The train was easy and we arrived in Nong Khai about half an hour late, but with no deadlines it was not an issue. We took a tuk-tuk to the border post, followed by the obligatory short bus ride across the Friendship bridge over the Meekong.
Laos immigration was a couple of forms and we had our 30 day tourist visa. Andrew called Mr Kham the driver for his friends in Vientiane.
We were taken their house in the suburbs of Vientiane. It is a lovely large house, but the road is unsealed and quite cut up after the rainy season.
We went downtown after lunch to try and orientate ourselves with the city. It is a small compact central city, with very little traffic. Lots of Toyota utes and Prados. Cars here have 180% tax over the purchase cost, but utes have a lower tax charge as they are ‘working’ vehicles.
After lunch Andrew visited the Ministry of Education and started the process of signing his contract. This probably means he will get paid at some time in the future and this isn’t just a holiday trip. It now goes off to be registered by the government.
And we are both kip millionaires after withdrawing 2 million kip each from the ATM machine. That’s about NZ$300 each. Costs are relatively cheap. Of course western goods are more expensive. 6 of us went out for dinner last night to a local restaurant and the cost was 360,000 kip or about NZ$60 all up.