Adventures in Guangzhou!

Because of the difficulty in securing cheap tickets at this time of high travel, we had to take a bit of a roundabout way to get to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos and our first destination. This little odyssey included the following route- starting in Guanzhou, we took the train down to Shenzhen in order to allow Tricia sometime to peruse the mass amounts of cheap/fake designer clothes. Of course our train was delayed and slowed, which, in turn, caused a leisurely shopping trip to become more like a 10 minute sprint through a six story shopping center in search of jeans. But we were impervious to the adversity!

We crossed the border into Hong Kong, received two passport stamps (leaving the P.R.C. and entering HK) and had to change money to our second currency (RMB to HK $). At that point we took the KCR rail down one stop and transferred to a bus headed for the airport. No problem! We arrived just in time to grab some food (the HK airport has Burger King--I was floored) and check in. We then had a quick four hour flight to Singapore.

Arriving in Singapore a little after midnight, we added our fourth passport stamp (the third being the one when we left HK) and changed to our third currency, Singapore dollars. We had six hours to kill until our 6am flight. Ugh. We took advantage of the 24 hour DeliFrance (three cheers for their steak sandwich) and then took the bus over to the budget terminal where we tried to hunker down and get some sleep. Being exhausted, I nodded off for a few hours but it wasn't exactly the height of comfort.

Anyhow, after stamping out of Singapore for #5 in the passport, we boarded on time for quick 6:15am shuttle to Udon Thani, Thailand--a small city close to the border with Laos. The flight itself was painless (I slept) and we touched down on time, waited on line, received our 6th stamp entering Thailand, changed some money into our fourth currency (Thai Baht), and took a limo to the city bus station.

Limo, you ask? Limo indeed. That's what the sign said, anyway. At the Udon Thani airport the only option for transportation is a single company advertising limousines to several locations. It was a little unclear what was going on, but some guy saw us looking around outside and, taking a cigarette from the mouth of a policeman, pointed us to the limo ticket counter. Our three tickets bought us a small amount of space in a rundown minivan with our bags strapped to the roof of the vehicle. Sweet. At least our driver handed the cop's cigarette to a third guy before hopping behind the wheel--I was encouraged by his generosity.

We got dropped off at the bus station (tiny not only by Guangzhou standards, but even by American standards) and booked three seats on a coach to Vientiane. We reached the border around 11am and proceed to get stamped out of Thailand (#7) and then waited on line for a visa upon arrival on the Lao side. It all went down without a hitch, but I was highly amused by the fact that I had to pay an "overtime" fee to the office. According to the sign on the window, they charge overtime when processing between 11:30am and 1pm, it being lunch time and all. Whatever--the visa was legit and even looks cool.

After changing money into currency #5 (Lao Kip) and getting stamp #8 entering the People's Republic of Lao, we grabbed a taxi and headed into the city center. Usually we'd all be enjoying the scenery, but unfortunately we were on the clock. As it happened, we had to make it to the Lao Airlines Office to pay for our next plane tickets before they locked their doors at 1pm or we'd lose our seats. We stepped into the cab at exactly 12:30pm and the woman told us it would take exactly thirty minutes. Hmmm.

Inside our beaten up old sedan, I began to try and explain to the driver that we were in a hurry. Two things struck me about this moment: first, it was the first time since I initially arrived in China that I had no ability to communicate and was reduced to gesturing; second, we were in trouble for one good reason--no one in Lao is in a rush. For anything. At any time. I loved this about the place (it just oozes a laid back aura) but at the moment we were pressed for time. I managed to communicate the urgency of the situation though and our poor driver began passing cars and bikes at a surprisingly un-expeditious pace.

Luckily we made it in the nick of time--a few minutes after 1pm. Of course as we paid for our tickets and made our way out, it appeared that they had no intention of closing shop anytime soon, but we had no way of really knowing that. Oh well. At least I entertained the driver by trying to mock a race car driver flooring it.

Anyhow, we shopped around a bit for hostels and settled on a nice one right near the river. It only took about 24 hours, 8 passport stamps, and 5 currencies, but we had made it to city #1 on the list and it was gorgeous.