The
last two weeks have been very mellow. We moved into our new apartment
at Doi Ping Mansion, and couldnt be happier. For $300 a month we get
a fully furnished one bedroom apartment with huge living room,
kitchen, bathroom, and giant bedroom. We even have a small balcony
with a great view of the ping river and a temple. The place felt huge
compared to what we had been use to. More than anything we were
grateful to have a place with a kitchen so we could cook again. We
cooked up a storm. With two weeks in our new place with out any real
obligations I spent a majority of my time shopping at the markets for
new produce, researching how to make different things, cooking, and
eating. I made tortillas, fried rice, pad thai, coconut milk and
banana ice cream. We definitely filled our cooking needs. In between
cooking and shopping we met up with our usual groups to play
basketball, worked out in our apartment, and watched movies. A week
before we started work we got a call from Aom letting us know that
our paper work for our work visas came in. This meant that we would
need to make our last and final trip across the border. The next day
we caught a night bus from Chiang Mai to Vientiane Laos. The bus ride
was a brutal twelve hours. When we got there we went straight to our
hotel to nap and shower. We had three nights in Laos. The first day
we leisurely checked out the city. Although Vientiane was the capital
of Laos, it had a small town feel The streets were clean, the
buildings were new, and everything was well kept. Because Laos use to
be under the French rule, you can see the influence of french culture
through architecture and food. At almost every restaurant and street
food vendor you could find baguettes, where it was a baguette
sandwich or a baguette with butter, they were everywhere. The people
of Laos were not as friendly as Thai people. If you smiled at
someone, they most likely didnt smile back, which is complete
opposite of the people in Chiang Mai. The food was also on the
pricier side. I'm not sure if it was because we were in the capital,
but everything was at least fifty cents more. The one thing that was
very different about Laos was their currency. One bottle of water was
13,000 kip. An average meal was 100,000 kip. It was so confusing. On
our second day we woke up bright and early to go to the Thai embassy
to turn in our paperwork to get our Thai visas. We arrived forty five
minutes early trying to beat the crowds, but a long line had already
formed. The doors opened at 8:30 am, and everyone went in and got a
number. It felt like we were at the DMV, but worse. It was
excruciatingly hot and humid outside, well over a hundred degrees,
and we had to sit outside in the heat as people were called one by
one to the counter. When it was our turn we went to the counter and
turned in our paperwork that was given to us by the school, and then
sent inside another building where we paid the fee for the visa and
left them our passports. The passports are suppose to picked up the
next business day, but because the next day was a Thai Buddhist
holiday, we had to wait an extra day to pick it up. When we finished
we went back to our hotel where we rested until late in the
afternoon. We would have explored more during the day, but it was
too hot to be outside. Around six we made our way to the park near
our hotel where we caught the most beautiful sunset. The blood orange
sun looked beautiful as it lowered in the sky, with its reflection
sparkling over the winding river. We walked through the park and
checked out the night market. For dinner we ate at an Indian
restaurant where we had the most delicious food. One of our favorites
was the Aloo Palak, which is an Indian style spinach and potato dish.
It was to die for. While we were there it started storming. The sky
lit up purple as huge white streaks of lightening crashed to the
ground. It was the loudest thunder and biggest lightening bolts I had
ever seen. We Sat there eating our delicious food, and enjoyed
natures show. The next day we spent the hot afternoon in the room.
When we came out later in the day, we decided to take advantage of
the fact that Laos had a good variety of bread. So we went to the
cafe near our hotel that sold croissants, baguettes, bagels, and
bread rolls, things that we had been missing and couldn’t find much
of in Thailand. The next day we went back to the Thai embassy and
picked up our passports. This time we got there two hours early, and
there was still a line outside, but this time it was less than a
dozen. We left the embassy around three o’clock. From their we
walked to the bus stop where we bought a ticket to Udon Thani in
Thailand. When the bus arrived an hour later it took us to the Laos
border, where we had to get off the bus and get our visas checked and
stamped. Once everyone on the bus passed through we got back on and
drove to the Thai border patrol, where we got off and repeated the
same routine. From there we were taken to Udon Thani, where we took a
tuk tuk to the second bus station and caught a ten hour bus to Chiang
Mai. We arrived the next day at 7am. We were exhausted. When we got
back to our apartment we immediately went to take a nap, so we could
be ready and prepared for our first day of work the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment