Vang Vieng (Laos) to Nong Khai (Thailand) - 16 Dec 2005
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We were in Vang Vieng only a little more than one day but had to leave because we had to get to the
airport in Bangkok two days from now. Had we realized how much Vang Vieng had to offer we
probably would have reduced our stays in Chiang Mai and/or Luang Prabang by a day or two and
spent additional time in Van Vieng.
A tuk-tuk picked us up at the Sayson Guest House about 9:00am and took us to the bus station, where
we got into our minibus for Vientiane (we bought our US$6 per person tickets the day before).
There were ten of us on the bus, all foreigners. We spoke mainly with the couple sitting behind us,
Canadians living near Vancouver and in the midst now of a four-month trip through Southeast Asia.
The scenery en route was pleasant, mostly rolling hills with scattered farms and occasional villages
until we got to the Vientiane area, where the population density increased and where some industrial
plants came into view.
We arrived in Vientiane about noon after a three hour trip from Van Vieng. Vientiane is an
interesting place to visit, but we had seen most of its attractions when we were there for a few days
in 2002. We might have stayed there a few days again if we had more time before our flight to New
York.
When we got off our minibus we immediately took a tuk-tuk about 18km to the "Friendship Bridge",
where we spent our last Lao kips on lunch before going through exit procedures at Lao Immigration,
taking a bus over the bridge to Thai Immigration, after which we took a tuk-tuk about 3km into the
Thai border town of Nong Khai. By the time we arrived there it was almost 3:00pm.
Our first guest house choice in Nong Khai was the Mut Mee Guest House but there was no vacancy so
we checked into the nearby Ruan Thai Guest House. The room was OK, nice garden, friendly service,
refrigerator and TV, and good in-town location within 100 meters of the Mekong; 400 baht (US$10).
In the late afternoon we walked over to the Mut Mee Guest House and their attractive riverside
dining area and had coffee. We had intended to also have dinner there but at dusk the dining area was
very generously sprayed with insecticide to ward off mosquitos; the insecticide odor was so intense
that we decided to have dinner elsewhere.