. The trip should have taken 15 minutes by car. It ended up taking an hour and 15 because there was a half-marathon on…we arrived rather late. He had the better end of the experience – while he was waiting by himself for us to arrive, at least he had some cold drinks.
One issue remains that by default Andrew ends up being in charge of daily shopping. Sadly he thought that Batman themed, bubblegum flavoured toothpaste, was the answer to the new tube of toothpaste requirement. He was wrong. Awful! The blue tongue is unrelated, just another example of how he looks after eating blue macaroons in the Air France lounge at Bangkok airport.
